It has just been confirmed that Denver Nuggets superstar Nikola Jokic is the 2020-21 NBA Most Valuable Player. Jokic has long been the front-runner for the MVP title, so this did not come as a surprise. However, Jokic came out with a rather shocking admission as soon as the word became official.
According to Jokic, he didn't even imagine even playing in the NBA — even more so winning the league's best player award:
“To be honest, I didn’t even think I would be in the NBA,“ Jokic said, via Arnie Stapleton of the Los Angeles Times. “My goal when I started to play basketball back home, it was playing in Euroleague because that was kind of the closest top league to my country.“
Jokic has clearly achieved much more than what he initially set out to when he started playing basketball. This speaks volumes of the amazing journey he's had from being an overweight pre-teen to becoming one of the best basketball players on the planet.
Nevertheless, despite bagging this ultimate accolade, Jokic remains as humble as ever:
“The Denver Nuggets drafted me, it was an opportunity for me to become an NBA player,“ Jokic said. “I think I did a good job of using that opportunity.“
The Nuggets big man ended up running away with the MVP title, garnering 91 out of 101 first-place votes. As it turns out, the race wasn't actually as close as most had earlier predicted.
Ever the team-first talisman, Jokic quickly showed his appreciation to his teammates as soon as he learned about the MVP win:
“I couldn’t win it without you guys,” Jokic told his teammates when the word came.
Based on the trajectory of Nikola Jokic's career, it would not be surprising if he ends up dominating the league for years to come. Could this be the first of multiple MVP titles for the Nuggets star?
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