Giannis Antetokounmpo's Only 1st-Place Vote for NBA MVP Was from Greek Reporter

Every year, at least one NBA awards voter makes headlines for his or her ballot deviating from the collective.

This year, it was Greek journalist Tolis Kotzias, who had several deviations across his ballot. He was the only media member to vote Giannis Antetokounmpo as MVP, left Luka Dončić off his MVP ballot entirely and did not vote Jalen Brunson to an All-NBA team.

Looking at Kotzias' ballots, the Brunson exclusion appears to be an error. Kotzias voted Brunson fourth on his NBA MVP ballot, so it would be incongruent for Brunson to not appear on an All-NBA team—especially given the teams are now positionless.

That said, it's hard to find much justification for the remainder of the ballot.

Antetokounmpo had far from his best season in 2023-24 as he and Damian Lillard navigated how to handle their new power dynamic. The Bucks were just 17-19 under Doc Rivers after firing Adrian Griffin midway through the season. Defense was the Bucks' biggest issue, which made Kotzias' choice of Antetokounmpo for first-team All-Defensive curious as well.

Dončić was not only left off the MVP ballot of Kotzias, but the Dallas Mavericks star also did not appear on his first-team All-NBA ballot. Dončić led the NBA in scoring at 33.9 points per game and narrowly missed out on averaging a triple-double in the regular season.

Basketball may be in the eye of the beholder, but Kotzias' ballot has raised eyebrows across social media.