George Karl Trolls Michael Malone over Nikola Jokic, SGA MVP Debate After Viral Video
Former Denver Nuggets head coach Mike Malone caused quite the stir on Tuesday when he said on ESPN that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and not Nikola Jokić, was the deserving MVP following Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals.
Another former Nuggets' head coach, George Karl, offered quite a different take a day later:
SGA, who won the MVP award, certainly looked the part in Game 1's 114-88 victory, putting up 31 points, nine assists, five rebounds and three steals. The Thunder outscored the Minnesota Timberwolves by 22 points while he was on the floor.
He was also responsible for eliminating Jokić's Nuggets in the second round of the Western Conference Playoffs, averaging 29.7 points per game in the series.
The MVP debate between SGA and Jokić was a pretty spirited one this year, with both making a strong case. The former led a 68-win Thunder team, was first in the NBA in scoring (32.7 PPG) and tied for fourth in steals (1.7 SPG). The latter was third in the NBA in scoring (29.6 PPG), third in rebounding (12.7 RPG) and second in assists (10.2 APG).
Jokić was also tops in player efficiency rating (32.12), while SGA was second (30.73) in that metric.
A case could be made for both players. But one of the interesting factors in Malone publicly suggesting that SGA was the MVP was that before his late-season firing, he had advocated for Jokić to win the award.
"Obviously, Gilgeous-Alexander is a great player, and if he wins his first MVP, he's deserving of that," he told reporters in March. "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--tting."
One of the conclusions you might draw is that perhaps Malone was a bit salty about being fired in the final week of the regular season, and changed his MVP stance thusly. Or perhaps he simply thought SGA was going to be the likely winner, which ultimately came to fruition.
