6:45pm: Jokic was the runaway winner, per an official press release from the NBA.
[RELATED: MVP Makes Jokic Eligible For Super-Max In 2022]
Jokic received 91 of 100 first-place votes and racked up 971 points. Embiid finished second despite receiving just one first-place vote; he had 586 points, aided by 62 second-place votes; Curry finished third with five first-place votes and 453 points.
Giannis Antetokounmpo and Chris Paul rounded out the top five finishers, while 10 other players received at least one vote. The only real surprise among that group was Derrick Rose, who, oddly, received a first-place vote.
4:39pm: Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has won the league’s Most Valuable Player award, Shams Charania of The Athletic tweets.
Jokic averaged a career-high 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists per game this season. In an era in which players are regularly given nights off for rest, Jokic showed his toughness and durability by appearing in all 72 regular-season games.
As the 41st selection in the 2014 draft, Jokic is by far the lowest draft pick to ever earn the honor. He’s also the first Nuggets player to win the award.
Sixers center Joel Embiid and Warriors guard Stephen Curry were the other finalists for the award.
Embiid averaged 28.5 PPG and 1o.6 RPG but only appeared in 51 regular-season games, mainly due to a knee injury. Curry led the NBA in scoring at 32.0 PPG along with 5.8 APG while playing 63 games.
Photo courtesy of USA Today Sport Images.
Yeeeeesssss . Deserves it. Congratulations Joker !!
Best Center in NBA. Yup better than Embiid. And KAT who doesn’t know what D means.
He had a better statistical season than Jo. Overall, he isn’t better than Embiid, but it’s close.
Jokic makes others better, better.
Jokic should be an inspiration to people who were so pudgy and slow as a kid, they were not quick to be selected when everyone lined up… despite being, in this case, 7foot and good with the ball. But there was not high expectations when he entered the draft; scouts said he showed flashes and was comfortable on court… not a ringing endorsement, but what Denver was looking for.
Reminds me alot of another guy in this draft people are sleeping heavily on. Luka Garza!!
This yr he was.
He is not better than Embiid. Sorry. He had the better year and deserved to win the award. Jokic ceiling is a top 5 guy in the league. Embiid’s is best player in the league.
Yeah no bias in your comment certainly. Lol!!Jokic is better and can be best player in the league if he improves conditioning and plays hard on D.
Jokic has something Embiid has never and maybe will never have. The best “ability”, availability!
Phillies fans215 : i like embiid more than joker too.they r playing different style.not far different in offense but deffense embiid way better.but embiid need to stay healthy.that is his only issue.i love two way player like him. For kat,he is overated.good but not great.embiid and joker are the best center in the world.
‘Jokic ceiling is a top 5 guy in the league. Embiid’s is best player in the league.’
Jokic literally just won an award given to the best player in the league. He already is at where you’re saying Embiid’s ceiling is. Led the league in PER, WS, WS/48, VORP, OBPM, and BPM while putting up 26.4/10.8/8.3 with stellar shooting percentages across the board.
Embiid is great and a much better defender, but Jokic is a far superior ball handler and much more durable.
If you did a draft of every player in the league for a one season tournament, with money being no object, Jokic gets drafted ahead of Embiid 100 times out of 100.
The MVP doesn’t mean best player in the league. Otherwise LeBron would have won every single year.
Joker would get selected ahead of Embiid. He is a year younger and hasn’t had a major injury. That’s just common sense. If you’re starting a team you’re not thinking in a short window. Several players would go ahead of Joker and Embiid.
Regardless, joker won BC his season is statistically significant in NBA history. Only big to average those points, rebounds, and assists per game. Only dudes that had better seasons were Oscar and Westbrick.
Embiid was more dominant though, you hold his games played against him and I reply, he had the 2nd most 30-10 games (tied with Joker) playing 20 fewer games than Joker.
What about 25-15 games? What about 18-8 games? That 30-10 standard is so random.
Look at Embiid’s face. Okay big fella? Lets get him a break and some wifi.
It’s literally tracked and mentioned every time it happens and shown on your TV screen on nationally televised games. Its not a standard Its one of those stat lines that historians of the game care about. Just like 20-20 games. Why do they care about double doubles or triple doubles etc. It’s a stat like you compare to Wilt how many did wilt have. Kinda like how many 50 pt games do guys have compared to Jordan.
Embiid will never be the best player in the league until he finds a way to stay healthy for an entire season. Unless that happens he will continue being a player with a ton of unrealized potential.
Embiid is Laker years Shaq when he stopped playing full seasons. Don’t think he’ll have the longevity tho.
Games play
Jokic 72
Embiid 51
Yes bro. Good point.
Lol
Steph deserved it a bit more after dealing with his badly constructed team and his head coach refusing to try and win for 50 games, but I’m not mad at Jokic getting it, he was awesome almost every game and the way he doesn’t slow down in the 4th defies all logic.
