Was Jokic robbed of the MVP?

[xAIRNESSx]

You just can't give a guy who hasn't won a championship 3 MVPs in a row.

[Big J]

How is Jokic not winning a title a reason to give the MVP to a dude that has had almost zero post season success?

Either playoff success matters or it doesn't - if it does, then Embiid wouldn't even be the runner-up MVP, Tatum would be.

Playoff success isn’t taken into account for your first MVP. It is on your third in a row. The bar goes up the more of them you have. You can get mad all you want, but this is how it’s always been.

[_NoMas]

No, I think he kind of gave it up down the stretch. And I’m glad he did, he was clearly gearing up for the post season.

Embiid was elite, and despite a poor showing last night, was a worthy MVP winner (even if I can make strong arguments for him Giannis or Jokic to have won MVP). As a Jokic guy I’m not about to do what others have done in the past, and start discrediting a regular season award because of a lack of post season success

[dhsilv2]

You just can't give a guy who hasn't won a championship 3 MVPs in a row.

That's just such a stupid narrative. So instead we give it to a guy hasn't gotten out of the second round ever (and is older)... See how silly that sounds?

[Quattro]

No. Embiid deserved it this year. Playoffs have nothing to do with it.

[Raps in 4]

Nah he wasn't robbed. Both of them had good arguments for getting it. Embiid coming up small the last two games isn't a reason to have 20/20 hindsight on a regular season award.

Embiid had PPG going for him. Jokic had him beat in every single other raw and advanced stat. There was really no argument for Embiid other than "we don't want Jokic to win it a third time in a row so we're giving it to the second best player".

[Hipster Doofus]

Nah cuz.

[jonbob17]

Of course he was. He's the best basketball player on the planet, and just had his best season.
Don't care about Embiid's not so great last couple games.

MVP voting fatigue is ridiculous. They just looked at Jokic trailing from his all-time great first half as a reason to give the award to someone else. Jokic over 70% TS on his own shots and makes his good not great teammates look like all stars. His on/off offense numbers are truly insane.
Denver games often don't even look like basketball...it's like some sort of new game when Jokic gets the ball on the elbow.

[Raps in 4]

No. Embiid deserved it this year. Playoffs have nothing to do with it.

EPM:

- Jokic: +7.9

- Embiid: +7.3

RAPTOR:

- Jokic: +13.5

- Embiid: +8.0

Raw stats:

- Jokic: 25/12/10 on 70% TS

- Embiid: 33/10/4 on 66% TS

[dhsilv2]

How is Jokic not winning a title a reason to give the MVP to a dude that has had almost zero post season success?

Either playoff success matters or it doesn't - if it does, then Embiid wouldn't even be the runner-up MVP, Tatum would be.

Playoff success isn’t taken into account for your first MVP. It is on your third in a row. The bar goes up the more of them you have. You can get mad all you want, but this is how it’s always been.

If this were the case MJ would have gotten the MVP in 1993. Unless winning back to back championships is a negative?

The reality is the voters have just CONSTANTLY, been wrong in their votes. That's what happened this year. They were just wrong.

[Pennebaker]

Nobody is going to be asking this question after the Western Conference Finals.

[xAIRNESSx]

You just can't give a guy who hasn't won a championship 3 MVPs in a row.

That's just such a stupid narrative. So instead we give it to a guy hasn't gotten out of the second round ever (and is older)... See how silly that sounds?

That's not a valid equivalency. It's not like the only reason Embiid won MVP was to make sure Jokic didn't.

3 MVPs is basically top 10 player territory and voters aren't going to put Jokic there until he wins a championship.

[sca]

No. DEN played very poorly in the last month of the season

Jokic robbed himself of it. Nuggets had the #1 seed wrapped up and he stopped playing hard with a month to go. No one should win MVP doing that.

OMG this stupid narrative has to die quickly.

Embiid last 10 games: 30.5 / 9.8 / 4.4 on .671 TS%, team record: 5-5 (could've actually grabbed the first seed if his team won games)

Jokic last 10 games: 24.6 /12.0 /8.9 on .708 TS%, team record: 5-5 (with nothing to play for)

Also, 76ers team record w/ Embiid: 43-23 (.652), w/o Embiid: 11-5 (.687)
Nuggets team record w/ Jokic: 48-21 (.696), w/o Jokic: 5-8 (.385)

There was literally NO ARGUMENT for Embiid, and yet the voters went ahead and voted him the MVP because "joKiC dOesN't DeseRvE tO wiN thReE iN a rOW" even though it's a regular season award for a single freaking season. I don't think people realize how terrible of a decision it was to give Embiid a make-a-wish MVP. Stupid.

[Lunartic]

How is Jokic not winning a title a reason to give the MVP to a dude that has had almost zero post season success?

Either playoff success matters or it doesn't - if it does, then Embiid wouldn't even be the runner-up MVP, Tatum would be.

Playoff success isn’t taken into account for your first MVP. It is on your third in a row. The bar goes up the more of them you have. You can get mad all you want, but this is how it’s always been.

Why be so confident and dismissive in your reply when you're wrong?

Where did you come up with your "standard" anyway? How many 3x in a row MVP winners are there? Larry Bird, Wilt, Russell?

[Hornet Mania]

Of course Jokic was robbed. It was obvious even before the playoffs but last night just made it crystal clear.

The voters gave the baby his bottle. Embiid lobbied for it all year, with a bit of help from sympathetic media, and that tipped the scale in his favor. Voter fatigue probably played a small part but I think the deciding factor was Embiid so obviously wanting the validation.

[dhsilv2]

You just can't give a guy who hasn't won a championship 3 MVPs in a row.

That's just such a stupid narrative. So instead we give it to a guy hasn't gotten out of the second round ever (and is older)... See how silly that sounds?

That's not a valid equivalency. It's not like the only reason Embiid won MVP was to make sure Jokic didn't.

3 MVPs is basically top 10 player territory and voters aren't going to put Jokic there until he wins a championship.

Nobody has Moses in the top 10 and he won 3 MVPs before he won a title, but he even got a title. Jokic was far and away the MVP this year. The voters just failed to do their job. Again, they're REALLY bad at this job.

[Big J]

I think a lot of voters felt that Jokic had let them down in the playoffs the 2 previous seasons after voting him MVP. Especially last year in the playoffs when he got completely roasted on defense by GS’s guards.

[dakomish23]

Yes. He was robbed because that idiot Perk brought race into the discussion

That’s not why he won. If it’s just about race then why was Embiid one of the favorites before Perk made the comment?

It was stupid of Perk to bring race into it. It had no bearing on the outcome until we have multiple voters saying that’s why they gave it to Embiid

[GeorgeSears]

Nah, he wasn't.

Even though the media heavily influenced the award, the reality is that Jokic took way too many nights off and played passively for a large chunk of the season. Had he played the way he played in these playoffs, I think even the media influence wouldn't have been enough to deny him of a 3rd straight MVP. However, he left the door wide open with some head-scratching efforts towards the end of the season.

[akula1488]

If Jokic is not white he would’ve still probably 3 peat