There’s been a lot of speculation on the Denver Nuggets run at the end of last season, and why they looked so terrible compared to the playoffs. Although the more optimistic fans figured it all stemmed from having the 1 seed wrapped up and knowing they can flip the switch Kronke confirms it started with the media MVP talk.
On the DNVR Show team President Josh Kronke confirms Jokic let up intentionally due to the MVP stories in the media, and wanted to focus on the playoffs.
Although I cut the clip, Kronke spoke more to Jokic mentality but also Adam Mares mentions it probably helped as the team went into the playoffs with less stress, which I agree with.
Full Interview: https://www.youtube.com/live/GwvMF5YaPLg?si=l3HyMqE_bjhCplJ8
Last year really proves u/Rentsdueguys right…MVP is a narrative award, is a coronation, and is a popularity contest. Jokic was the MVP through the Break, clearly…Nuggets had the best record in the league, were top 3 offense along with the Kings and Celtics, and Jokic was having his best overall season through the Break.
He was the odds on favorite to win it, and that was with he starting behind the pack, with people putting Tatum, Luka, Giannis, ahead of him, because they couldn’t stomach the idea of Jokic winning three in a row. Embiid was always lurking and to his credit, he balled out after the Break, played almost every game, huge minutes, huge numbers, and the Sixers and Nuggets ended up with like the same record. Nuggets trended down a little and let off the gas defensively, hence that 5 of 6 losing streak u/shanmustafa mentioned…they won four in a row after that, and that was when Jokic basically punted the rest of the regular season.
A lot of Black members of the media brought race into the debate and basically made it so that a vote for Jokic was anti-Black/reflection of bias with some White/NBPOC members tagging along. I’m not gonna dive into that too far but that had a huge influence on the direction of narrative, and it’s something these people will never have to answer for. They injected race into a discussion of basketball and will never have to answer to it, and exposed their biases along the way. Glad Jokic shut them all the fuck up in the playoffs.
Definitely there was lots of racist cards against Jokic cause he’s white and TV "analyst "were saying dumb shit like "Hes not a guy who deserves 3 mvps in a row " creating stupid narrative.
It was better for Nuggets to chill after that and focus on playoffs anyway Jokic shut up haters fast having one of most dominant playoff runs by a single player ever