NBA Announces Finalists For 2022-23 MVP Award
On Friday night, the NBA announced the finalists for every major end-of-season award, including the three finalists for this season’s MVP.
This list really should not come as a surprise, as Nikola Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid have all had dominant, MVP-like seasons for their respective teams.
Starting with the late-season favorite, Joel Embiid ended up leading the league in scoring for the second consecutive season, averaging 33.1 points per game while shooting 54.8 percent from the floor.
Embiid led the Philadelphia 76ers to a 54-28 record and truly was the most captivating scorer in the league this season, as his 52-point, 13-rebound performance while shooting 20-25 from the floor against the Boston Celtics on April 4 was one of the best single performances we saw by any player this season, as Embiid accounted for over half of Philadelphia’s points in this game.
As for Nikola Jokic, the NBA’s back-to-back MVP is looking to make it three straight, possibly joining Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players in league history to win at least three straight MVP awards.
This season may have very well been Jokic’s best from a production and advanced statistics standpoint, especially since he led the Denver Nuggets to a 53-29 record, the best record in the Western Conference.
Giannis Antetokounmpo won two straight MVP awards in 2019 and 2020, but he has finished fourth and third in the voting the last two seasons.
There may not be a more “valuable” player in the league right now than Giannis, as he scores, rebounds, passes and defends for the Milwaukee Bucks, hence why they finished with the league’s best record at 58-24 overall.
Antetokounmpo truly is the greatest basketball player in the world right now, which is why there are some who believe he should be the league’s MVP every year!
This year’s MVP race truly did come down to the final few days and week of the regular season and as a result, we could see one of the closest votes we have ever seen in any awards race.
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