One of the 100 voters for MVP actually left Nikola Jokic off their ballot

Nikola Jokic missed out on this third straight MVP, but you can bet the Nuggets center doesn’t care.

In fact, he made that much clear on Monday night when he said he was going to the swimming pool, instead of watching Tuesday’s announcement.

76ers center Joel Embiid won with 73 first-place votes and 912 total points. Jokic came in second with 15 first-place votes and 674 total points. The full breakdown from NBA PR on the ballots is below.

Joel Embiid is the first player to win the Kia NBA MVP Award with the 76ers since Allen Iverson in the 2000-01 season.

Complete voting results ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/kko3o8tmxi

— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 2, 2023

Jokic received 52 second-place votes and 32 third-place votes for a very solid finish. No one thought he was the fourth or fifth best player in the league.

But wait… 15+52+32=99.

That means someone, one of the 100 voters, had the audacity to leave Jokic off their ballot altogether, claiming he’s not a top-5 player in the NBA. What a joke.

How can 99 voters agree Jokic is in the top-3, but one lone wolf thinks he’s not worthy of the top-5? That’s a troll job, plain and simple, with someone who clearly has a personal agenda against Jokic.

The back-to-back MVP averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 9.8 assists in the regular season this year. He led the league in almost every single advanced stat. And the Nuggets secured the No. 1 seed for the first time in their NBA history.

A list of public / known ballots is available here, but there’s plenty of voters we don’t know how they ranked the MVP candidates. Whoever left Jokic off deserves to be exposed, and frankly deserves to be ridiculed. It’s an unprofessional hack who clearly possesses some weird personal bias.

I’ve got some guesses of who the voter might be, but will keep them to myself. If we find out their identity, we’ll be sure to pass it along. In the meantime, Jokic clearly lives rent free in the person’s head.

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