For the third time, Nikola Jokic has been named the NBA’s MVP. Jokic won the award on Wednesday night, and the Inside the NBA team both announced he was the winner and got to speak to him before the New York Knicks and the Indiana Pacers played in Game 2 of their series.
In a bit of a surprise, Shaquille O’Neal really did not like that Jokic won the award this time around. Shaq, who is a well-documented fan of Jokic, went on a lengthy rant about why he thought the award deserved to go to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — the Oklahoma City Thunder star came in second, and received the second-most first-place votes this year.
It was interesting to see that Shaq was this passionate about it, and Ernie Johnson did a good job asking questions that kept leading him down this road. And in a fun twist, Jokic actually went onto TNT after all of this for an interview, and Shaq made it a point to tell him that he believed Gilgeous-Alexander should have won over him.
Shaq did make it clear that he loves Jokic and views him as “the vice president of the big man alliance,” which is quite the honor to bestow on his fellow big man.