“Nikola Jokic received 33 more 1st place votes than Joel Embiid for MVP”: How the Nuggets superstar blew both Giannis and Embiid out for MVP frontrunner

Nikola Jokic leads the pack by a mile as he received 33 more first place votes for the 2022 MVP than second place, Joel Embiid. 

Joel Embiid seemed like the clear frontrunner for MVP last season but due to him sustaining an unfortunate injury, he was forced to be sidelined. Him missing a sufficient amount of time led to Nikola Jokic swooping in and snagging 2021 MVP honors. Now, with them having played relatively the same number of games, Jokic still leads the pack. 

With Steph Curry missing time to injury and also having an array of slumps this season and Kevin Durant missing a lot of time due to an MCL sprain, it’s become obvious that Nikola Jokic and Joel Embiid are the two MVP frontrunners in 2022 as well.

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Giannis trails as a distant 3rd but everybody knows that it’ll come down to the wire between the Nuggets and Sixers superstars. The is perhaps one of the harder MVP races in recent memory. What one may lack, the other makes up for it. Looking at the stats is almost pointless as both post beyond incredible statistics across the board. 

Nikola Jokic edges out Joel Embiid and Giannis in the final straw poll. 

With less than two weeks left for the regular season to wrap up, the final straw poll for 2022 MVP was recently conducted. The results showed that Nikola Jokic gained well over 50% of the first place votes. He received 62 to be exact with Joel Embiid behind by 33 with 29 of his own first place votes.

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Giannis was the only other player in the NBA to receive a first place vote as he got 9 of them, more expected in all honesty. What many fail to realize that the ‘record argument’ doesn’t exactly apply here. 

While the Denver Nuggets may be the 6th seed in the Western Conference, they are only one game back in the win column from the 2nd seeded Philadelphia 76ers out East. Safe to say that this season’s MVP is going to come down to personal preference more so than most people thought it would.