1:05pm: Antetokounmpo has officially been voted the NBA MVP for 2019/20, the league announced in a press release. The full voting results, which include LeBron James as runner-up and James Harden in third place, can be found right here.
10:15am: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo has been named MVP for the second straight season, tweets ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski. The official announcement won’t come until 2pm Eastern Time on NBA TV, but sources tell Woj that the Bucks’ star will be the winner.
The award officially makes Antetokounmpo eligible to sign a super-max contract with Milwaukee during the 2022 offseason as well as in 2020 and 2021, according to Bobby Marks of ESPN (Twitter link).
The Bucks hope Antetokounmpo will agree to an extension this year, but Marks notes that he could elect to sign a one-year deal with an option next summer that would be worth 30% of the salary cap. He could then cash in on the super-max the following offseason, giving him five years at 35% of the cap.
Antetokounmpo could only get those figures from the Bucks, giving them a financial advantage in their hopes of keeping their franchise player. Antetokounmpo hasn’t offered much indication of his plans for the future, but he did say he won’t ask for a trade this offseason, and he met recently with team ownership to discuss the direction of the franchise.
By winning back-to-back MVPs, Antetokounmpo joins an elite list that includes 10 other players, with Golden State’s Stephen Curry the most recent to accomplish it. Antetokounmpo was also named Defensive Player of the Year, making him the third player to win that award and MVP honors in the same season, along with Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, according to Michael Scotto of HoopsHype (Twitter link).
Antetokounmpo posted his best statistical season, with career-high averages of 29.5 points and 13.6 rebounds in 63 games. He also averaged 5.6 assists per night and shot 55.3% from the floor in leading the Bucks to the league’s best regular season record. LeBron James and James Harden were the other MVP finalists.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sports Images.
As he damn well should have
Regular season MVP
Yes, that’s what the award is for.
Yeah that’s why he’s gonna keep winning it every year and lose in the 2nd round every year
his stats get padded because he’s 7’ throwing elbows in the paint, if he wasn’t getting superstar calls he’d foul out in the 2nd quarter of every game. It really took Giannis to make me appreciate Harden
because Harden has so many Finals appearances, yeah?
Which harden? 6 steps on step back harden or James I hook the defender with my right arm driving the lane harden.. or James flops on 3’s harden..
Lakers1, with Harden its not even a flop.. it’s sort of a shoot the ball.. land and kind of roll to the ground “to make sure I don’t get hurt” kind of a slow rolling flop-ish.
Voters obviously stuck to their mandate to vote strictly on play BEFORE the Bubble.
But, good for Giannis… elite company!
The vote is taken before the playoffs, so they didn’t have to stick to anything.
Ok.
Clearly you didn’t read about the directive that came out ahead of voting saying that only pre-pandemic play was to be considered in all awards – not what happens in the bubble.
So, why bring it up then?
I believe, if I remember correctly, voting was done before the bubble even began. July like 21st-28th I think. So they didnt have bubble performance to consider anyway
Nah… that’s when the directives were issued, but not when the voting happened.
I see Curtis’ mom made him come inside – it’s getting dark outside.
If only mvp included playoffs probably would be leBron or jimmy b
LeBron? Davis is the one carrying the Lakers right now. Butler would easily win the award if it is for the playoffs.
obviously aren’t watching the games.. AD isn’t carrying the lakers
Lol. Are you watching the games? LeBron is averaging almost a triple-double for the playoffs, & led the Lakers in scoring against HOU. I’m not saying he’s been much, much better than AD in the playoffs, but you can’t say that about AD either. The 2 of them have been a fantastic 1-2 punch. It’s splitting hairs, but considering LeBron’s usage rate & how much more he initiates the Lakers’ offense, I would say that LeBron has a better argument for the Lakers’ MVP in the playoffs.
Participation Trophy
You should look back and see just how many players have won this award and the title in the same season. Only about a third of the time it happens
Yep, it is silly to me how people try to disregard an MVP season when the team doesnt win the title.
Whatever Giannis does for the rest of his career, he’s already a hall of famer guaranteed at age 25.
Regular season mvp
Best player in the best record
Yep.. playing his games against inferior competition.. what kind of stats would he have playing against the western conference teams. I like giannis but I 100% think lebron deserved the mvp.. you take giannis off bucks, they still make playoffs in East.. you take lebron off lakers, they don’t..
Lakers1 I mean I think it’s a combination of lebron and ad because lebron missed playoffs last without ad.
Agreed but lebron also got hurt last year.. they were top 4 in West when he went down..they never recovered after that
@Lakers1 I am a big fan of LBJ! & I think he is so much better than Jordan that it is actually laughable to compare both of them… having said that this year Giannis deserved the MVP as a matter of fact!
1) Giannis
2) Harden
3) Luka
4) AD
5) LBJ
You take AD from the Lakers, they don’t (didn’t) either.
