Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić is not one for self-promotion. After back-to-back games against the Oklahoma City Thunder, who are led by fellow Most Valuable Player candidate Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokić kept his comments about the award race succinct.
“This is my third or fourth year in a row so, I’m really — I don’t know, I cannot control it,” Jokić told reporters following Denver’s 140-127 win in Oklahoma City on Monday. “I will say that I think I’m playing the best basketball of my life, so if that’s enough, it’s enough. If not, the guy deserves it. He’s really amazing.”
Jokić, who won the award in 2021, 2022 and 2024 and finished second to the Philadelphia 76ers’ Joel Embiid in 2023, scored 35 points on 15-for-20 shooting, with 18 rebounds, eight assists, one steal, one block and only one turnover in 40 minutes on Monday. On the season, he is averaging a career-high 28.9 points (No. 3 in the NBA), 13.0 rebounds (No. 3) and a career-high 10.5 assists (No. 2) per game. As well as shooting 3s more often than he did in previous seasons — he’s attempting 5.8 per 100 possessions — he is shooting them more accurately (43%) than ever before.
Leading up to the game, Jokić was listed as questionable due to a right elbow contusion and a left ankle impingement. Nuggets coach Michael Malone told reporters that, following their 127-103 loss in the same arena on Sunday, he had reached out to Jokić to discuss the possibility of taking the second night of the back-to-back off.
“I gave him [his recent] minutes: 45 minutes, 41 minutes, 39 minutes, 38 minutes, with a really bad ankle and an elbow,” Malone said. “So this is not a rest game; this is, ‘This guy’s beat up with 18 games to go.’ And what I love about Nikola — he was like, ‘Hell no. Come on, man. Coach, I’m playing. That’s not even a conversation. Am I tired? Sure, everybody’s tired. Am I a little beat up? Sure, everybody’s a little beat up. But I want to play.’ And I think part of that was also we lost and he wanted to lead this team and find a way to come in here and get a win today.”
Malone called Jokić a “brilliant person” with a “brilliant mind” and “the best player in the world.” During Monday’s game, Malone said it was “awesome” to see Jokić in the team huddle, holding a whiteboard, “talking to some of our guys about our zone defense.” Unlike Jokić himself, Malone is happy to make the case that the 30-year-old superstar should become the sixth player in NBA history to become a four-time MVP.
“Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he’s deserving of that,” Malone told reporters. “My thing is this: If you didn’t know that Nikola won three MVPs and I put Player A and Player B on paper and you had no idea that the guy who’s averaging a triple-double, the guy who’s top three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one’s ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don’t think so, I think you guys are all full of shit.”
Malone then laughed. Asked if team records factored into the Player A vs. Player B comparison (as the 53-12 Thunder are 11 games ahead of everybody else in the Western Conference), Malone said they could, but added: “If you want to use that card, I’m all for it, but the one year Nikola didn’t win it, we were the No. 1 seed in the West.”
Down the stretch of the regular season, “this whole MVP thing is really going to pick up,” Malone told reporters. He said he understands that different people have different criteria for the award, and that he “will never negative recruit” against Jokić’s competition.
“Shai is not a good player, [but] a great player, and if he wins it, I’ll actually, you know what, clap my hands and be happy for him,” Malone said. “‘Cause he’s such a great guy who’s a great player and is good for this game. So it’s not Nikola vs. Shai; for me, it’s me promoting my guy because I know what he means to this game. And when you look at it from a historical perspective, he’s doing things that no one’s ever done. And [we’re] also the No. 2 seed in the West, so it’s not like we’re outside looking in, we’re a pretty good team as well.”
It’s not just that both Jokić and Gilgeous-Alexander have both put together MVP-caliber seasons; it’s that they’ve both produced at a level that compares favorably to most MVP campaigns. This is a close race, and, in this voter’s opinion, an even tougher call than any of the previous ones involving Jokić. Gilgeous-Alexander, the betting favorite with about a month left in the regular season, has averaged a league-high 32.7 points, 5.1 rebounds and 6.2 assists in 34.3 minutes per game, and he has paired a career-high usage rate (33.4%) with a career-high true shooting percentage (64.4%).
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