It’s been a week since the official MVP announcement for the season was made as Nikola Jokic was awarded the third MVP title of his career. The biggest pushback on that decision came from the fans of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who felt that the OKC star deserved the award after carrying an inexperienced Thunder side to the best seed in the West. Joining the likes of Shaquille O’Neal, Real Madrid superstar Vinicius Jr. recently voiced his opinion on the NBA MVP title, seemingly siding with the 25-year-old OKC guard.
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Even though Shai lost the MVP title to the Joker, he has a bigger task in his hand at the moment as his team is pitted against the Dallas Mavericks in the Conference Semifinals. In Game 4 at American Airlines Center, the young guard showed why he was such a strong contender for this season’s MVP, dropping 34 points, eight rebounds, and five assists to level the series 2-2.
Sharing a clip of Shai’s highlights from Game 4 on X, Vini wrote in the caption, “MVP .” It seems like the Brazilian still believes that SGA is the MVP of the league. The two are great friends as well and Vinicius is often seen courtside during OKC games.
MVP 🤍 https://t.co/S9sFt6mRX9
— Vini Jr. (@vinijr) May 15, 2024
Before the official voting results were published, many thought that the race is a close one. However, Jokic received 926 points with 79 people putting him in the first place. Shai came second on the list with 640 points and only 15 voters putting him in the number one spot.
Shaq was very upset with the result and even let Jokic know his thoughts about the outcome during the Serbian Center’s interview on TNT. This also prompted a tussle between Shannon Sharpe and Shaq.
The complete voting results for the 2023-24 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player. pic.twitter.com/Dqbd7MaRjC
— NBA Communications (@NBAPR) May 8, 2024
Interestingly, Luka Doncic was also an MVP contender in the race, who finished third with 566 points. Vini has a special Real Madrid connection with him. Still, the 23-year-old didn’t let his personal connections affect his opinion on the game.
Vinicius Jr. is a fan of the game
Even though he has close, personal relationships with Shai and Luka, Vinicius Jr. is a fan of the game first. The Real Madrid superstar has shown up to support Shai on several occasions. The last time he was spotted at an OKC game was in December last year. After the game, he was seen hugging the 25-year-old and having a conversation with him courtside.
Vini has grown up idolizing a long list of elite athletes and some of them are NBA greats like LeBron James. On Christmas last year, Vinicius came to watch a Lakers game and had a special gift for his idol, LBJ. He gifted his signed Brazilian shirt with a message, “To my idol, King James. The best” and posed for pictures with the Lakers superstar.
