National Basketball Association

Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets named 2021 NBA MVP; NBA world reacts

Updated Jun. 8, 2021 7:59 p.m. ET

There is a new king of the hill in the NBA.

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic has been named the 2021 NBA MVP, ending the reign of Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo, who won the award in each of the last two seasons. Jokic edged out Philadelphia's Joel Embiid for the award, while Golden State's Stephen Curry finished third and Antetokounmpo was fourth.

Jokic becomes the first center to win the award since Shaquille O'Neal in 2000, and he's also the first member of the Nuggets to win it. On top of that, Jokic (Serbia) became the sixth international player to win the award, joining Hakeem Olajuwon (Nigeria), Tim Duncan (Virgin Islands), Steve Nash (Canada), Dirk Nowitzki (Germany) and Antetokounmpo (Greece).

In fact, as further evidence of basketball's rise on the world stage, this is now the second time an international player has won the MVP award in three straight seasons, the other time coming in 2005-2007, when Nash won it twice and Nowitzki once.

Jokic's path to NBA superstardom and history was an unexpected one. He was the 41st pick in the 2014 draft – making him the lowest drafted player to become MVP – and averaged just 10 PPG as a rookie when he spent 55 of 82 games coming off the bench.

He also becomes the first MVP winner to play in every regular-season game since Kobe Bryant in 2007-2008. Interestingly, it was Bryant who two years ago challenged Jokic to become MVP through his #MambaMentality Challenge.

Over the course of the last three seasons, Jokic has taken on that challenge with gusto, first developing into a perennial All-Star before growing into one of the most dominant players in the NBA.

This season, he averaged career-highs in points (26.4), rebounds (10.8), assists (8.3), field goal percentage (56.6%), and free throw percentage (86.8%), while leading the Nuggets to the Western Conference's No. 3 postseason seed.

They are currently battling the 2-seed Phoenix Suns in the Western Conference semifinals.

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With the NBA's premier award being handed out, there was plenty of reaction on social media to the news.

Here are the top tweets about Jokic's MVP win.

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