NBA fans are witnessing an MVP race for the ages between Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander this season.
Jokic already has three MVPs on the mantel, and he’s having arguably the best season of his career right now. The Nuggets star is third in the league in points, second in assists, and third in rebounds per game to lift a flawed Denver team to the No. 3 seed in the West. Gilgeous-Alexander’s case is just as convincing, leading the NBA in scoring at nearly 33 points per game while also having a huge lead in raw plus/minus for by far the best team in the NBA. Here’s a hot take for you: both of these guys are deserving winners, and it’s a shame one of them won’t be MVP this year.
NBA MVP has a case as the most prestigious individual award in sports alongside the Heisman Trophy. In college football, leading candidates are often said to have “Heisman moments” — flashes of their singular greatness that proves they deserve the award. Well, Jokic had his own version of a Heisman moment in Denver’s Friday night win over the Utah Jazz. At the end of the second quarter, the big man hit a Eurostep, one-handed heave from the opposite three-point line that swished nothing but net.
This is an absolutely wild shot, and if you somehow don’t appreciate it at first glance, the alternate angle is even better.
How is this even possible?
That goes down in the play-by-play data as “Nikola Jokic makes 62-foot three pointer (Peyton Watson assists).” Somehow even that doesn’t do this shot justice.
This still is art:
This is the second heave Jokic has made this season. He takes more than any player in the NBA, and making two of them is a pretty good percentage. It’s wild that Jokic is still shooting 41.2 percent from three this year despite taking so many heaves. Most players would sit on those shots to protect their percentages. Jokic just wants to give his team the best chance to win.
SGA has a convincing MVP case himself. Gilgeous-Alexander has never won MVP before, and he’s having one of the best guard seasons of the post-Michael Jordan era to give himself a legit chance. I change my mind on my MVP vote every week. Jokic might have it after this crazy shot.
