The NBA began giving out its championship series MVP award in 1969, the year a retiring Bill Russell and company put the finishing touches on their 11th title in 13 seasons.
Those aging Celtics, the fourth seed in the East in 1969 with a 48-34 record, upset the Lakers in game seven on the road to send Russell off in high style. But since he scored just 9.1 points a game in the Finals, he was not the series MVP.
Laker great Jerry West, who averaged 38 points a game in that historic Finals, was voted the MVP in a losing effort, the only man to be named as such nearly half a century later.