“Shai Got Robbed”: Nikola Jokic Winning 3rd MVP Leads to Heated Argument Between Rashad McCants and Former Nuggets Player

The official word came in about Nikola Jokic winning his third MVP title. What could have been a moment of celebration, quickly turned into a raging debate where a large majority isn’t in favor of the decision. Shaquille O’Neal and Skip Bayless have already expressed their views on the Joker’s win and now, the Gil’s Arena’s panel has joined the discussion with divided opinions.

This was Jokic’s third MVP title in the last four years. When Rashad McCants was asked about his opinion on him winning the title again, he said, “Them Euro boys are doing what they’re supposed to do.”

He added that Jokic has been dominant again this season and deserves to be awarded for that. In addition to that, he also trashed the narrative that Shai deserved it just because ‘he might never have another chance’.

Kenyon Martin, on the other hand, sees this decision a little differently. He said, “I think they got it wrong. Young fella led a bunch of young guys, in a place where…no one expected them to be.”

As per Martin, Shai should’ve been given that honor because he had a tougher task to execute with very little help from his team. The majority opinion on the podcast was that “Shai got robbed” as he deserved it more than Jokic.

The crew also delved into the fact that the NBA got it wrong on multiple occasions. They referred to Steve Nash’s two MVP trophies, which never really made sense to anyone. Some of them believed that Shai might never have another season like this one which will make it tougher for him to climb so high up on the MVP chart.

Boston was another topic of discussion as far as the best team in the league is concerned. However, no one rooted for the best player on the best team, Jayson Tatum, as much as they did for a ‘generational’ squad like the OKC. In the end, it’s all a matter of speculation because we’ve seen Joker having 4-5 MVP-worthy seasons in a row.

If Shai is a player of the same caliber as the Nuggets star, it won’t be impossible for him to repeat what he did this year, or maybe even make it better. After all the opinions, the fact is that Jokic was voted as the superior player with a big margin.

Nikola Jokic had a major lead over his competitors

It’s one thing to prefer someone else’s performance over the one who just won the MVP title, but to say that he didn’t deserve it, is a reach. This year we did have a very strong competition between three players, Jokic, Shai, and Luka Doncic. However, when the final decision came, the Joker had an unsurmountable lead over the other two.

People rooting for Shai have a valid take because he averaged 30.1 points, 5.5 rebounds, 6.2 assists, and two steals, per game while shooting 53.5% from the field and 35.3% from the three-point line.

However, Joker’s overall numbers were slightly better with 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 9.0 assists, and 1.4 steals, per game. He also had a better shooting percentage than Shai with 58.3% from the field and 35.9% from the three-point line.

When the final results came in, 79 media members gave Jokic the number one spot whereas only 15 gave it to Shai. While there can be several opinions on this, Jokic is the MVP of the 2023-24 season. While SGA’s case is strong as he led a young squad to the top of a stacked Western Conference, numbers favor the Joker.