The 2021-22 NBA season is almost over. With that, fans are getting a pretty good idea of how things will turn out in terms of winning individual awards at the end of the season.
While each individual award holds its own value in the eyes of the fans, the NBA MVP award is unarguably the one that they care the most about. Moreover, the race to win the accolade is pretty close between three players.
Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Giannis Antetokounmpo are currently competing to win this prize when it’s all said and done. On that note, many media outlets are already revealing their top picks to win the award with their own algorithms and whatnot.
Recently, renowned NBA media platform ESPN conducted a poll for the same. With the results out now, it seems like the Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic is all set to win the award, and that too by a huge margin.
Via ESPN:
“To gauge where the race stands with less than two weeks remaining in the regular season, ESPN asked 100 media members to participate in an informal poll that mimics the postseason awards voting. To make the balloting as realistic as possible, there were at least two voters from each of the league’s 28 markets, as well as a cross section of national and international reporters. Votes were collected from Thursday to Saturday.
As with the NBA’s official vote at the end of season, voters were asked to submit a five-player ballot, and results were tabulated using the league’s scoring system: 10 points for each first-place vote, followed by seven points for second place, five points for third, three points for fourth and one point for fifth.
Jokic finished ahead of the pack with those 62 first-place votes and a total of 860 points, followed by Embiid, who had 29 first-place votes and 719 total points, and Antetokounmpo, who had nine first-place votes and 593 total points. They were the only players to be named to all 100 ballots and the only ones to receive a first-place vote.
Jokic, Embiid and Antetokounmpo have so clearly separated themselves from the field that they claimed 291 of the 300 votes for first, second and third place in the p0ll. (Antetokounmpo had six fourth-place votes, and Jokic had three fifth-place votes.) No other player was named to even half of the ballots.
Following the three unanimous selections was Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, who finished with 103 total points and received one of the two second-place votes recorded for someone besides Jokic, Embiid or Antetokounmpo. (Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker received the other.) Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum placed fifth with 93 points, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic was sixth with 87 points and Booker seventh with 82. Morant, Tatum and Booker were the only players to receive third-place votes outside of the top three finishers.”
The results of the poll easily prove the impact of international players on the modern-day NBA. According to ESPN’s poll, the top 3 players who have a chance at winning the accolade are all foreign.
Moreover, Jokic leads the race with 860 points. With only a few games left in the season, the poll might have produced a pretty accurate list. So as things stand right now, Jokic is all set to win the second MVP award of his career this season.
