Nuggets player Nikola Djokic wins NBA Player of the Year award for the second year in a row

Nikola Jokic He won the 2021-22 NBA MVP Award, taking home the league’s highest singles honor for the second year in a row, The league was announced on Wednesday evening. Jokic received 65 out of 100 possible votes in first place and received a total of 875 points, surpassing Joel Embiid’s total score of 706 and Giannis Antetokounmpo’s total of 595 points. Jokic’s consecutive MVP awards match the achievement of his fellow finalist Giannis Antikonmo During the 2018-19 and 19-20 seasons. The third finalist, Philadelphia 76ers Center Joel EmbiidHe never won an award.

Aside from assists, Jokic managed to improve his averages per game in every major stat category in the regular season. He finished his career with highest points (27.1), rebounds (13.8), blocks (0.9) and steals (1.5) per game. He’s also had a career high of 58.3 percent of his field goals, and while it didn’t match his free-throw career high or 3-point percentage, he had the highest levels of total free throws (379) and three-pointers (97) made.

The race between Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo was fierce. Embiid won the scoring title with an average of 30.6 points. The Milwaukee Bucks of Antetokounmpo finished the top seed among the three, finishing third in the Eastern Conference with a score of 51-31. Embiid 76 scored from the same record but finished fourth due to a tie-breaker. jokic nuggets He was the No. 6 seed in the West despite winning only three games and losing in the first round by the Golden State Warriors.

All of the MVP finalists had to overcome meaningful adversity to put their teams in place. Embiid played the first half of the season without Ben Simmonswho was sitting due to a trade request, Antetokounmpo had to play outside his position due to an injury he sustained Brooke Lopez. But Lopez eventually came back, replacing the 76 Simmons family James Harden. Jokic never got such relief. fellow star Jamal Murray They haven’t played a single game this season and option 3 Michael Porter Jr.. He played only nine games. Jokic’s team record may have been worse than the other two, but his ability to keep the Nuggets afloat without his second and third best players likely win this trophy.

Jokic is the 15th player to win multiple Player of the Year awards, joining Bob Pettit, Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Musa Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, LeBron JamesAnd Stephen Curry and Antetokounmpo. He is the only Nugget to win an NBA MVP award, although Spencer Haywood won the ABA MVP award when the team was still known as the Denver Rockets.

With Murray and Porter injured, Denver has never had a realistic chance in the championship this season, but Jokic has managed to move them both to the playoffs in ways no other player likely had. He’s not the best traditional player in style or standings, but the voters spoke out, and they decided he was the most valuable player of the 2021-22 NBA season.