The Serbian pivot of the Denver Nuggets won the regular season MVP title for the third time in four years, on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
France Télévisions – Sports Editorial
Published on 05/09/2024 08:55 Updated on 05/09/2024 08:56
Reading time: 2 min Serbian Nikola Jokic with the Denver Nuggets in the NBA against Minnesota, May 4, 2024. (MATTHEW STOCKMAN / AFP)
Nikola Jokic was named best regular season player in the NBA on Wednesday May 8 by an international panel of journalists and sports commentators. The Serbian from the Denver Nuggets won 79 votes for first place, compared to 15 for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder) and four for Luka Doncic (Dallas Mavericks).
A third MVP title (“Most Valuable Player”) in four years, after 2021 and 2022, which allows the 29-year-old pivot to join a very closed circle of nine players with at least as many individual awards. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the all-time record with six titles, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan each hold five, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James four. Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson, like “The Joker”, were each three times MVP.
“Without my teammates, I can’t do anythinghe declared during the announcement broadcast on the American channel TNT. The coaches, the players, the organization, the medical staff, the full-time coaches, the development coaches – it’s a big circle without which I couldn’t be where I am.”
He continues triple-doubles
This season, Nikola Jokic has posted a staggering stat sheet, having compiled no less than 25 triple-doubles (three statistics with at least ten units), bringing his career total to 148 (fourth in NBA history behind Russell Westrbook, Oscar Robertson and Magic Johnson). During the season, he averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9 assists per game with Denver, which he took to the top of the Western Conference, tied with the Oklahoma City Thunder. The 2.11 m giant is also the second player in NBA history, after Oscar Robertson in the 1960s, to record 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 600 assists during a season.
“Hopefully I can talk a lot of trash when my kid or my nephews grow up, so I’m going to be a cool grandpa”
Jokic stacking #KiaMVP‘s to defend himself to his kid and nephews pic.twitter.com/D02wrpeOaZ
— NBA (@NBA) May 9, 2024
This MVP title further confirms European domination within the North American league. No American player was in the running among the three finalists for the MVP title when five of the last six titles were won by a European player: Nikola Jokic, and the Greek Giannis Antetokounmpo (2019, 2020). When Joël Embiid – Cameroonian by birth, before obtaining French and American passports – had stolen the 2023 one.
Last season, his runner-up Nikola Jokic consoled himself by winning the NBA title with the Nuggets. It remains to be seen whether Jokic will be able to combine the two in 2024. Denver lost the first two games of their Western Conference semifinal to Rudy Gobert’s Minnesota Timberwolves. The day after the title of “rookie of the year” awarded to Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs), the Frenchman was crowned best defender for the fourth time in his career this week.
2024-05-09 08:15:28
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