Nikola Jokic voted MVP again, equaling NBA legend

Serbian basketball player Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets has been voted the best basketball player of the season for the third time in the last four years. He left behind Shai-Gilgeous Alexander of Oklahoma City and Luka Doncic of Dallas in the voting.

Jokic is king again

Nikola Jokic followed up his triumphs from 2020-21 and 2021-22, finishing second in last season’s voting behind Joel Embiid, who was knocked out of contention for trophies this year by injury. Last season, the Serbian basketball player led the Denver Nuggets to the franchise’s first title in franchise history and was named Finals MVP.

He averaged 26.4 points per game in this year’s regular season and also boasted 12.4 rebounds and 9 assists. He was the only player to finish in the top ten in those stats. In addition, after more than 60 years, he became only the second player in history to score at least 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 700 assists in a season.

Such a feat was accomplished only by Oscar Robertson in the 1961-62 season. Furthermore, he was the league’s second-best player in both double-doubles (68) and triple-doubles (25), and has managed at least 10 triple-doubles in seven consecutive seasons, an NBA record. He also had a 58.3% shooting success rate from the field, the 10th best of any player. He then led the Denver team to the second place in the Western Conference with a 57-25 record.

Canadian Shai-Gilgeous Alexander ranked third on the scorers’ chart with an average of 30.1 points per game, he also had 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists. Slovenia’s Luka Doncic won the NBA scoring crown for the first time in his career with an average of 33.9 points, plus he also had 9.8 assists and 9.2 rebounds per game, yet he finished third in the voting.

Jokic dominated the standings by scoring 926 points. Alexander was second with 640 and Doncic received 566 votes. In addition, the dominance of foreigners in the NBA was underlined by the 4th place Greek Jannis Adetokunbo with 196 votes. The last time an American player received this award was in 2018, thanks to James Harden.

Jokic equaled the legend

Nikola Jokic had competed with Joel Embiid for this award in the previous three seasons. Those two players have always finished in the top two spots in 2020-22. Embiid was the hot favourite again until the middle of this season, before his health took him out of the game. In addition, Jokic matched legends Moses Malone, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird with his third first place finish. He is tied for fourth in the historical standings.

Only Lebron James and Wilt Chamberlain have won the award more than 4 times. The record holder is Kareem Abdul-Jabbar with six championships.

Source: NBA