Jokic joins legends with 3rd MVP; Knicks go 2-0
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was named NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the third time in four seasons on Wednesday.
The 29-year-old Serbian star, who won the award in 2021 and 2022, finished runner-up in the voting in 2023 but had the satisfaction of leading the Nuggets to a first NBA title.
This season he averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists in the regular season and beat out Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks in final voting for the award. In another season in which Jokic managed to make brilliance almost look routine, he became the second player, after Oscar Robertson, to record 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 600 assists in a season. Jokic enters elite territory with a third MVP crown. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s six MVPs are the most ever. Bill Russell and Michael Jordan won five apiece and Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James four.
Elite company
Jokic joins Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson as three-time winners after earning 79 first-placed votes compared to 15 for Gilgeous-Alexander and four for Doncic.
“We’ve got to start with the teammates. Without them I cannot do anything,” Jokic said in the MVP announcement broadcast on TNT when asked to reflect on yet another MVP.
“Coaches, players, organization, medical staff, across time coaches, development coaches—it’s all one big circle that I cannot be wherever I am without them.”
Meanwhile, Jalen Brunson shrugged off injury to spark a sensational second-half fightback as the New York Knicks battled past the Indiana Pacers, 130-121, to take a 2-0 lead in their best-of-seven NBA playoff series on Wednesday.
Brunson gave his team a huge scare after suffering a foot injury in the first quarter which forced him to sit out the remainder of the half at Madison Square Garden. —AFP
