After Shaq, Dwight Howard Drops Bold Claim on Nikola Jokic’s MVP Victory

Is Nikola Jokic the most deserving of his recent MVP achievement? After winning the MVP title in NBA season 2021-22 and season 2022-23, Jokic also earned himself the award this season. With this, he has become the only fourth player in NBA history after Moses Malone, Larry Bird, and Magic Johnson to achieve this feat. However, a certain section of the NBA community believes that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was more deserving of this honor this season. Two prominent names among these are Dwight Howard and Shaquille O’Neal.

Howard took to his official X account to express his thoughts about this recent decision. “First Joel now Shai ? Don’t get me wrong Joker was cooking this year but Shai was Killing !” read a now-deleted post by Dwight Howard. Similarly, in an interview with the Joker on TNT’s ‘Tip Off’, Shaquille O’Neal too made this claim with Jokic himself.

“… You know I love you. The best player in the league. I want to congratulate you, but I want you to hear from me first. I thought the SGA should have been the MVP,” Shaq said during the interview. However, he emphasized that he meant no disrespect and congratulated Nikola Jokic on his achievement.

Meanwhile, Dwight Howard, after deleting his previous post on Jokic, again took to ‘X’ and explained the reason behind his action. “I saw that video of Superman and I had to delete my tweets because I can’t be like that ! I’m proud of Jokić! Im just saying now you gotta say he top 5 all time ! 3 MVPs?” read the post by the former Magic star. However, he mentioned Shai had his vote for the MVP contender and he believes the Oklahoma City Thunder star will be back next year.

Why Nikola Jokic over Shai Gilgeous-Alexander?

It is worth mentioning that SGA had the second-highest points and third-highest points per game this season. Notably, he averaged 30.1 points per game this season, which is comparatively higher than Jokic’s  26.4 ppg. However, the Joker too was among the top 5 players in highest points and the top 10 players in the highest ppg. But the Joker had a far better well-rounded stat line than Shai. He averaged 12.4 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game as compared to Shai’s 5.5 rebounds, and 6.2 assists per game.

Notably, Jokic has also been second on the list of both the highest triple-double scorers and the double-double scorers. Meanwhile, SGA is not even among the top 10 players on the list. Similarly, in most of the departments like rebounds, assists, and total three-pointers, the Nuggets star has consistently been among top-5 and top-3 players. However, the OKC star is not even in the top 10 among these categories.

Meanwhile, in categories like steals and free throws where Shai has secured spots, Jokic has also managed to be either in top-5 or top-10 players. So, based on an overall comparison, it is visible that Nikola Jokic had a better well-rounded season than Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. So it makes sense that he was awarded the MVP title consecutively for the third season.