On NBA.com today there is a headline touting a matchup between two of the league’s premier big men, Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets and Anthony Davis of the Los Angeles Lakers. The headline considers both players to have their feet somewhere on a rung of the so-called “MVP Ladder.”
Specifically the headline reads: “Kia MVP Ladder: Jokic, Davis Tonight in MVP Clash.” It’s an insult to Jokic — categorically speaking. Because Jokic is in the category, and Davis is not.
Yes, between the two players, Jokic and Davis hold two Kia NBA MVP Awards. But here’s the thing: Jokic has both of them. In fact, he’s the NBA’s reigning MVP, back-to-back.
No one besides Jokic has won the trophy since 2020, nearly three years ago, when Giannis Antetokounmpo took home second of his two straight NBA MVP Awards.
Anthony Davis’s MVP Awards are much easier to keep track of — he doesn’t have any. (Davis did win the MVP of the All-Star Game in 2017, an award that honors prowess in 48 minutes of desultory showboat hoops, rather than 82 games of effort.)
However terrific Davis has been at times on the basketball court, he has never been an NBA MVP. That’s not a judgement, only a fact.
(Note: even when Davis and the Lakers won the NBA championship in 2020, Davis’s teammate LeBron James was named NBA Finals MVP, so it stands to reason Davis wasn’t even the MVP of his team.)
Another more recent factor also makes the headline insulting to Jokic: The NBA MVP is commonly awarded to a player leading a team that’s a contender, or at least highly successful.
It’s worth considering that on the day of the headline the Lakers (11-16) occupy 12th place in the Western Conference. They face a Nuggets team (17-10) that is alone in third place.
Davis has been scoring in bunches for the sub-.500 Lakers lately — and with the big media market in LA, he draws plenty of attention whenever he puts up notable numbers.
But the reigning MVP will enter the game also having been filling it, blitzing the Wizards for 43 points and 14 rebounds in his last outing, after which he received the latest of his MVP trophies in the locker room. The trophy is now named for Michael Jordan, a five-time league MVP. That’s three more than Jokic, but five more than Davis. If you’re counting.
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