Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid lost the MVP race to Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, and sure enough, Sixers head coach Doc Rivers is not happy about it.
However, Rivers is not taking away anything from Jokic. In fact, he acknowledged that had Embiid and Jokic played the same number of games during the 2020-21 season, it would still have been a close race that could go either way.
“The deciding factor was games played. That helped, for sure. Even if both played a lot of games, it would’ve been a very difficult choice. I was obviously hoping for our guy. But you can’t take anything away from Jokic,” the Sixers coach said of the MVP race, per Mark Medina of USA Today.
Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic and Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry were the Top 3 Finalists for the award. However, there was really little doubt the Joker would win the highest individual honor for the season given his consistency and the level of play he has shown.
For what it's worth, Jokic played the full 72-game season and averaged a near triple-double of 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists. As for Embiid, he played in just 51 contests and missed 21, though he finished the season with 28.5 points, 10.6 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.4 blocks. The Cameroonian big man also led the Sixers to the top seed in the East.
Indeed, it would have been a different story had JoJo played more for the Sixers. As Doc Rivers suggested, though, Jokic did everything right to be able to win the coveted award.
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