“How Does Nikola Jokic Not Have Pressure To Win A Title?”: Draymond Green On Double Standards Between US and European Players

Discourse over Nikola Jokic and his MVP candidacy for this 2022-23 NBA season has reached an all-time high. The Denver Nuggets superstar has won the last two MVPs and is the frontrunner for this season’s ‘Most Valuable Player’ honors as well. The last player to win 3 straight MVPs was Larry Bird and he won 2 titles in that span. 

Jokic is having an incredible year both from a statistical standpoint and from the eye-test as well. It’s clear that he’s one of the best players in the world. However, JJ Redick and Kendrick Perkins’ recent banter about whether he’s stat-padding has led to quite the debate online over Jokic’s MVP legitimacy. 

Perk would take it a step further and suggest that ‘Joker’ only won those MVPs and is in the discussion for yet another one is because of his race, citing Steve Nash and Dirk Nowitzki as examples.

Also read: “It’s Easy When You’re ‘Stat-Padding’!”: MVP Frontrunner Nikola Jokic Fires Back at Kendrick Perkins for His Remarks

Draymond Green on European players and double standards 

Despite the ‘Most Valuable Player’ award being a regular season award, postseason success from the previous years does sometimes play a factor in people’s perception of you as a candidate for the honor. Jokic, in his two years as the league’s MVP, has not made it past the second round. 

Draymond Green talks about how European players like Jokic and Luka Doncic don’t get held to the same standard as players from the US. He cites Stephen A Smith’s recent list of players who have the most pressure to win it all this season, claiming Jokic being down the list and Luka not being on it altogether doesn’t make sense.

Gilbert Arenas does make a good point on how this may actually be considered a knock on players from Europe as they aren’t getting their due diligence in terms of respect. It does however feel strange that a reigning two-time MVP doesn’t have more pressure to win a championship than he does currently, especially since his team is the number seed in a loaded Western Conference.

Should postseason success matter when it comes to winning an MVP? 

Zach Lowe once said that he felt it was difficult to give Giannis Antetokounmpo his 3rd straight MVP in 2021 after he had gotten bounced from the Playoffs before the Conference Finals the past two years. He would go on to win the Finals MVP and the NBA title that very same year. 

It should be noted that past successes and past MVPs should not factor into selecting a candidate for the honor. A season’s ‘Most Valuable Player’ must be chosen when putting him in a vacuum for that single 82-game stretch. 

However, it would be incredibly deflating to see the league’s first ‘3x straight MVP’ since Larry Bird get kicked out of the Playoffs yet again, if this were to happen this season as well. Jokic should ideally have a monumental amount of pressure to win it all, especially since he claims to not care about individual awards in the slightest and looks towards team success before anything else.

Also read: “Donovan Mitchell’s 71 Got Drug Tested But Not Luka Doncic’s 60?” Stephen Jackson Once Implied Racist Undertones Within The NBA