Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has won the league’s top award.
Jokic beat out Stephen Curry and Joel Embiid on Tuesday afternoon to take home the 2020-21 MVP award, according to The Athletics Shams Charania.
Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has won the 2020-21 NBA MVP award, sources tell @TheAthletic@Stadium.
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) June 8, 2021
Jokic has averaged 26.4 points and 10.8 rebounds per game this season, both career-highs, while leading the Nuggets to the third seed in the Western Conference playoffs.
The 26-year-old is wrapping up his sixth season with Denver, which selected him with the No. 41 overall pick in 2014. Jokic is now the lowest draft pick in NBA history to take home that award.
Jokic was actually drafted during a Taco Bell commercial during the draft that year, and then didn't make the trek over from Serbia until 2015.
Never forget Nikola Jokic got drafted during a Taco Bell commercial
Congrats on MVP pic.twitter.com/d6gsRBqR1f
— 𝙈𝙖𝙩𝙩¹³🎡 (@thehurryupnba) June 8, 2021
Jokic played in all 72 games for Denver this season, too, making him the first MVP to play in every single game since Kobe Bryant won in 2008.
Jokic was one of three finalists named for the award, alongside Curry and Embiid. Curry won the league scoring title this season while averaging 32 points per game and averaging a career-high 5.3 made 3-pointers per contest with the Golden State Warriors. Embiid put up a career-best 28.5 points and 10.6 rebounds with the Philadelphia 76ers.
The Nuggets are currently in the middle of their second-round playoff series with the Phoenix Suns. Denver lost Game 1 on Monday night by 17 points, though Jokic dropped 22 points and nine rebounds. He's averaged better than 31 points and 10 rebounds throughout the postseason so far.
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