With February right around the corner, the NBA’s MVP race is starting to legitimately take shape.
Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic took home the award at the end of last season for the third time in his career, and he now finds himself trying to fend off a handful of players who are all very much worthy of some serious individual recognition.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been stuffing the stat sheet on a nightly basis for the Oklahoma City Thunder. Teams have yet to find a way to contain Giannis Antetokounmpo and the Milwaukee Bucks. Jayson Tatum, now a champion, has been doing anything and everything for the Boston Celtics.
But Jokic shouldn’t be losing sleep over Gilgeous-Alexander, Antetokounmpo and Tatum. It’s voter fatigue that he should be worrying about.
It’s an understandable phenomenon— with so much talent in today’s NBA, the sportswriters and broadcasters who vote for MVP want there to be at least some diversity when it comes to naming the league’s top talent on a yearly basis.
Realistically, when all 82 regular-season games are in the books, there are usually two or three players who are truly deserving of the title of MVP. From there, it’s a toss-up. Surely personal biases come into play in the voting process, and of course, if Player A took home the award last year, maybe it should be Player B’s turn to bask in the glory, right?
Voter fatigue, man. Gotta love it.
If there was any season to cut that nonsense out, it’s this one. Voters are probably sick of writing Jokic’s name down considering he’s been the MVP in three of the past four seasons, but what he’s doing right now is utterly ridiculous.
Jokic had one of his “quieter” games on Tuesday, and he still managed to put up a triple-double in a 118-99 victory over the Dallas Mavericks. The 29-year-old finished with 10 points, 14 rebounds and 10 assists.
That makes 16 triple-doubles on the season for Jokic, whose per-game averages right now are otherworldly (30.6 points, 13.2 rebounds, 9.9 assists, 1.8 steals). And if that wasn’t enough to catch your attention, he’s also shooting 47.1 percent from downtown.
We’ve become so desensitized to outrageous stat lines, particularly from Jokic. A 40-20-15 game from him is just another day at the office, and for us, we don’t even act surprised.
But these are quite literally video game numbers. Better, even, depending on how your 2K career is coming along.
Of course, there’s a lot of season left. Should Jokic continue to play at the level he’s currently at, giving the MVP award to anyone else would show just how real voter fatigue is. It would also take away a lot of credibility from said voters, with their decision showing that they value spreading the wealth more than actually picking the right candidate.
Voter fatigue can take all it wants from us, as long as Jokic still gets his MVP this season. He’s been too good for the outcome to be any different.
