Which US National Basketball Association player in the '80s earned 3 consecutive Most Valuable Player Awards?

Larry Bird was a 12-time National Basketball Association (NBA) All-Star, won two NBA Finals Most Valuable Player (MVP) awards and received the NBA, MVP Award 3 consecutive times (1984–1986), making him the only forward in league history to do so.

Larry Bird (born December 7, 1956, West Baden, Indiana), is a former American basketball player who led the Boston Celtics to three NBA championships (1981, 1984, and 1986) and is considered one of the greatest pure shooters of all time.

Bird was raised in French Lick, Indiana, and attended Indiana State University, where he helped revive the basketball program and led the team to a 33–1 record in his senior season. That season ended with a loss to Michigan State University in the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) championship game (1979), which was the first meeting of Bird and Magic Johnson, a rivalry that would become the centrepiece of the NBA play during the 1980s. Bird was drafted by the Celtics after his junior year at Indiana State (1978) but did not play professionally until the 1979–80 season, when he won the Rookie of the Year award.