Shaq Telling Nikola Jokic To His Face That SGA Should Have Been The MVP Is Some Next Level Hating

Matthew Stockman. Getty Images.

When it was announced that Nikola Jokic had won his 3rd MVP in 4 years, there were two things you knew were going to happen.

1. He was going to pretend to be excited 

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2. Shaq was going to do his best to hate on another generational big man

I love the "no disrespect" move when stuff like this happens. Any time you have to either start or end your take with "no disrespect" we all know you absolutely mean a shit ton of disrespect. While it's not crazy to think SGA had a case for the MVP given the year he and the Thunder had, it's some Grade A hating to tell the player who just won the MVP that you didn't think he should have won while you have him on TV to congratulate him for winning the award. It's like we got a sequel to the Playa Haters' Ball or something

Then again, this is sort of Shaq's M.O. whenever it comes to these new age generational bigs. There's of course his history with Dwight Howard. There was the Christian Wood incident a few years ago

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He does similar shit with Embiid, Gobert etc. It's sort of his thing when it comes to fellow big men. It almost makes you wonder if this energy towards Jokic is because Shaq might be getting nervous in terms of where Jokic is trending to rank all time. 

Credit to Jokic for how he handled that in the moment as I imagine that had to be pretty weird. A guy who I'm sure already despises having to do all these TV appearances and interviews talking about himself only to be told he shouldn't have won the MVP had to be pretty annoying, especially coming from a player I imagine Jokic looks up to. 

But hey, maybe this is all because deep down Shaq is still upset about some MVPs he feels he was robbed from, so he's projecting 

I'm not sure how much Nuggets basketball Shaq even watched this year, but this seems like a pretty worthy choice for MVP to anyone with eyes