Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Toronto, Ontario won his first National Basketball Association Most Valuable Player award. Gilgeous-Alexander won 71 of the 100 first place votes, as he beat Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic of Sombor, Serbia, who won the other 29 first place votes.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 32.7 points per game (led the NBA). He also averaged 6.4 assists per game, five rebounds per game, 1.7 steals per game, and one block per game. Gilgeous-Alexander also had a field goal percentage of .519, three point percentage of .375, and free throw percentage of .898.
There is no doubt that Gilgeous-Alexander had a great season. Jokic did too as he averaged a triple double, something that has never been done before by a NBA center.
At the end of the day, the NBA voters looked at overall record. The Thunder had the advantage as they had the best record in the NBA and 18 more wins than Denver.
But one needs to sincerely ask, what took the NBA so long to announce that Gilgeous-Alexander was the winner? The postseason results are not included in the voting as those who were fortunate enough to have a vote needed to post their vote before the regular season ended. Most years, the NBA announces the MVP before the end of the second round. However, that was not the case this year, as it was announced after OKC beat Denver. This led me to ask earlier this week if the NBA should announce the MVP on a set day every year, like the National Football League and National Hockey League do?
