Nikola Jokic is one step closer to winning his third MVP award in the past four seasons.
The NBA announced the finalists for most of the league's postseason awards on Sunday, and unsurprisingly, Denver Nuggets star Jokic is among the top three for the Michael Jordan Trophy, the highest individual honor. He was one of the vote-getters. Best player in the league.
Others: Dallas' Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City's Gilgeous-Alexander. Last season's MVP, Joel Embiid of the Philadelphia 76ers, was ineligible this year due to a new league rule that requires players to appear in a certain number of games to participate in the award.
If Jokic wins, he will join Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Jordan and Bill Russell (five), Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James (four), Moses Malone, Larry Bird, and Magic as MVPs. He is the 9th player to win the title three times or more. Johnson (3 people).
Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander will be the first MVPs. Gilgeous-Alexander was a finalist for last year's Most Valuable Player award, and this year he is a candidate for the MVP award.
This much is already certain. It will be his sixth consecutive year that an international player has won his MVP award, extending the longest streak in NBA history.
Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is of Greek-Nigerian descent, won in 2019 and 2020, Serbian Jokic won in 2021 and 2022, and Embiid won last season.
Embiid was born in Cameroon, but became an American citizen in 2022 and was selected to play on the U.S. basketball team for this summer's Olympics in Paris.
The award is voted on by a panel of reporters and broadcasters covering the league and is based solely on regular season games. Voting closed last week before the start of the play-in tournament, and the league is expected to begin announcing winners periodically over the next few days.
