NBA mailbag - Here's who should have won the NBA's new conference finals MVP award in past seasons

Who should have won the NBA's new conference finals MVP awards in recent seasons?

Earlier this month, the league introduced new awards named after legendary rivals Larry Bird of the Boston Celtics and Magic Johnson of the Los Angeles Lakers to honor the most valuable player in the Eastern (Bird) and Western (Johnson) Conference finals — the first time an MVP honor has been extended in the playoffs outside of the NBA Finals MVP. On Thursday, Stephen Curry of the Golden State Warriors became the first winner of the Earvin «Magic» Johnson West finals MVP.

With that in mind, we looked back over the past decade to see which players would have been deserving conference finals MVPs in both the East and the West based on their performance in those series.

Throughout the NBA season, I answer your questions about the latest, most interesting topics in basketball. You can tweet me directly at @kpelton; tweet your questions using the hashtag #peltonmailbag or email them to peltonmailbag@gmail.com.

In addition to the main question, this week's mailbag also examines playoff success for high-usage stars.

«Who would have won the Larry Bird and Magic Johnson conference finals MVP awards if they had been given out the past 10 years?»

— Jimmy

Larry Bird Eastern Conference finals MVP:

2012: LeBron James, Miami Heat

2013: LeBron James, Heat

2014: LeBron James, Heat

2015: LeBron James, Cleveland Cavaliers

2016: LeBron James, Cavaliers

2017: LeBron James, Cavaliers

2018: LeBron James, Cavaliers

2019: Kawhi Leonard, Toronto Raptors

2020: Bam Adebayo, Heat

2021: Khris Middleton, Milwaukee Bucks

Stop me when you notice a trend. Honestly, the creation of this award came at the worst possible time for LeBron. A decade earlier and he'd have piled