Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić wins third NBA MVP in four seasons

May 9, 2024 Vaseline stjohnson 0

He can pass like Magic, tackle like Moses, and shoot and scowl like Bird. On Wednesday, Nikola Jokić joined those NBA legends as three-time winners of the league’s most coveted individual honor.

Jokić, 29, the Denver Nuggets superstar born in Sombor, Serbia, was named NBA MVP for the third time in four seasons, defeating finalists Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City and Luka Dončić of Dallas. Jokić got 79 first-place votes, while Gilgeous-Alexander got 15. Dončić got four, while Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks got one.

“When I first won the award, I said, ‘This is great.’ When I won the second time, the list got shorter, and now, the third time, the list is very short. And it’s a great list to be on,” Jokić said. “I think I’ll be proud of my legacy when I finish my career, but right now, this is something to be very proud of.”

After the only season in the last four in which he did not win the MVP (he was runner-up to Joel Embiid in 2023, but won the NBA Finals MVP last summer after leading the Nuggets to their first championship) , Jokić tied for 11th in the league in scoring with 26.4 points per game. But he was fourth in the league with 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists per game, illustrating the remarkable diversity in his game considering his 6-foot-11, 284-pound frame.

Basketball players this good are often identified by a single name, and Jokić certainly fits into that rarefied air. Joker (and Magic, Bird, and Moses) trail only Kareem, MJ, Russell, LeBron, and Wilt for most NBA MVPs.

“He’s one of the best players to ever play this game, simple as that,” LeBron James said of Jokić last month on the eve of a playoff series between the Nuggets and LeBron’s Lakers, which Denver won in five games.

Jokic and the Nuggets currently trail the Minnesota Timberwolves 2-0 in a Western Conference semifinal series. During the regular season, he recorded 23 triple-doubles in 79 regular season games. He is the fourth player in league history with multiple seasons of 20 or more triple-doubles, joining Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook and Wilt Chamberlain.

An analytical marvel, Jokić once again led the NBA in many advanced metrics, which he has done for the past four years. No player contributes more to winning or creates more value over a substitute player than Jokić. He’s also a 36 percent three-point shooter, 82 percent foul shooter and nearly 63 percent shooter from inside the arc. He reduced his turnovers from last season, averaging 1.5 steals and almost one blocked shot per game; he increased his scoring and rebounding from a season ago.

“Last year I didn’t win it, but we won the championship and that was much better,” Jokić said. “It has been a journey and a process. I was able to trust in my dream and it has been a collective effort with the help of many people to get to this point. “The players, coaches and medical staff have been supportive and I really appreciate everyone who has helped me get here.”

For the second year in a row, Jokić anchored the NBA’s best starting lineup. He is a center who can execute a fast break with the ball, initiate the offense, pass outside or over any double team and step back with a high-arcing three-pointer to break an opponent’s proverbial back.

“The most important thing is that he changes the way his teammates think about their own game,” James said last month. “When you’re able to inspire your teammates to play at a level that sometimes they don’t even feel like they can play at, that’s the true testament of someone great.”

Jokić held off two worthy MVP candidates. Dončić was not only the NBA’s leading scorer with 33.9 points per game, but he was second with 9.8 assists, behind only Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton. In 23 games after the All-Star break, Dončić averaged 33.2 points, 10.1 rebounds and 10.3 assists.

Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, slipped slightly from his historic production toward the end of the season, finishing third in the league in scoring (30.1 points) and second in steals (2.5 per game) for first place in the Western Conference.

The AthleticTony Jones contributed.

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(AAron Ontiveroz/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post via Getty Images)