Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic wins third MVP award

Some talking heads balked a year ago at the idea of Nikola Jokic getting a third MVP trophy without having won anything in the postseason (ignoring that it is a regular season award).

Nobody should be complaining now — Jokic won his third NBA MVP award. Jokic becomes only the ninth player in NBA history to win three or more MVPs.

Jokic got 79 first-place votes out of the 99 cast by a panel of media members. Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander finished second and Dallas' Luka Doncic was third.

Jokic's numbers are MVP-worthy: 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 9 assists per game, shooting 35.9% from 3, 25 triple-doubles — and the advanced stats love him more than the conventional ones.

However, stats don't tell the whole story with Jokic. He is different than other superstars because he controls the game without dominating the ball. There are other gifted passers and scorers — like Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander —but the ball lives in their hands. Jokic is more of a puppeteer, pulling the strings of the game and making it go his way. Because of that he turns good players such as Aaron Gordon and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope into key cogs of a championship team.