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The 24-25 NBA Most Valuable Player race came into view on Sunday and Monday as the Oklahoma City Thunder hosted the Denver Nuggets for a pair of games on back-to-back days. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the favorite to win the award, but Nikola Jokic is making an argument for winning his fourth MVP in five seasons. 

“This is my third or fourth year in a row, so I’m really — I don’t know. I cannot control it,” Jokic said. “Obviously, 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.”

The one season out of the previous four that Jokic didn't win it, he largely punted down the stretch of the regular season to rest for the Nuggets' run to the 2023 championship. Jokic finished second behind Joel Embiid. 

“Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he’s deserving of that,” Michael Malone said. “My thing is this: If you didn’t know that Nikola won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper … the guy that was averaging a triple-double, the guy that is top-three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one has ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don’t think so, I think you guys are all bulls—ting.”

Gilgeous-Alexander leads the NBA in scoring while also contributing significantly on defense for the Thunder, who are up 11 games on the second place Nuggets.

“If Shai wins it, I’ll actually clap my hands and be happy for him because he’s such a great guy who’s a great player who’s good for this game,” Malone said. “So it’s not Nikola versus Shai. For me, it’s me promoting my guy because I know what he means to this game.”

Via Fred Katz, Tony Jones/The Athletic

Many cases of voter fatigue blocking legitimate MVPs and this is likely another

It's amazing to think Jokic lost out to Embiid.

Jayson Tatum should be really considered, how much longer is the guy going to continue to get punished for having early success and a good team.

Dude has been truthfully MVP for the last 3-4 seasons…

stlboy wrote:Jayson Tatum should be really considered, how much longer is the guy going to continue to get punished for having early success and a good team.

Boston loses Tatum and the ship doesn't sink.

beefymajesto wrote:

stlboy wrote:Jayson Tatum should be really considered, how much longer is the guy going to continue to get punished for having early success and a good team.

Boston loses Tatum and the ship doesn't sink.

Jokic is averaging 29/13/11 on 58% shooting.
SGA is averaging 33/5/6 on 53% shooting.
Tatum is averaging 27/9/6 on 46% shooting.

I could see Tatum in the conversation with SGA, but Jokic is on a different level. Both BOS and OKC are about a mile deeper than DEN. (DEN would be in the lottery without Jokic.) There are two reasons Jokic isn't the automatic unanimous selection:

1) Voter fatigue.
2) The Media votes and most of the voters made predictions that Luka or SGA would take home the award. Luka is disqualified so SGA becomes the front runner. Tatum was way down the list in preseason predictions so he would have needed to do something spectacular to get the voters attention. It is human nature for the voters to vote in a way that makes their predictions correct. Because of this, media members that make predictions should be disqualified from voting.

TheCage4 wrote:It's amazing to think Jokic lost out to Embiid.

Jokic lost to Perkins and the woke liberals, who pulled the racism card.