Nikola Jokic finished the 2025-26 season as the NBA's leading rebounder and assist maker. He was basically Dennis Rodman and John Stockton in the same season, while averaging 27.7 points per game, good for 8th in the league.
Joker led the Denver Nuggets to 54 wins, tied for the third-best in franchise history, with a rookie head coach and a team plagued by injuries all season. Yet none of that was enough to get the NBA MVP voters to move the goalposts back to where they should have been in the first place.
Jokic finished second in the NBA MVP voting for the third time in the last six years, falling well short of overtaking the now two-time NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Jokic only received 10 first place votes to SGA's 83. And one voter even voted for Joker in the fifth-place spot.
Jokic cleared all the bars he'd set previously, and it still wasn't enough.
The goalposts favored wins the last two seasons, apparently
It's almost like the narrative changed after Joker won three MVP awards in four years, and the MVP voters got used to his greatness and just didn't want to give the award to him anymore. Jokic averaged a triple-double last season and was second to SGA because the Thunder had a better record. At least SGA led the league in scoring last year.
Wins were the narrative coming into the vote again this year, and the best player on the best team prevailed. Not the best player in the NBA, or perhaps not even the most important person on their team. Nor did the MVP go to someone who led the league in anything important. Oh, wait, SGA did lead in one category—free throws made per game.
However, on the advanced side, we can say that SGA edged out Joker in win shares and win shares per 48 minutes for the second year in a row. But Jokic still had the highest win share per 48 of his career this season, and was far more efficient, leading the league for the sixth year in a row in player efficiency rating (PER).
Jokic won prior MVPs with less statistical merit
Jokic's three MVP awards were well deserved, and if he deserved them then, why doesn't he deserve them now? He didn't average a triple-double during his MVP seasons. In fact, in his second MVP season, Joker averaged only 7.9 assists alongside 27.1 points and 13.8 rebounds. He didn't lead the league in any of those categories, and the Nuggets had won just 48 games. But it was MVP worthy.
So the goalposts moved. The narrative changed. Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.7 assists per game, leading the league in the latter two, a feat nobody has done in the same season. And the Nuggets had 54 wins this year. But Jokic still got a second-place finish. And it wasn't close.
Jokic did everything he could to win his fourth MVP award, but in the end, he was kicking over a set of goalposts that were moving all season.
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