Jokic, Curry and Embiid vie for MVP

Denver’s Nikola Jokic finished ninth in MVP voting last season. Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid and Golden State’s Stephen Curry didn’t get listed on a single ballot a year ago.

A year later, one of them will walk away with the NBA’s highest individual prize.

Jokic, Embiid and Curry were revealed Thursday night as the three top vote-getters for this year’s NBA MVP award, one that will be presented sometime during the playoffs. Curry is a two-time winner, Jokic’s best previous finish was fourth in 2019 and Embiid’s best MVP showing was seventh in 2019.

Jokic would be the first Denver player to win MVP. Embiid would be Philadelphia’s first winner since Allen Iverson in 2001 and Curry could become the ninth player in NBA history to win the trophy three times.

The 18 top-three vote-getters in six award categories — MVP, coach of the year, most improved player, rookie of the year, defensive player of the year and sixth man of the year — were announced Thursday.

The Utah Jazz, who finished with the NBA’s best record and home-court advantage throughout the playoffs, had a league-best four finalists. New York, back in the playoffs for the first time since 2013 as the No. 4 seed in the Eastern Conference, had three award finalists.

McMillan talks, money walks: Atlanta Hawks interim coach Nate McMillan was fined $25,000 (U.S.) by the NBA on Thursday after saying the league is rooting for the success of the New York Knicks and implying his team may struggle to get calls in the opening round of the playoffs.

The Hawks face the Knicks in a best-of-seven series that begins Sunday at Madison Square Garden.

McMillan called the Knicks one of the league’s glamour franchises.

“I’ve talked about that to the team a lot,” McMillan told reporters during a Zoom call Wednesday. “I’ve gone as far as saying, the league wants this, they need this. New York, this is a big market. It’s a big market for the league. New York has been out of the playoffs for a number of years. This is a team that our league, they want to see, they want to see New York in the playoffs.”

McMillan said he put his team through a gruelling practice where most of the officials’ calls were going against them, insinuating it will be that way in the opening round.