We are going to present to you two statements from Michael Malone on this year’s two-man NBA MVP race between Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokić.
Here is one from March, when Malone was still the head coach of the Nuggets, via The Athletic:
“Obviously, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he’s deserving of that,” Malone said, referencing Jokić’s fiercest competition for the accolade, the Thunder guard who leads the NBA in scoring. “My thing is this: If you didn’t know that Nikola won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper … the guy that was averaging a triple-double, the guy that is top-three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one has ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10. And if you don’t think so, I think you guys are all bulls—ting.”
And here is Malone on Tuesday, when he was analyzing the Western Conference finals on the court for ESPN:
“Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed why he’s the MVP. He took over in the second half. Did so in a very efficient manner and put the team on his back when they needed him to do so.”
The changes that two months and a surprise firing can make.
Malone was saying that after another postseason masterpiece from Gilgeous-Alexander, who opened OKC’s series against the Minnesota Timberwolves with 31 points, 9 assists, 5 rebounds and 3 steals in a 114-88 win.
Of course, Malone wouldn’t be the only person who’s moved on from an MVP debate that raged throughout the final months of the regular season but ended with Gilgeous-Alexander widely expected to be named the winner after the season. Gilgeous-Alexander was an overwhelming -3000 favorite at BetMGM to win the award before the playoffs began.
Whichever side you’re on in the debate, it’s not an insult to Jokić for Malone to say Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP when that’s been treated like a foregone conclusion throughout the postseason. Jokić himself didn’t seem too interested in the discourse either when the Nuggets faced the Thunder last round.
The Nuggets fired Malone with only three games left in the regular season, the latest in-season firing in NBA history. Despite being forced to make the last-minute change to interim coach David Adelman, the Nuggets dispatched the Los Angeles Clippers in the first round, then pushed the Thunder to seven games before losing to the owners of the best record in the NBA at 68-14.
