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Age: 30 years, 317 days
Season: 1998-99
Now this is a fun one because Most Improved Player is arguably the least objective award, with the vote often being all over the place. And it’s hard to blame voters for that. After all, what constitutes a player improving? Can a player who was already good win Most Improved Player for going from good to great? Or does a player have to go from playing spot minutes to being a starter to be considered Most Improved?
In the last five years, two players who were former No. 2 overall picks – Ja Morant and Brandon Ingram – have won Most Improved Player. So they came in with huge expectations, met them pretty early on in their careers, and still won Most Improved Player.
Bizarre.
Anyhow, Darrell Armstrong is the oldest player to win Most Improved Player. He accomplished the feat in ’99 as a 30-year-old. Armstrong didn’t even make his NBA debut until he was 26. From ’98 to ’99, he went from 9.2 points and 4.9 assists per game to averaging 13.8 points and 6.7 assists per game, which was enough for him to win Most Improved Player in 1998-99, as well as Sixth Man of the Year. He even got MVP votes that season. (We’re not kidding.)
