Nikola Jokic is arguably already the greatest player in Denver Nuggets history.
But as good and impactful as he’s been over the past five years or so, some still refuse to give him his flowers as one of the best players in the league.
That’s why Mark Jackson’s MVP ballot raised so much controversy around the league, as he completely left him out of his top-5, per NBACentral.
Mark Jackson says he made a mistake by leaving Nikola Jokic off of his MVP ballot
“You can tell I put one center, two forwards, and two guards, so I wasn’t even thinking. I apologize to the Denver Nuggets. I apologize to Nikola Jokić, who is not only in the MVP discussion and… pic.twitter.com/Vwd8NiqMY4
— NBACentral (@TheNBACentral) May 12, 2023
Notably, the former NBA player made sure to apologize to Jokic, the Nuggets, and the fans for making that mistake, citing that he “wasn’t even thinking” and chose one center, two guards, and two forwards.
Jackson added that he would own that mistake and won’t complain if they took away his voting rights in the future.
Charles Barkley called Jackson an idiot and a fool for not having Jokic as a top-5 MVP candidate, although he didn’t know he was talking about Jackson.
Jokic’s MVP case has been a subject of debate for years now.
Some believe the advanced stats shouldn’t be above the eye test, while others believe he hadn’t done enough in the playoffs to be considered among the best players in the league.
He was the frontrunner to win the award until the final stretch of the season, and he did have better numbers than Joel Embiid in most regular and advanced stats.
Even so, none of that matters now.
Jokic and the Nuggets couldn’t care less about MVP narratives right now; the NBA Finals are too close to focus on anything else.
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