Chris Broussard ranks Nikola Jokic's MVP-like season above Steve Nash, Dirk Nowitzki
This season's NBA MVP race has been unlike any in recent memory.
With a condensed, 72-game schedule and several contenders for the award – such as Joel Embiid, LeBron James, Kevin Durant and James Harden – missing extended periods of time, it could be that the 2021 MVP award will be won by simply being the last man standing.
While that might be the case, the last man standing in this instance also might be the most deserving recipient.
Nikola Jokic wasn't the sexy pick heading into the season or the favorite through the first half of it. It appeared Embiid and James were in a two-horse race, but Jokic's health outlasted them both while he simultaneously had a season for the ages.
The Denver Nuggets' superstar center took his game to new heights, averaging career highs in points (26.4), rebounds (10.8) and assists (8.3), and he led his team in steals (1.3).
Jokic is the first player to lead his team in points, rebounds, assists and steals (on a per-game basis) since both Russell Westbrook and Giannis Antetokounmpo did so in 2016-17.
Westbrook went on to win the MVP award that season.
Jokic's performance also came in the midst of the Nuggets' starting point guard and second-leading scorer, Jamal Murray, tearing his ACL and missing the last two months of the season.
All Jokic did in Murray's absence was carry his team to third in the Western Conference standings, securing a top-three finish in the West for the third consecutive season.
But even with a season that left no questions about his individual greatness or ability to lead through adversity unanswered, there are skeptics about Jokic's worthiness of winning MVP and where he ranks amongst past winners.
One of those skeptics is FOX Sports' Nick Wright, who doesn't believe Jokic's impending MVP award will be validated unless he secures a first-round series win against the Portland Trail Blazers, as he detailed on "First Things First."
"I understand that they don't have Jamal Murray, but even without Murray, the supporting casts to me – Dame [Lillard] and Jokic, take them out – are very similar with the way that Michael Porter Jr. is playing."
This comes just two weeks after Wright proclaimed that if Jokic were to win the award, he would be the worst MVP winner since Dave Cowens in 1973.
But while Wright believes Jokic's MVP credibility is on shaky ground, Chris Broussard is on the opposite end of the spectrum.
He argues Jokic is actually better than former two-time MVP Steve Nash and one-time winner Dirk Nowitzki.
When comparing Jokic's numbers to those of Nowitzki's 2006-07 MVP season, Jokic averages more points, rebounds and assists. When compared to Nash's back-to-back wins in 2005 and '06, Jokic averages more points and rebounds.
In 2005, Nash led his team to the best record in the NBA (62-20), but the next season, the Suns finished third in the West (54-28). In 2007, Nowitzki's Mavs finished 67-15, the top record in the league.
Neither Nash nor Nowitzki reached the NBA Finals in their MVP campaigns, with Nowitzki infamously losing to the Golden State Warriors as the No. 1 seed in the first round of the Western Conference playoffs.
Jokic has taken his game to a new level this season, one that has him squarely in the conversation about some of the greatest players to ever play in the NBA.
Whether he belongs in that conversation could be determined this postseason, as Wright said. If he can carry Denver to, or near, the top of the mountain, the Denver legend will only see his historical significance gain steam.
And that's no joke.
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