57 and 14 are debatable. And there’s 79 with Gus Williams
Obviously, none of us were around to see the NBA in 1957 or 1979. So these are educated guesses...
Bob Cousy was league MVP in 1957. There is no precedent ever, of the guy who wins MVP,
not being the best player on his team. Not one. My basketball lifespan goes back to the '99 season, so I have 25 years of being cognizant of the NBA. There isn't a single season where the MVP winner wasn't the best player on his team, and I challenge you to look at your own basketball lifespan and see where you can spot one...
Cousy was the first Celtic superstar, and '57 was Russell's rookie season. Cousy had been fighting for a championship for years, '57 was kind if his coronation/crowning achievement, got his MVP and championship. It's not that debatable to me. Follow the arc of Cousy's career to '57---->he was the best player...
'79 is debatable, I'd consider '79 one of the few true "we won by committee" titles. Gus wasn't an All-Star in '79, DJ and Sikma were, and Sikma was the only MVP finalist on the '79 Sonics. Ben Wallace was the only MVP contestant on the '04 Pistons, and Chauncey wasn't an All-Star in '04. So this lends precedent to Gus being the best player on the '79 Sonics. So I'll concede that Gus could've been the best player on the '79 Sonics...
I don't think '14 is debatable. Parker for several years by that point was the closer and the team's best player. Duncan was still really good but had long since started fading. Kawhi was growing but wasn't the Spurs best player until the following year. Manu had been fading...
This doesn't change that it was still Duncan's team, he was still the heartbeat. But by '14 he was no longer the Spurs best player and frankly I think he was done as a real #1 by 2010 at the latest...