Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been named this year’s NBA MVP award, per The Athletic’s Shams Charania. This marks the first time he has won the award.
Jokic, 26, is also the first Nuggets player to win the award in what was a career year.
The center averaged 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 8.3 assists while shooting 56.6% from the floor for Denver this year and led his team in all four categories. He didn’t miss a single game, appearing in all 72 regular season contests.
Jokic is originally from Serbia and played professionally there before he was selected with the 41st pick in the 2014 draft. He’s also the lowest draft pick in NBA history to win the award.
Philadelphia center Joel Embiid and Golden State’s Stephen Curry were also finalists for the award. But Embiid’s inability to stay healthy cost him to miss 21 games and Curry’s team failed to make the playoffs—making Jokic’s case all the more strong.
He led the Nuggets to the No. 3 seed at 47–25, then a 4–2 series win over the Trail Blazers in the first round of the playoffs but now finds himself down 0–1 to the Suns. The Serbian center will look to get his team on the board Wednesday at 9:30 p.m. ET on TNT.
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