NBA redesigns trophy, adds honors for conference MVPS

The NBA’S championship trophy has a new look, and the league will hand out new trophies for the first time during these playoffs.

The league unveiled a slightly redesigned Larry O’brien Trophy on Thursday, plus announced changes to the Bill Russell NBA Finals MVP trophy and changes to the design of the conference championship trophies.

The Eastern Conference championship trophy has been renamed for Bob Cousy, the Western Conference championship trophy for Oscar Robertson. And for the first time, there will be MVPS of the conference finals — the East MVP will receive the Larry Bird Trophy, the West MVP will receive the Magic Johnson Trophy.

“The NBA Conference Finals represent the last hurdle a team must face for an opportunity to make it to the big stage, the NBA Finals,”johnson said.“i’m truly honored to have my name memorialized on the Western Conference Finals Most Valuable Player Trophy.”

The most visible change is to the Larry O’brien, given to the NBA champions. The ball now tilts in a different direction, the netting is much more visible and the base is now round — two discs stacked atop one another, the first with names of past champions, the second to bear names of teams that win the title starting this year.

The conference finals MVP trophies are similar to the Bill Russell trophy, which has a slightly different look as well. And the trophies presented to the East and West champions have new looks and new names — the Oscar Robertson Trophy goes to the West champion, the Bob Cousy Trophy to the East champion.