There’s a difference between being snubbed…and inconvenience.
The fact thatLakers superstar Luka Doncicmissed out on being named anNBA MVP finalistfalls into that category. He was the inconvenience that voters didn’t quite know how to handle. Because hishistoric seasondoesn’t fit neatly into the box they’ve spent years building.
So instead, they chose to close the lid.
Was that the right decision? We can make the argument either way, but perhaps there’s a solution at the end of all this that can appease everyone.
Let’s start with the finalists:Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Victor Wembanyama, and Nikola Jokic.
All three are deserving. They all play on the No. 1, No, 2, and No. 3 seeds in the Western Conference. They are all the best players on their own team with elite level production on both ends of the floor. They check all the boxes.
But MVP isn’t supposed to be an exercise performed with a Sharpie and a checklist. There’s more gravitas to it. There’s the eye test. There’s the feeling in your gut when you know you’re seeing one of the best players in the world do what they do best. There’s how opposing defenses throw the kitchen sink at one player just to try and slow him down only to discover they can’t.
And nobody made us feel that way this season quite like Doncic.
He led the league in scoring at 33.5 points per game. More than 2.4 points more than SGA. Pair that with 8.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds and over 100 steals. Night after night, Doncic wasn’t just producing. He was dominating. No player in NBA history has ever averaged 30+ points, 7+ assists, and 7 + rebounds on a team that won 50 games or more and not won the MVP. Doncic will have now done it twice (2024).
And let’s not forget that he had to carry the Lakers on his back for most of the season.
Source: California Post – Breaking California News, Photos & Videos
