The 2021-22 MVP race has been a thrilling one, with a number of standout candidates putting forth monster performances throughout the season. Brooklyn Nets star Kevin Durant was in line to be a top candidate, only for a knee injury to knock him out of the race, and now the consensus is that Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Giannis Antetokounmpo will be the finalists.

While the MVP race itself has been awesome, the MVP debate rages on in exhausting fashion. There has been some loud outcry from Embiid and Philadelphia 76ers fans about the possibility of Jokic winning for a second straight season, with some pointing to a media conspiracy and an obsession with analytics as reasons why Joker could win again.

Durant addressed the MVP debate on Tuesday ahead of the Nets' play-in game against the Cleveland Cavaliers. KD is going with Embiid as his MVP, and while he doesn't explicitly highlight a conspiracy of any kind, he does note that he thinks the media narrative favors Jokic and even Giannis:

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It's certainly true that Jokic and Giannis are well-liked, which could be playing a role here, but it's not like Embiid is disliked by the media. He does like to play the villain sometimes but is always very candid with the media and should honestly be appreciated by them. There could be some dislike for the Sixers team as a whole, especially after getting James Harden from the Nets, and maybe this is actually impacting the narrative against Embiid.

But the bottom line in this MVP race is that there are three deserving candidates with a legitimate argument to win. Voters have their preferences, and perhaps Jokic and Giannis get the benefit of the doubt, but there's no grand conspiracy here. Somebody has to win and somebody has to come in second and third, and there's no shame in that. We'll see how the voting plays out.