‘No Trophy Envy For the Joker’
Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets led his team to the first NBA championship (as well as a NBA Finals MVP award) in its 47 year history.
Through the course of the 2022-23 season, Jokic rode waves of controversy while putting up some of the best statistics of his career and leading his team to the top of the Western Conference. On the East Coast, Joel Embiid had a strong season, leading the league in points and propelling the Philadelphia 76ers to a nearly identical record as Denver and third place in the Eastern Conference.
Embiid made no secret about his desire to win the MVP trophy, and plenty of basketball analysts and personalities weren’t shy to jump into the fray with crazy opinions about who was most deserving of the award. Meanwhile, Jokic made it very clear it he didn’t care much about winning the award. He had his eyes firmly set on the playoffs and winning a championship. After winning consecutive MVP awards in previous seasons, it’s easy to see why Jokic was aiming for something higher.
Joker is also simply built differently than most pro basketball players, much less pro athletes in any sport. The consummate team player and leader, he constantly deflects compliments and attention. Ultimately it was this approach that contributed to a sublime team effort for the Nuggets in their 16-4 playoff run (2nd best in the past 24 years).
Did Embiid and Philadelphia focus too much on chasing the MVP award at the expense of the larger prize? Hard to tell, but the 76ers under-performed in the playoffs, losing in the second round 4-2 to the Boston Celtics. Meanwhile, the Nuggets rested players prior to the playoffs (including Jokic in the midst of the MVP “race”) which cost them some games, but had them primed for their epic playoff performance.
At the end of the day, Embiid got his trophy, but Jokic took home the most important hardware of them all.
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