Will Race Cost Nikola Jokic The MVP Again This Season?
Nikola Jokic is the favorite to win the NBA MVP award this season. The odds shifted heavily in Jokic's favor this week following another injury to then-frontrunner Joel Embiid.
Embiid must play in 32 of the 76ers' last 37 games to meet the 65-game threshold required to qualify for MVP consideration. The oddsmakers do not believe Embiid will compete in those 65 games, as evidenced by his fall from 1st to 5th in the odds.
Here are the updated odds according to BetMGM:
- Nikola Jokic: -125
- Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: +300
- Luka Doncic: +500
- Giannis Antetokounmpo: +700
- Joel Embiid: +1500
- Jayson Tatum: +4000
- Kevin Durant: +10000
- Anthony Edwards: +10000
The award is Jokic's to lose, per the market. However, the market does not reflect the possibility and likelihood that race will again be a factor in his campaign.
Jokic was the heavy favorite to win the award last year at this time. He was until March. Then ESPN analyst Kendrick Perkins injected race into the MVP conversation.
Perkins, without any evidence, accused voters of favoring Jokic because he's white.
He said, despite only five white players ever winning the award, that there's a long history of pro-white racism instilled within MVP voting.
Perkins challenged white MVP voters to prove they were not racist. He challenged black voters to prove they were not sellouts.
Both groups accepted his challenge. The voters awarded Embiid with the MVP, despite Jokic having an objectively better season.
Will Perkins, who has an obvious issue with white basketball players, try to pressure voters to vote for a black candidate again? Perhaps.
But costing Jokic the MVP doesn't fall solely on his shoulders. Other media pundits are just as willing to spew the same racist vitriol toward Jokic.
The resistance to the rise of white European players is widespread -- from Perkins to Mark Jones, from Gilbert Arenas to Bomani Jones.
Jason Whitlock discussed how anti-white racism is a requirement for success and acceptance in the sports media, and how it has made white basketball players the primary target:
Whitlock references how Stephen A. Smith praised Embiid for scoring 70 points last week but dismissed Luka Doncic's 73-point effort days later as "disgraceful."
Smith chalked up Doncic's career night to bad defense, suggesting the black players on the court could have stopped him but chose not to play with full effort.
Stephen A. might be the odds-on favorite to cost Jokic the award this time around.
Ultimately, the race card is such an effective tool for the media. There are careers contingent upon telling viewers white supremacy still exists on the macro level. It doesn't.
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS - DECEMBER 12: Nikola Jokic #15 of the Denver Nuggets leaves the game after being ejected by referee Mousa Dagher #28 (not pictured) against the Chicago Bulls during the first half at the United Center on December 12, 2023 in Chicago, Illinois. (Photo by Michael Reaves/Getty Images)
The demand for racism in sports so vastly outstrips the supply that pundits have resorted to manufacturing examples of anti-black racism.
That's what Perkins did last year while discussing Jokic. It worked so well that it's hard to imagine one of the many grifters won't try to do it again, costing Jokic another MVP.
Note: No one used the race card the two seasons prior and Jokic won MVP honors.
Nikola Jokic is the best player in the NBA. He deserves to be the MVP frontrunner. He deserved to win the MVP award last season.
But he's white. And anti-white racism is running rampant among the sports media.
My advice: place your MVP bets on either Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Jayson Tatum, or Anthony Edwards.
Don't even consider wagering on Jokic or Luka.