Who would Clippers players vote for MVP?
The peers of Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic weighed in anonymously.
INGLEWOOD, Calif. -- The debate has grown contentious.
Online, you have two warring fan bases—the Oklahoma City Thunder and the Denver Nuggets. Each one is pulling for its respective candidate.
It’ll come down to either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander or Nikola Jokic.
Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City’s sensational guard, is averaging a league-leading 32.6 points per game on a team that stands head and shoulders above the rest of the league in both wins (64) and Net Rating (+12.3). Jokic, Denver’s dynastic big man who has reshaped the all-time debate with his three MVP trophies and Finals MVP triumph, is averaging a spellbinding 30.0 points, 12.8 rebounds, and 10.2 assists. That's right—a 30-point triple-double.
The discourse around the MVP race has led some to discredit one player in favor of the other, oftentimes ending in heated discussions around free throws, fouls, wins, and on-off rating.
So, yours truly figured the best way to know who the Most Valuable Player was for this season is to go straight to the best source possible: their peers.
In doing so, Russo Writes spoke with 16 of the LA Clippers’ 18 players to figure out how they’d vote. All players were granted anonymity in the polling.
To clarify: the only question asked was, “Who would you vote for league MVP this season?”
It turns out, the arguments that began online between opposing fan bases spilled into the locker room of one of the Western Conference’s best teams.
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One of the 16 players polled opted to abstain from the voting process, citing that it was even between both Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, and saying that they were unable to pick between them.
“It should be unanimous for Jokic,” another player told Russo Writes. “But they’ll give it to Shai.”
However, another player said it should be unanimous in favor of Gilgeous-Alexander.
A trio of players had a spirited discussion about the way each had voted, with one citing the value of winning and the success of Gilgeous-Alexander’s team being the ultimate goal of basketball. The pushback came in the form of Jokic’s unparalleled numbers and how much he’s being asked to do for a Nuggets team that cannot survive without him on the floor.
One player polled cited how awful Denver has been with Jokic on the bench, even mentioning the Nuggets’ Net Rating (-8.6) and how, with it, they’d be a “bottom-six team in the league” without the Serbian center.
“Best player, best team,” another player said, opting to vote for Gilgeous-Alexander. “Reward winning.”
Another player said they “fear Shai more” than Jokic, also saying the Oklahoma City superstar is “harder to guard”.
But then a teammate popped up to say Denver’s big man “does more than Shai”, however, also stating that Gilgeous-Alexander is “the best scorer.”
When one player revealed their vote to Russo Writes, a pair of teammates chimed in with saying they made the correct vote. Another one blurted out, “Oh, come on!”
Even players who have logged considerable time against these two stellar candidates couldn’t easily decide.
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One player polled stated that they believe “voter fatigue” will be what ends up allowing Gilgeous-Alexander to topple Jokic in the award voting.
Perhaps that’s true.
Jokic has already won three MVP awards. Only five players in history—Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (6), Michael Jordan and Bill Russell (5), and Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James (4)—have won more.
But how do you discount the season he’s having on a team that’s on pace to win 49 games?
One person who voted for Jokic in the poll did say that if the Nuggets fell into the play-in, which they are perilously close to at the time of this writing, then the center shouldn’t win.
In the end, when the final margin was tallied, of the 15 players who submitted actual votes, it was Denver’s Nikola Jokic who edged out Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, nine to six.
Considering how the voting will likely play out in the coming weeks, perhaps this is a bit of a shock.
Gilgeous-Alexander is a massive favorite according to betting lines, and the latest ESPN straw poll had the guard quite some distance ahead of Jokic.
But that doesn’t mean people won’t still debate this until they’re blue in the face.
That goes for even their contemporaries in at least one locker room within the league.
