If there’s one thing that Kevin Garnett’s opponents would attest to, it’s that the Hall-of-Famer has a special way with words. KG was known in his playing days as being one of the game’s most colorful trash talkers, and he’s retained his unique eloquence even in retirement, which he showed when he and co-host and former teammate Paul Pierce spoke about the hotly contested NBA MVP race on the latest episode of the KG Certified podcast.
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Garnett and Pierce marveled at what Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic are doing, and even though other players such as Donovan Mitchell and Jayson Tatum are having special seasons, they said that the MVP award is a two-man race at this point.
KG brought up how SGA has tallied six 50-point games this season while leading the Thunder to by far the best record in the West, but he also brought up Jokic’s 30-20-20 game from last weekend and the incredible fact that he’s top-three in the league in points, rebounds, and assists. He then made a comparison that only someone like KG could have come up with.
“What these two are doing? This is almost like Obi-Wan and goddamn Vader going at it. This is straight-up Jedi. No disrespect to anybody else, nobody’s doing what these two are doing. It’s theirs to win.”
SGA and Jokic have been so superlative with their play that comparing their MVP race to an intergalactic battle between good and evil only seems fitting. Which one is the Jedi and which is the Sith Lord in this comparison? I guess that’s up to each individual fanbase.
The MVP race is far from over, but if you go by the numbers, there can only be one choice right now
This is to take nothing away from SGA, who is having a truly magical season for the 54-12 Thunder. But what Jokic is doing in somehow improving upon his already unprecedented numbers in his three previous MVP seasons just can’t be overlooked.
Jokic already lost one MVP to Joel Embiid due to voter fatigue, and according to Vegas, he’s likely to lose this one, too. That just isn’t right because he’s clearly been the best and most impactful player in the league.
As KG pointed out, Jokic doesn’t have an All-Star teammate like SGA does. He’s also not part of a team that has the top defensive rating in the league.
The Thunder have a net rating of 5.2 when SGA sits this season, a number that would still make them the fifth-best team in the league. It’s also the same rating the Nuggets have when Jokic plays, but when he doesn’t, Denver is a -3.3. That’s about equal to the 28-38 Bulls.
The eye test backs this up, as the Thunder are still a well-oiled machine when SGA isn’t on the court, while the Nuggets seem to be hanging on for dear life until their Serbian superstar is ready to check back in.
Shai is a clear First Team All-NBA player, and he has good odds of adding a Finals MVP award to his trophy case, but if we’re being real, the force is stronger in Jokic.
