Every Los Angeles Lakers legend who has won NBA Finals MVP award

5. James Worthy, 1988

The final championship of the Showtime Lakers era resulted in a sense of poetic justice. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and Magic Johnson had already combined to win four Finals MVP awards, but the third superstar on the team was in danger of being overlooked by history.

Instead, James Worthy delivered a phenomenal series as the Lakers won their fifth championship of the 1980s and ensured that all three of their top stars had individual hardware to show for it.

Worthy earned the nickname Big Game James for a simple reason: When the pressure was on, he wanted the ball in his hands. Matched up against the Bad Boy Detroit Pistons in the 1988 NBA Finals, every game was the epitome of high pressure.

That included Game 2, when Worthy posted a team-high 26 points, as well as 10 rebounds and six assists, to even the series at 1-1.

In Game 3, now on the road, it was Worthy again who led the Lakers in scoring as he paced the team to a crucial victory that reclaimed home-court advantage. Unfortunately, Los Angeles would fall behind 3-2. Thankfully, Worthy again led the team in scoring with 29 points to force a Game 7.

With 36 points, 16 rebounds, 10 assists, and two steals in one of the greatest individual Game 7 performances of all-time, Worthy capped off a series in which he led the Lakers in scoring in all four of their victories.

If ever you needed proof of why he's known as Big Game James, this is it.