It’s hard to tell whether Paul Pierce wanted to dodge making a tough choice, or if he really thinks the NBA can do what he suggested Monday on FS1’s Speak.
Pierce laid out an interesting vision for the NBA MVP Award this season: He thinks Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokić should share the honor.
The Speak cast debated whether SGA should be the clear favorite to win the award. Oddsmakers have him as the clear front-runner over Jokić.
“I’m so conflicted on this right now,” Pierce said. “On one end, you’ve gotta give credit to SGA for leading this team to 60 wins (64 currently), best record in the league, leading the league in scoring. I think the last time we saw somebody lead the league in scoring and have the best record, I think LeBron [James] did it, a lot of years back. … That’s hard.”
Gilgeous-Alexander has fueled the Oklahoma City Thunder to a historic season, and MVP voters traditionally award players for team performance. Yet Jokić is putting up ridiculous numbers (30 points, 12.8 rebounds, 10.2 assists per game), and the Denver Nuggets are still battling for the No. 3 seed in the Western Conference.
“Then you look on the other side, this is historic, [Jokić] is top three in three major statistical categories,” Pierce said. “I’ve never seen that in all my years of watching basketball … matter of fact, it’s never happened. So how do you tell a guy who’s doing this much that he’s not the MVP?
“I put in a bid that … they should come up with a co-MVP.”
“Can they do it?” Keyshawn Johnson asked.
“Man, they can do whatever they want,” Pierce replied. “We had a co-Rookie of the Year before.”
The only way there can be co-MVPs awarded is if the voting ends in a tie. That’s never happened in the NBA, but has happened twice in the modern NFL era and once in MLB, in 1979, when now-New York Mets broadcaster Keith Hernandez shared the honor with Willie Stargell.
The NBA MVP Award is chosen by a panel of U.S. and Canadian writers. There’s been plenty of debate on the SGA vs. Joker MVP race, and Pierce’s comments lay out the tough choice those voters face. But they will all have to make a choice — something Pierce avoided.