SERBIAN SUPREMACY

LOS ANGELES (AFP)

— Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was named National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player (MVP) for the third time in four seasons on Wednesday.

The 29-year-old Serbian star, who won the award in 2021 and 2022, finished runner-up in the voting in 2023 but had the satisfaction of leading the Nuggets to a first NBA title.

This season, he averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists in the regular season and beat out Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic of the Dallas Mavericks in final voting for the award.

In another season in which Jokic managed to make brilliance almost look routine, he became the second player, after Oscar Robertson, to record 2,000 points, 900 rebounds and 600 assists in a season.

His 25 triple-doubles and 68 double-doubles were both second in the league.

Jokic enters elite territory with a third MVP crown. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s six MVPs are the most ever. Bill Russell and Michael Jordan won five apiece and Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James four.

Jokic joins Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson as three-time winners after earning 79 first-place votes compared to 15 for Gilgeous-Alexander and four for Doncic.

“We’ve got to start with the teammates. Without them I cannot do anything,” Jokic said in the MVP announcement broadcast on TNT when asked to reflect on yet another MVP.

“Coaches, players, organization, medical staff, across time coaches, development coaches — it’s all one big circle that I cannot be wherever I am without them.”

Behind Jokic, the 57-25 Nuggets matched the franchise high for victories in a season — although they were tied for best record in the West with Oklahoma City and ended up with the second seed behind the young Thunder team.