Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic named NBA MVP for third time

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic’s amazing and unique story continues.

From the No. 41 pick in the 2014 NBA draft to one of the best basketball players in the world, the 6-foot-11 Serbian won his third regular-season MVP award in four years, beating out the Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Dallas Mavericks’ Luka Doncic.

Jokic joins an elite group of NBA players with three or more MVP awards: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Bill Russell (five), Michael Jordan (five), Wilt Chamberlain (four), LeBron James (four), Moses Malone (three), Larry Bird (three) and Magic Johnson (three).

Jokic received 79 first-place votes and 926 points. Gilgeous-Alexander was second (15; 640) and Doncic third (4; 566).

Jokic averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, 9.0 assists, 1.4 steals and almost one block per game and shot 58.3% from the field, 35.9% on 3-pointers and 81.7% on free throws and was No. 2 in tripledoubles with 25. He became just one of four players to have multiple seasons with 20-plus triple-doubles. He had a career-high 708 assists, passing Wilt Chamberlain for most assists by a center in one season, and led the league in PER (player efficiency rating), which measures a player’s contributions.

Doncic led the league in scoring with a career-high 33.9 points per game. Gilgeous-Alexander led the young Thunder to the No. 1 seed in the West and posted 30.1 points, 6.2 assists, 5.5 rebounds and 2.0 steals per game.