Nuggets’ Nikola Jokić wins third NBA MVP in four seasons

He can pass like Magic, board like Moses and shoot and scowl like Bird. On Wednesday, Nikola Jokić joined those NBA legends as three-time winners of the league’s most coveted individual honor.

Jokić, 29, the Denver Nuggets superstar born in Sombor, Serbia, was named NBA MVP for the third time in four seasons, defeating finalists Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas’ Luka Dončić. Jokić earned 79 first-place votes, while Gilgeous-Alexander earned 15. Dončić had four, while the Milwaukee Bucks’ Giannis Antetokounmpo had one.

The complete voting results for the 2023-24 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player. pic.twitter.com/Dqbd7MaRjC

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“When I won the award the first time, I said, ‘This is cool.’ When I won the second time, the list got shorter, and now the third time, the list is short short. And it’s a great list to be on,” Jokić said. “I think I’m going to be proud of my legacy when my career is done, but in the moment, this is something to be very proud of.”

Coming off the only campaign in the last four in which he didn’t win MVP (he was runner-up to Joel Embiid in 2023 but won NBA Finals MVP last summer after leading the Nuggets to their first championship), Jokić tied for 11th in the league in scoring at 26.4 points per game. But he was fourth in the league with 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists per game — illustrative of the remarkable diversity in his game considering his 6-foot-11, 284-pound frame.

Basketball players this good are often identified by a single name, and Jokić is certainly in that rarified air. Joker, (and Magic, Bird and Moses) trails only Kareem, MJ, Russell, LeBron and Wilt for the most NBA MVPs.

“He’s one of the best players to ever play this game, it’s that simple,” LeBron James said of Jokić last month on the eve of a playoff series between the Nuggets and LeBron’s Lakers, which Denver won in five games.

Jokic and the Nuggets currently trail the Minnesota Timberwolves 2-0 in a Western Conference semifinal series. During the regular season, he posted 23 triple-doubles in 79 regular-season games. He is the fourth player in league history with multiple seasons of 20 or more triple-doubles, joining Oscar Robertson, Russell Westbrook and Wilt Chamberlain.

An analytics marvel, Jokić again led the NBA in many advanced metrics — which he’s done for the last four years. No player contributes more to winning or creates more value over a replacement player than Jokić. He’s also a 36 percent 3-point shooter, an 82 percent foul shooter and shoots nearly 63 percent on shots from inside the arc. He cut down on his turnovers from last season, averaged 1.5 steals and nearly one blocked shot per game; he increased his scoring and rebounds from a season ago.

“Last year I didn’t win it, but we won the championship, and that was much better,” Jokić said. “It’s been a journey and a process. I was able to trust in my dream, and it’s been a collective effort with help from a lot of people to get to this point. The players and the coaches and the medical staff have been behind me, and I’m so appreciative of everyone who has helped me get here.”

For the second consecutive year, Jokić was the anchor of the NBA’s best starting lineup. He’s a center who can run a fast break with the ball, initiate the offense, pass out of or over any double-team and step back with a lofty, high-arcing 3-pointer to break an opponent’s proverbial back.

“The most important thing is he changes the way his teammates think about their own play,” James said last month. “When you’re able to inspire your teammates to play at a level that sometimes they don’t even feel like they can play at, that’s the true testament of a great one.”

Jokić held off two worthy candidates for MVP. Not only was Dončić the NBA’s leading scorer at 33.9 points per game, but he was second with 9.8 assists, behind only Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton. In 23 games after the All-Star break, Dončić averaged 33.2 points, 10.1 boards and 10.3 assists.

Gilgeous-Alexander, meanwhile, slipped from historic production ever so slightly toward the end of the season, finishing third in the league in scoring (30.1 points) and second in steals (2.5 per game) for the top seed in the Western Conference.

The Athletic’s Tony Jones contributed.

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(AAron Ontiveroz / MediaNews Group / The Denver Post via Getty Images)