Well that’s awkward…
Shoutout to Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic for winning his third NBA MVP award, all while seemingly hating the sport of basketball. Hate might be a strong word there… he’s just indifferent about it (he’d rather be paying attention to his race horses).
The sport of basketball has never really seen a player like Nikola Jokic, who by the way, was drafted during a Taco Bell commercial. Seriously… they didn’t even bother to cut from commercial when the Nuggets selected him in the 2014 NBA Draft. Unlike going to Taco Bell, it ended up being a great decision for the franchise.
Since then, the “Joker” hasn’t stopped winning NBA MVP awards, being named an all-star, and even recently bringing Denver an elusive NBA Championship in 2023. The Nuggets are currently in a tough spot (down 0-2) in a series with the Minnesota Timberwolves, but despite that, some good news did come today for the mile-high team.
Nikola Jokic was named NBA MVP for a third time, and the 7-foot Serbian celebrated in a way that only he could (not seemingly caring that much about it):
Hilarious.
Jokic was then probably forced to sit down with the NBA on TNT crew for an interview about the prestigious award, and that’s when things got a little weird. It would have been awkward anyways, just because it’s Jokic, but Shaquille O’Neal decided to double down on the awkwardness by telling Jokic that he shouldn’t have won the award straight to his face:
“Joker, as the President of the Big Man Alliance, you know I love you. You’re the best player in the league. I want to congratulate you. But I want you to hear from me first, I thought SGA (Shai Gilgeous-Alexander) should have been MVP. That’s no disrespect to you. But congratulations.”
Yikes…
Nikola Jokic handled it with class, and even laughed it off. But it was still a little cringey… even more so because Shaw said, “You’re the best player in the league,” then said he didn’t think Jokic was the MVP. Does Shaq know what MVP stands for?
