According to well-known NBA reporter Wa Shen, sources confirmed that Nikola Jokic was elected MVP of the 2021-22 regular season. After Alphabet Brother won the regular season MVP for two consecutive seasons, Jokic also did it - in the history of the NBA, in addition to these two international players, another international player who can win the regular season MVP is Steve Nash.
As a result, the regular season MVP has been won by international players for four consecutive seasons, and the last U.S. MVP was James Harden when he played for the Rockets.
In fact, the three players shortlisted for the MVP are all international players – Jokic, Embiid and Alphabet Brother, and Jokic and Embiid are more competitive. As outstanding representatives of the top centers in the league today, they have undoubtedly justified the center, who says that in this era the center has withered?
Although the performance of brother Alphabet is still outstanding, but considering that this is just his "normal operation", the biggest competitive favorite of MVP is actually two excellent center players. Jokic and Embiid have been dominant this season, they are versatile in the game and able to dominate the game, which is also the epitome of the current center forward.
In the history of the NBA, the center has an important position, after all, the sport is still a sport for the elderly, but under the fast-paced, flexible trend, the center players have gradually lost their due value. Now that Jokic has won the MVP, he has joined the ranks of Jabbar, Bill Russell, Chamberlain, Moses Malone and other celebrities.
Having won the regular season MVP several times, Jokic has clearly become a benchmark for the center.
Jokic has played in 73 regular season games this season, averaging 27.2 points, 13.8 rebounds, 7.8 assists, 1.45 steals and 0.89 blocks, shooting 58.6 percent from the field, 33.9 percent from three-point range and 81.2 percent from the free throw line — and many of his stats are at the top of the team.
There is also a statistic that illustrates Jokic's influence — when Jokic is on the floor, the Nuggets have a combined plus-minus of +444; when Jokic is not on the floor, the Nuggets have only -255 plus-minus.
Of course, Embiid's performance this season is also quite hot, so there are also many voices that support Embiid to get the MVP. Somewhat funny, the NBA official also made a big oolong a few days ago, calling Embiid an "MVP winner" in a report, and later the official deleted the title, and soon after it was modified to "MVP candidate".
Now it seems that this is a malicious joke with Embiid.
Unfortunately, things were always not perfect, and while Jokic won the MVP, his team was eliminated early in the playoffs. In the first round of the playoffs against the Warriors, the Nuggets lost 4-1 to their opponents and were eliminated, but Jokic still performed well in the series — averaging 31.0 points, 13.2 rebounds, 5.8 assists and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 57.5% from the field.
This seems to have become a fate, and the MVP winners in the last 19 seasons have only won the season championship three times.
From the 2003-04 season when Garnett won the regular season MVP, in the 19 seasons up to the season, only LeBron James (twice) and Stephen Curry won the season's championship at the same time. This is the same for the alphabet brother, who has not been able to lead the team to win the championship for two consecutive seasons, and last season did not win the MVP award but won the championship.
(Text/Yan Wujun)