With one more triumph, Nikola Jokic will have three MVPs in the previous four seasons.
The Denver Nuggets player Nikola Jokic was among the top three vote-getters for the highest individual award, the Michael Jordan trophy, which is given to the league’s Most Valuable Player. It came as no surprise that the NBA announced the finalists for the most of the playoff honours on Sunday.
The others are Gilgeous-Alexander of Oklahoma City and Luka Doncic of Dallas. Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, the MVP of the previous season, was ineligible for the award this year due to a new league regulation requiring players to participate in a minimum number of games.
Jokic would join Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James (four), Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Jordan and Bill Russell (five), Moses Malone, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson (three) as the ninth player to win three or more MVPs.
Gilgeous-Alexander and Doncic would be the first-ever MVPs. Gilgeous-Alexander is a strong candidate for MVP this year after serving as a finalist for the award last year.
One thing is certain: an international player will win MVP for the sixth year in a row, which will be the longest stretch in NBA history.
Greek-Nigerian player Giannis Antetokounmpo won in 2019 and 2020, Jokic of Serbia won in 2021 and 2022, and Embiid triumphed in the most recent season.
Embiid was born in Cameroon, but in 2022 he obtained American citizenship. This summer, he will play for the USA Basketball team at the Olympics in Paris.
A panel of reporters and broadcasters covering the league casts votes for the honours, which are determined solely by the results of regular season games. Before the play-in tournament began last week, ballots had to be sent in. The league is anticipated to start notifying the winners on a regular basis over the next few days.