Nikola Jokic Continues To Show Just How Stupid The Narrative And Discourse Was As To Why He Couldn't Be The NBA's MVP

AAron Ontiveroz. Getty Images.

During the 2022-23 regular season, when it came to the MVP race, the overall discourse around the award was absolutely nasty. Some of the most toxic shit you'll ever see when it comes to an award, and frankly given today's landscape it's probably only going to get worse from here on out. 

While all 3 of Jokic/Embiid/Giannis were deserving for the incredible regular seasons they had, I can't help but sit here on May 17th and look back at how utterly ridiculous some of the reasoning/narrative was as to why Nikola Jokic should not be a 3 time winner. We heard it all really

- The nonstop talking about postseason achievements for a regular season award

- People only voted for him because he was white

- He couldn't be the MVP because he had too many kicked ball violations

- Jokic winning would be bad for basketball so it couldn't happen

- Other guys didn't win 3 straight so Jokic couldn't either regardless of what he did

- Crying about analytics

When you take a second and think back to what we heard over the last few months of the NBA season when it came to Jokic and the MVP, it really is insane. I'd go so far as to say it might have been the dumbest basketball discourse we've ever had. 

I mean just look around. Does anyone see Giannis? Nope, he lost in the 1st round to an 8 seed. Does anyone see Joel Embiid? Of course not, Al Horford still has him in witness protection. So, what do we see?

We see the greatest basketball force on the planet still alive and looking better than ever

I do not view Jokic's postseason run as the reason why he should have won the 2022-23 MVP, which again, is a regular season award. His regular season was more than worthy, and honestly, he probably should have won it. 

But what I do view Jokic's postseason run as is confirmation of just how fucking stupid the discourse around him was to end the year. There's no denying the media narrative clearly shifted in a certain way that ultimately impacted the results we saw. I mean look at the voting numbers!

People were caught up in the "voter fatigue" bullshit, they were caught up in the whole "Jokic can't win 3x MVP without a title!" bullshit as if postseason play matters at all for this thing. 

Meanwhile, all Jokic does is dominate at a historic level. With the pressure high for all 3 MVP candidates heading into the postseason as a way to sort of "back up" the MVP decision, look at what has happened. The guy who was most likely the actual MVP of the league has his team 3 wins away from the first Finals appearance in Nuggets history. 

You don't need to look at his VORP or his PER or his PIE. You've never needed to look at that shit with Jokic. Just watch him play! How there are so many people out there that claim they watch Jokic and still couldn't understand his dominance is baffling to me. We're not seeing anything different in the postseason compared to what Jokic did during the year, so what was that all about? If you poll those same 100 voters right now about the MVP, how do you think the results look? 

To me, Jokic has now officially entered that LeBron zone where if everyone is just honest with themselves, he should probably be the MVP every year from here on out. But just like LeBron during his prime run, he won't be because people get very weird about how good Jokic is. The 2022-23 season proved as much.

Of course, we all know Jokic doesn't give a shit about the MVP. And not in a "I'm going to say this to The Athletic so it helps boost my narrative" kind of way. He truly does not care. For a guy who is humble, quiet, only cares about winning, and someone who also happens to be the most unstoppable basketball force on the planet, I've never understood the hate Jokic gets. That's why it is not at all surprising that when we got to the postseason and the time came for the MVPs to step up, Jokic is the only one standing.