Golden State Warriors star Draymond Green was on his self-titled show and podcast where he spoke to Philadelphia 76ers head coach Nick Nurse about the topic of how voting happens for the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award. Green would take issue with how the award is decided as journalists from across the nation decide who is truly the league's MVP as he questions if each person voting watches every game.
“I think the one complaint that I would have about it is it's hard to get a hundred, like to think that all hundred of these people are watching all of these games right now,” Green said. “By the way maybe if flips every year because there should be some laws in place to like hey we need to have proof, like maybe you're sending in notes after the game or something, like we need to have proof that you've been watching these games.”
Warriors star offers a possible solution to MVP voting
The veteran forward would double down on his statements and try to have his own solution where there could be a “25 person committee” which is different every year dedicated to watch games and decide who the MVP is that season. He would double down on his complaint saying that there is “no way” that journalists who are on the East Coast are watching Warriors games since those on the West Coast start later.
“And so maybe it's like a 25 person committee where you know you're voting on the awards and they got that strenuous job this year and then someone else take on, another 25 take on that strenuous job next year,” Green said. “But I think like there's no way, come on, there's no way a lot of these journalists that are on the East Coast are watching us play on the West Coast when our game started at 7:30 pm. and it's 10:30 and they're watching the game the whole way through.”
A look at the NBA MVP situation this past season
This past season that just ended with the Boston Celtics hoisting up their 18th championship in franchise history, had their MVP decided in Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jovic. This is the Serbian born player's third time obtaining the honors as he did the past two times in 2021 and 2022 as this season, he averaged 26.4 points, 12,4 rebounds, and 9.0 assists per game while shooting 58.3 percent from the field.
After Jokic was the emergence of Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander who on top of a great statistical season, led the young team to the No. 1 seed despite losing to the Dallas Mavericks in the second round of the NBA Playoffs. Speaking of the Mavericks, their featured star in Luka Doncic was third in league MVP voting.
However, when looking in what the discrepancy was like between Jokic and Gilgeous-Alexander, it was not that close as the former had 79 first place votes while the latter had 15. The closest race ended up being second place or the runner-up to Jokic which the Oklahoma City star had 40 of those votes while Doncic had 36 per NBA.
Green thought MVP race should have been closer
This was not the first time the Warriors star has questioned the decision of the voters for the NBA MVP award as he spoke about Jokic winning and if it was deserved. To set his record straight, there is no denying his greatness as a player, but Green would argue that it should have been closer between him and Gilgeous-Alexander who he believed ended the season on a higher note as he said on his aforementioned self-titled show.
“Jokic won his third MVP in his fourth season, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was the runner-up,” Green said. “Was it the right decision? Jokic is undeniably great, but the way Shai finished the season, particularly with the race for the number one seed, was impressive. It seemed to matter when Jokic secured the top seed, but not as much when Shai did. While I’m not saying Shai should have won, I believe the voting should have been closer. Many voters make up their minds too early, which is difficult to change. Shai was a victim of this bias, but he’s been steadily improving and will continue to grow. Congratulations to Jokic—what he does to opposing defenses is extraordinary and unprecedented. He fully deserves the recognition.”
At any rate, Green will look to focus on himself on the court as the Warriors look to improve after last season where they were eliminated by the Sacramento Kings in the play-in tournament. In the disappointing year, Golden State had a 46-36 record which put them at the tenth seed.
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