"He's so unselfish"- Austin Reaves believes voter fatigue cost Nikola Jokic his 3rd straight MVP
Has everyone grown tired of voting for Nikola Jokic as the NBA regular season MVP?
The Denver Nuggets superstar failed to win a third consecutive MVP award for the regular season and relinquished the honor to the Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid.
Rising LA Lakers star Austin Reaves believes that voter fatigue probably caught up with Nikola Jokic.
Speaking on the "Full Send Podcast," Reaves said:
"I think it was just voter's fatigue. He'd won it the last two years... This year would have been three. I think that was part of the issue."
Reaves, however, believes Jokic was fine after losing the MVP race to Embiid. Jokic had the last laugh as Denver won the NBA championship with him as the Finals MVP. Reaves continued:
"Jokic has won. He's just so unfazed by everything you do... The best thing about him is that he's so unselfish. He doesn't care if he scores 10 points and is happy if they win."
The Nuggets had to go through the Lakers during the Western Conference finals, sweeping them before taking down the Miami Heat in five games.
How Nikola Jokic lost the MVP race
Austin Reaves could be right about the voter fatigue factor, as an overwhelming majority placed their first-place votes on Joel Embiid to win the MVP.
Embiid got 73 first-place votes, while Nikola Jokic only got 15. Only one other player got a first-place vote in the MVP race: Giannis Antetokounmpo of the Milwaukee Bucks with 12.
Jokic got the most second-place votes with 52, while Antetokounmpo got the most third-place votes with 32. Embiid won the MVP vote with 915 total points, but Jokic (674) barely took second place over Antetokounmpo (606).
Nikola Jokic vs. Joel Embiid
Nikola Jokic came just close to a triple-double in his averages during the regular season and even the playoffs.
Jokic played 69 games during the regular season and finished with a career-high in field goal percentage (63.2 percent) and assists (9.8) per game. He also averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds, 1.3 assists, and 0.7 blocks a game.
In the playoffs, however, he stepped up his game, finishing with career-highs in three-point shooting (46.1 percent after 20 games) rebounds (13.5), and assists (9.5), while matching his playoff career-high in blocks (1.0) alongside 30.0 points and 1.1 steals a game.
Embiid, on the other hand, averaged a career-high 33.1 points on 54.8 percent shooting and 4.2 assists a game in 66 total games along with 10.2 rebounds, 1.7 blocks, and 1.0 steals.
In the playoffs, his scoring dipped to 23.7 points a game in nine matches. But he was a solid rim protector with a playoff career-high 2.8 blocks and a 90.5 percent clip from the free-throw line.