The 2020-21 season’s NBA MVP is Nikola Jokic, the star performer for the Denver Nuggets. Jokic edged out competitors like Joel Embiid and Stephen Curry on Tuesday to receive the top award. The announcement was made by NBA.
An Unlikely NBA MVP For Many
This year’s NBA MVP had scored an average of 26.4 points as well as 10.8 rebounds this season. The scores are the highest in his career so far. Nikola has also led his team the Denver Nuggets to be the third-ranked team for the playoffs in the West.
The NBA MVP, now 26, is nearing the end of his sixth year with the Denver Nuggets. The side had picked him in 2014 as their 41st overall pick. As such, he now is also the lowest pick in drafts in the history of the NBA to be the NBA MVP. He is also the Nugget’s first player to receive the award.
That year, Jokic was picked up while a commercial for Taco Bell was running. He did not move to the US from Serbia until the next year. This season, he has made an appearance in all the 72 games for the Nuggets. This also means that he is the first NBA MVP to have played every game since 2008’s Kobe Bryant.
Jokic was among three finalists. The others were Embiid and Curry. Curry had received the league title for scoring this season with an average score of 32 points. Embiid also had his best average in his career with 28.5 points as well as 10.6 rebounds.
In the final voting, Embiid took second place with Curry being third. Giannis Antetokounmpo, the star of the Bucks who had won two consecutive MVPs, was fourth. Chris Paul, the Suns’ guard, was finished fifth.
Denver is presently playing the Suns in the second round of the playoffs.
