Nikola Jokic did all of it once more. And the MVP trophy is his once more.
Jokic, the Denver Nuggets star from Serbia, was introduced Wednesday evening because the NBA’s Most Precious Participant — his third time profitable the award prior to now 4 seasons, a feat that simply six different gamers in league historical past have achieved.
He averaged 26.4 factors, 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists. Others averaged extra in every class — and Jokic has had higher years in every of these classes — however he was the one participant to rank within the NBA’s prime 10 in factors, rebounds and assists per sport this season.
Jokic obtained 79 of a doable 99 first-place votes from the panel of reporters and broadcasters who solid ballots on awards when the common season ended.
“It’s obtained to begin together with your teammates,” Jokic stated on TNT, the place the award was introduced. “With out them, I’m nothing. With out them, I can’t do nothing. Coaches, gamers, group, medical workers, growth coaches … I can’t be whoever I’m with out them.”
Oklahoma Metropolis’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was second and Dallas’ Luka Doncic was third, each entering into the highest three of MVP voting for the primary time. With Jokic from Serbia, Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada and Doncic from Slovenia, it marked the third consecutive season that three gamers born outdoors the U.S. completed 1-2-3 within the MVP balloting.
This time, the overseas dominance atop the NBA was much more pronounced: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’s from Greece, was fourth — so this grew to become the primary time within the award’s 69-year historical past that worldwide gamers went 1-2-3-4 within the voting. It additionally grew to become the sixth consecutive yr {that a} participant born outdoors the U.S. received the award.
Jokic appeared on tv for the award announcement carrying a T-shirt commemorating the lifetime of considered one of his mentors, Golden State assistant coach Dejan Milojević, who died earlier this yr after a coronary heart assault on a highway journey.
“To be sincere, I’m carrying this shirt just about every single day, particularly once I’m within the coaching facility,” Jokic stated. “Deki was the man who gave me the liberty. He confirmed me the way in which the way you’re alleged to do issues — act, practice, exercise. … He trusted me and I can simply say, ‘thanks.’”
Jokic appeared on all 99 ballots, with 18 second-place votes and two third-place votes. Gilgeous-Alexander additionally appeared on each poll, with 15 first-place votes, 40 second-place, 40 third-place, three fourth-place and one fifth-place nod.
Doncic was on all however one poll and obtained 4 first-place votes. Antetokounmpo obtained one first-place vote on his solution to fourth. New York’s Jalen Brunson was fifth, adopted by Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and Phoenix’s Kevin Durant.
“Some individuals say it’s the most effective participant on the most effective crew,” Jokic stated, when requested to outline an MVP. “To me, it’s the man who’s essentially the most useful, the crew couldn’t play with out him.”
Jokic is now the ninth participant to win the MVP award at the very least thrice. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar received it six instances, Invoice Russell and Michael Jordan every received 5, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James received 4, and Moses Malone, Larry Chicken and Magic Johnson are the opposite three-time winners.
Jokic’s shock rise to superstardom has been chronicled repeatedly through the years: He was the forty first general decide within the 2014 draft, didn’t even suppose he had a sensible probability at enjoying within the NBA when his profession was starting and now has a Corridor of Fame resume at 29.
The opposite gamers with three MVP trophies in a four-year span are James, Johnson, Chicken, Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain and Russell. And Jokic turns into the fifth participant to be first or second within the MVP voting in 4 consecutive years — becoming a member of Chicken, Abdul-Jabbar, Russell and Tim Duncan.
Gilgeous-Alexander had maybe the most effective feel-good story within the NBA this season, serving to Oklahoma Metropolis to the No. 1 seed within the Western Convention by averaging 30.1 factors, 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists. The Thunder received 57 video games, 17 greater than they did final season and 33 greater than they did two years in the past, their rise coinciding with Gilgeous-Alexander’s emergence as one of many sport’s elite gamers.
“There may be not an evening once I don’t really feel like we’ve the most effective participant on the ground. … There’s nobody I’d reasonably have on our crew than him,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, the league’s coach of the yr this season, stated final month.
Doncic made a case for the MVP award by posting the primary season in NBA historical past during which a participant averaged 34 factors, 9 rebounds and 9 assists per sport. There had been 14 cases earlier than this yr during which a participant averaged that many factors and rebounds in a season — of these, 5 had resulted in MVP wins, together with final season when Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid averaged 33 factors and 10 rebounds.
And this was the second time ever {that a} participant averaged at the very least 33 factors and 9 assists per sport. The opposite was in 1972-73, when Kansas Metropolis’s Tiny Archibald averaged 34 factors and 11 assists. He completed third in that season’s MVP voting, identical to Doncic did this season.
However in the long run, it was Jokic who stood above all others — and the vote wasn’t shut.
“I believe he’s acknowledged his case fairly properly,” Nuggets guard Jamal Murray stated. “He does it each evening. It’s laborious to do what he does and face the type of stress that he does every sport. He does it with a smile on his face. He makes all people round us higher. And he’s a frontrunner on the courtroom and someone that we count on greatness from each time he steps on the courtroom and he’s delivered.”
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AP Sports activities Writers Arnie Stapleton and Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.
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AP NBA:
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