Lakers were a 4 top seed last year with lebron before he got hurt vs golden state.. never recovered after his groan injury.. He got hurt the game when they beat fully healthy gsw in Oakland
Where did lebron play his entire career before going to the “superior” western conference? It’s not like they don’t play teams in each division. How bout you drop some
Stats to back up your hate. What’s Giannis record against western teams?
Lebron took crap how many years saying he couldnt win out of the East.. lakers are about to go to finals.. eastern conference had 9 out of 15 teams with losing records including the 7 and 8 seed. Western conference had 8 including the trailblazers with dame lillard and Phoenix who went 8-0 in bubble.. major difference in talent.. Milwaukee plays 30 games vs wc and 52 vs East.. inferior teams in the East..
So you have nothing to counter and no actual stats to provide. Got it. How do you explain the bucks, raptors, pacers and Celtics all winning 2/3 of their games against the west? Those losers don’t know their role! So lebrons mvps are undeserved then too?
A GOAT in the making but only if his postseason success starts to better reflect the regular season. He’ll need the support of the whole organization from FO to HC to WC (Water Carrier) to achieve that status. Not sure about the FO yet as they are fairly new but this offseason will be telling. The HC has had three top teams in the East and has underachieved each time (so Bud is not the man for the postseason). The WC has been excellent, the players do not have to wait at all for the liquids during a timeout!
FO made the mistake of letting Brogdon walk..
Agreed he would have been the difference maker.
Arguable…laying out that kind of cash for someone who is injury prone is risky. He missed 19 games this season.
Ive been trying to tell people that a) the Bucks didn’t “let Brogdon walk” they did a sign and trade, and b) a big part of why is likely because of his injury history, and the probability of more lengthy injury stints in the future.
He missed significant time again this year, and would have missed more I’m sure had the season not been postponed.
Paying that kind of money to a player who misses 1/4 or so of the season, on average, isn’t wise imo.
The most impressive aspect of his season to me is that he opposing players shot just 36.4% with Giannis as the primary defender. That is incredible.
And when the playoff roll around he can’t beat good teams. His skillset is way too predictable for a 7 game series.
How often are mvp traded？
Rockets want to trade mvp again this year
Eric Bledsoe for Monte Morris, Bates-Diop, and Jerami Grant opting in. Morris gets to prove himself finally. Grant is an alternative to Lopez.
Bledsoe for Derrick White & Patti Mills. Mills expires but White will need $15mil or so per then. Mills or Hill can be moved; I’m not a big fan of Hill but mgmt. might be.
Bledsoe for Lonzo Ball & Nickeil AWalker.
Giannis for Adebayo, Herro, Olynyk & Silva.
The thing is that probably no one wants Bledsoe…
Lebron is the MVP has been for the last 10-12 years. But can’t give him the award every year so have to keep finding reasons and stories why other players deserve it.
Just to put it out there but in NBA history there has been 35 MVP winners, which mean that winning one makes you legendary, really hard to do, right?
Now how many players have won an NBA championship? I actually couldn’t find the exact number, but probably around 800, sounds about right?
At least 100 different players have won 3 championships, that is for sure.
So IMO I have no doubt what is more valuable, to be in a select list of 35 or on a list of 800+!
Anyone can win a ring, but… an MVP… oh boy you gotta be good, man!
For example Pat McCaw in the last 3 years with GSW/TOR has won 3 rings, nuff said!
Giannis played like a true legend this year, not him to blame for his team sucking! The blame goes to all the other players in the team & the FO for not keeping Brogdon!
I mean, obviously dude. Here are a few players that have won more than one championship. Earl Cureton, Mark Madsen, Will Perdue. It’s so obvious it’s harder to win an NBA MVP than be on an NBA championship team it’s not even worth talking about.
No one thinks a championship automatically makes player X better than player Y. But it is where superstars in this game are judged. “His team sucking” you have to be kidding me. They won the most games in the leauge and came up soft when it mattered most. Giannis couldn’t even take control of his own team and let George Hill distract the team with the boycott. He is the MVP for regular season counting stats but when it matters most the Bucks have been mediocre at best.
As GREAT as Giannis is… I really don’t know that I’d chose him to build my franchise around. If he could shoot better from 3-pt range I’d pick him without question. But as things stand now, his inability to spread the floor is what, I believe, is causing his team’s to continue to get beat earlier than they should in the playoffs. Don’t get me wrong he’s a superstar and deserves this MVP award… but I also think he’s unfortunately limited in his ability to carry a team to a championship. Maybe if you build around him by adding a bunch of elite outside shooters (I know they’ve got a couple already but still) then maybe things would be different. But as the Bucks are now… I think they can only go so far unless Giannis can dramatically improve his outside shot.
The dude is 25 years old, and let’s be honest, the team around him is not that good. His second banana is Middleton. Enough said.