Nikola Jokic is close to winning his third MVP award in the last four seasons. Victor Wembanyama is also likely to win a trophy, maybe even two. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander might win a couple of awards too.
The NBA announced the finalists for many of its postseason awards on Sunday. As expected, Jokic, the star player for the Denver Nuggets, was one of the top three vote-getters for the league’s Most Valuable Player award, known as the Michael Jordan trophy.
The other finalists are Luka Doncic from the Dallas Mavericks and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from the Oklahoma City Thunder.
Joel Embiid from the Philadelphia 76ers, last season’s MVP, couldn’t be considered this year due to a new league rule requiring players to participate in a certain number of games.
If Jokic wins, he’ll join a select group of players with three or more MVPs, including Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Michael Jordan, and LeBron James.
Both Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander would win their first MVP awards. Gilgeous-Alexander was a finalist for Most Improved Player last season and is now in the running for MVP.
It’s worth noting that this will be the sixth consecutive year that an international player wins the MVP award, the longest streak in NBA history.
Players like Giannis Antetokounmpo, Nikola Jokic, and Joel Embiid have contributed to this streak.
The awards are decided by a panel of reporters and broadcasters who cover the league and are based solely on regular-season performance. The winners will be announced in the coming days, with ballots being submitted before the start of the play-in tournament.
