Stephen A. Smith jabs Denver again, Jokic not unanimous MVP

Racism, narrative-pushing or whatever you want to call it—two prominent haters of the Denver Nuggets are again eating into Nikola Jokic’s legacy and one of them is Stephen A. Smith.

While it was unlikely, it is now certain that Nikola Jokic will not become the second player to win an MVP unanimously, a feat only Steph Curry has accomplished. The Serbian center will hoist the trophy in the coming weeks as it’s basically a lock that he will win his third NBA Most Valuable Player award. All the data points to the horseman having a large lead.

That data has now started showing some actual results as real voters are now sharing their awards picks after Sunday wrapped up the regular season. Thus far 16 media members who are voters have revealed their picks for NBA MVP and 13 have selected Jokic atop basketball. The only three outliers are ESPN’s Smith and Kendrick Perkins and FOX’s Chris Broussard.

"Shai Gilgeous-Alexander should be the NBA MVP!"

👀 @stephenasmith pic.twitter.com/AvdTvUsh7v

— First Take (@FirstTake) April 15, 2024

Jokic may very well have four MVPs right now had Perkins not spoken last year. The media member from league partner ESPN used racial bias to influence the award voting thus making the Nuggets and their star want no part of it. To this day, Jokic wants nothing to do with the MVP discourse likely thanks a bit to how the 2023 award played out. If Joel Embiid hadn’t won, it would have been three straight MVPs for Jokic and thus making this year’s four-in-a-row. Bird is the last player to win three consecutively while four-in-a-row has never been accomplished. There are only five players who have even won the MVP four times. But the one year in Jokic’s prime that he didn’t capture the MVP, he led the Nuggets to a title and won the Finals MVP.

Jokic was his steady self all of this regular season and improved after the All-Star Break where Denver sped to a 21-6 record all the while Jamal Murray missed a solid chunk of time. Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and nine assists a game on 58% shooting, good for league bests in Player Efficiency Rating (31,) Win Shares (17,) Box Plus-Minus (13.2) and Value Over Replacement Player (10.6.) This effort has made him the clear favorite for the award and it’s why he’s already earned 13 of the 16 known votes plus another three first-place votes from likely voters.

With a win of this year’s MVP Jokic will join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Bill Russell, Michael Jordan, Wilt Chamberlain, LeBron James, Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson as the only players in league history who have won three MVPs. Each of these players has also captured a Finals MVP and a title as well, except for Russell, whose career predates the Bill Russell Finals MVP award.

No doubt, Jokic will end this season as one of the 15-best players in NBA history and that’s not even to mention that the Nuggets are in a good spot to capture back-to-back titles.

But Jokic won’t score the legacy points of four-straight MVPs or a unanimous nod and part of the reason for that is because the voters, specifically at ESPN, have had any number of biases against him. Of course, the funniest part is these are the people who will dock Jokic in future GOAT debates because of the voting they themselves did years prior.

One of those prejudices against Jokic actually pertains to the entire city of Denver. Smith shared last month that he would rather not come back to the Mile High City for the NBA Finals since the altitude gives him stomachaches. Of course, he had no issue moving out First Take and the entity of ESPN for special from-campus programming of Deion Sanders last fall. Smith said a few months back he would rather go to Dallas than Denver for the playoffs, the people in the Big D won’t be happy to see him besides his Cowboys hate because he and Perkins both picked Shai Gilgeous-Alexander for MVP, whereas Broussard at least named Luka Doncic. The pick also doesn’t line up with what Smith told 104.3 the Fan last month about Jayson Tatum being his pick since he was the best player on the best team—which has not changed.

Smith and Perkins will not just work the playoffs but the NBA Finals as ABC has the rights. They’re figureheads in the whole barrage of buffoons who have said brainless things in the past about the Nuggets. Denver will have haters as they try to repeat but it is funny how quick the crew is to forget the dominant 16-4 run Jokic led a season ago.

Interestingly ESPN fired two separate members of their main broadcast booth, who possibly not so coincidentally, had been very cruel to Jokic in the past. A third ESPN broadcaster who has been highly critical of Jokic in the past was also demoted down the broadcast team depth chart. It’s unlikely Smith will get reprimanded for anything he’s said as he’s not crossed as many lines but somehow Perkins still has a microphone.

Smith has both given Jokic his flowers and called him “a fat tub of lard.” Meanwhile, Perkins has turned into both Jokic’s biggest cheerleader and all-time hater. By the way, Jokic nearly doubled the amount of playoff assists last season (190,) than Perkins had in his 14-year NBA career in the postseason (102.)

Jokic’s Nuggets title win has garnered league-wide respect but there are still some major doubters. The team accomplished their ring and for a short time had the respect of everyone but less than a year later, it’s almost all but been forgotten by two of the loudest voices at the league’s main broadcast partner.

Anyway, here the Nuggets are again, fighting for another NBA title and ESPN dudes are vocal once more. While they can try to diminish Jokic’s legacy in live time the one thing the big man can keep doing besides playing at a historic clip is win more titles. Nobody can take rings away, not even Smith, Perkins or ESPN.