In that case, Harden deserved the 2015 MVP more than Curry since all of the Warriors best players were healthy for most of that season while Rockets best players weren’t, outside of Harden and Ariza.
Yeah but Harden is annoying and plays the worst style of basketball.
So in other words it’s all a popularity contest.
People love Curry and hate Harden, it’s as simple as that.
Randy, that has absoluely nothing to do with it.
Should have been unanimous. If not prior to, then after, the team losing Murray and most of the rest of their backcourt and not missing a beat. He entered the playoffs with the weakest backcourt in recent playoff history.
So happy for him.
For those old enough to remember the Arvydas Sabonis ‘what if’ question we’re seeing an answer. He’s not as athletic of course but he’s a transcendent player. Just makes winning plays on a nightly basis with no ego.
Sabonis and Nowitzki got me back into hoops. Id kinda lost interest since Jordan’s 2nd retirement with everybody playing iso-ball to try to be like Mike. I was sitting there bored in my Vegas hotel room one night. (Yeah I know “bored in Vegas” but I’m not much of a gambler, seen a lot of the shows and was too romantically involved to engage in Vegas’s other “entertainment” options) So there I was flipping through channels and there was a Blazers/Mavs game on decided to watch for a few minutes. Nowitzki’s smooth stroke and Sabonis’ sweet passes drug me back in.
Very well deserved!
Well deserved.
Somewhere Brian Windhorst is seething while Tim Bontemps and Tim Macmahon are celebrating.
Who “WON” the 2021 LEAST VALUABLE PLAYER ??
Alen Smailagic
Marty mcrae : do u know who cristiano felicio is? The worst basketball player ever…
Well deserved, Joker.
“I want my damn respect too.”
– Lebron James
Can’t believe D Rose got a first place vote, potentially spoiling for Embiid.
What bothers me more is Curry and Embiid not get all 101 votes. Seriously how are either one of them not in the top 5 players? Just shows some writers have vendettas against players.
Yes, all writers should be forced to do a second vote to vote the top 3 1-2-3 no matter who they initially voted for.
Except it doesn’t. The vote for Derrick Rose came from fan voting. Fans got one vote and it was used to give Derrick Rose a 1st place nod. I don’t want to hear anyone complain about the writers again, because fan voting would be FAR worse.
Unfortunately this will be the last time Curry is an MVP finalist.
lmao, Derrick Rose getting a vote.
He was our bench MVP. Best Knicks trade MVP.
Embiid should have won on his defense
Don’t they have Defensive Player of the Year for that?
Look it up. Jokic defensive rating is higher. His FG% is better. Shoots better, passes better than Ben Simmons. And played more mins than Embiid. This yr he was the Nuggets. You may like Embiid and not wrong. But this yr Jokic was better. Gms played does mean something. He deserves “MVP “. Like Sillyman said …..
Embiid – 51
Jokic – 72
The Joker is a better player than Embid. That was true not only this year, but every prior year since the Joker became a starter – in fact, until this year, the separation in Jokic’s favor was wider. Right now, each does some things better than the other, but, with one exception, its only at the margin. The exception is facilitation (assists being the lead stat). In that critical area of the game, there is a huge gap between the two, and until Embiid at least closes it, or the Joker falls off in some other area, Embiid won’t be the Joker’s equal. That skill is too fundamental to a player’s impact on the game.
Jokic is the best!
Deserved winner, clearly no one was at his level this year!
Also he is the ironman, playin’ all 72 games has to count for somethin’ in the days of the despicable load management!
First 2nd-round pick to win MVP.
First Serbian to win MVP.
First Harvard graduate to win MVP.
Glorious.
And, let’s not forget, the first Denver Nugget to win MVP.
Not true. Spencer Haywood won the ABA MVP in 1969-70 when they were known as the Denver Rockets. Oddly at the same time another ABA franchise the San Diego (later Houston) Rockets shared that nickname. Man, the ABA really was a strange incarnation.
What’s this about Harvard? Or college.
The Nuggets had a promo-video, in which a player introduces himself, his position, his number, and his school. For example: ”Jamaal Murray. Guard. 27. Kentucky.”
When it came to Jokić, he said… well, take a listen:
link to reddit.com
So, people joke now that Jokić is a Harvard graduate (in real life, he didn’t attend any college, but is a high school graduate). If I remember correctly, the folks at Harvard even sent him a t-shirt, as a joke/respect.
Denver has been the most entertaining team in the league. Joker is my favorite player. If I were drafting the league, I’d draft him number 1. I commend Jokic’s work ethic, attitude, team first mentality, his unique skill set, and the coaches who saw what was possible in him. The Nuggets have heart and play the game right, and that starts at tthe top with the star player and coach. Congratulations!