ESPN helped Jokic lose MVP, now they have to award him an ESPY

If it wasn’t for ESPN and their personalities Nikola Jokic likely would’ve been the first NBA player to win three-straight MVPs since Larry Bird, but the four-letter network and their crew of Denver Nuggets haters exist.

As a consolation, ESPN had to award the Nuggets center as the best player in the NBA, as determined by fan vote.

Nikola Jokic is taking home the award for the ESPYS Best NBA Player 🏆 pic.twitter.com/6Q914mWGlA

— NBA on ESPN (@ESPNNBA) July 11, 2023

Jokic will surely stack the ESPY in a nice spot near his Larry O’Brien, Bill Russell Finals MVP and two Michael Jordan MVPs. Maybe the ESPY will get the mantle near all the Player of the Week awards, maybe it’ll even get the shelf near the Player of the Months. Not that he cares about this stuff anyway.

In 69 games Jokic scored 24.5 points, grabbed 11.8 rebounds and threw 9.8 assists per contest while going for an NBA-best 70% true shooting. Jokic led the league in Player Efficiency Rating, Win Shares, Box Plus-Minus and Value Over Replacement Player. He did all this en route to his first title, where the Nuggets went 16-4 in knocking off the Wolves, Suns, Lakers and Heat. Jokic scored 30 a game, grabbed 13.5 rebounds and dished 9.5 helpers while shooting 55% from the field in the postseason.

Yet Jokic lost out on a third MVP to Joel Embiid by a wide margarin despite leading the race for much of the season and the 76ers’ star’s spring duck of Denver. For Jokic’s money, he didn’t really care about the award but seemingly ESPN’s hype factory didn’t care about the Joker. The Disney-owned network employs the only voter who left Jokic off their ballot, an embarrassing slight from the same folks who aired race-baiting commentary from another personality which Nuggets coach Michael Malone said shifted Denver’s care in the MVP race.

“I think the negativity around the MVP race got to Jokic. I don’t know that it did, and I haven’t talked to him about it. But he got attacked every night,” Malone said after the Western Conference Finals. “Champion your horse but the knocking this year, it pissed me off and I wouldn’t be surprised if it got to him too.”

So the narrative ESPN pushed impacted not just Jokic’s chances at an MVP and furthering his legacy but it actually impacted the way the Nuggets played out the season’s final days. But now fans voting on ESPN’s website have finally deemed Jokic the NBA’s best player and we’re supposed to care what ESPN thinks. Thanks for the recognition ESPN, your coverage of this year’s champions should get a gold star, in fact, give yourself an ESPY since they carry so much weight.

As for the fans finally coming around, Joker is the best player in the game and everyone knows it, a surreal time to be a Nuggets fan.

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