Kevin Durant on Nikola Jokic and MVP race: “Jokic never is an underdog, in any situation”

Consider Kevin Durant an undecided voter in the MVP race.

But whichever way he ends up leaning — Nikola Jokic or Shai Gilgeous-Alexander — he just hopes the outcome is based on the 2024-25 NBA season and nothing else. The past is the past, in Durant’s always-candid view.

“I don’t think that’s fair at all, like, voter fatigue,” the former league MVP said Friday night when asked his thoughts about awards voters taking historical context into account. “If a guy’s balling out, he’s balling out, you know what I’m saying? I’m glad I don’t have to make that decision, between (Jokic) and Shai. But it’s only good for our league when you see guys like that, you know — (when) you don’t see a clear-cut MVP. So I don’t think there should be voter fatigue at all.”

Jokic is going into Oklahoma City this weekend as a +500 underdog to win his fourth MVP trophy in five years, according to the online sports book DraftKings. The Thunder’s Gilgeous-Alexander is the betting favorite to win his first. Whatever the odds indicate, though, Durant balked as soon as he heard the word “underdog” in a sentence with Jokic’s name.

“No, he’s not a — stop it. I’m not gonna let y’all keep doing that, man,” the Phoenix Suns star said. “Jokic never is an underdog, man, in any situation. Stop.”

So does that mean Durant thinks Jokic should win the award?

“I’m just saying he’s not an underdog. I don’t know who it should be,” he said. “Both of them are playing great ball. But Jokic can never be an underdog again. That (crap) is out the window with his first MVP.”

The Serbian center is already one of nine players ever to win three MVPs. And Jokic has said himself that he’s “playing the best basketball of my life” this season. After assembling the first 30-point, 20-rebound, 20-assist game in NBA history Friday against Phoenix (his exact totals were 31, 21 and 22), he’s averaging 28.9 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.6 assists per game. Only Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson have averaged a triple-double over the course of a season.

Jokic secured his 29th triple-double of the season with 10:22 remaining in the third quarter. He then recorded a separate triple-double from that moment to the end of the game, which Denver eventually won 149-141 in overtime.

“He couldn’t do it in four quarters, which, you know, is kind of bull (crap),” backup center DeAndre Jordan told The Denver Post.

“I’m actually kind of surprised he hasn’t done this before,” Durant said. “But he’s been so close. He’s an all-time great, man. … Crazy thing is, it didn’t even seem like he had those numbers. I looked up toward the end of overtime. I was like, ‘Holy (crap).’ That was crazy.”

Aaron Gordon joked with Jokic after the game that it was a “quiet” 30-20-20 stat line. Nuggets coach Michael Malone told reporters that “I can’t describe him, so don’t ask me to.” Christian Braun, asked to share the best individual performance he has ever seen in-person on a basketball court, responded, “I mean, they’re all him.”

One assistant coach even told The Post that for the first time in his career, he asked Jokic to sign a print-out of the box score for him to commemorate the achievement.

“It’s just so insane that he’s able to do it, like, quietly,” Gordon said. “… He’s nuts, dude. He’s insane. Playing next to him is special.”

As for the league’s top prize? The Nuggets’ opinions are obvious. Durant’s, not so much.

“I think both of those guys got a great chance of winning MVP, Jokic being his fourth, Shai being his first,” he said. “It’s going to be a race down to the wire.”

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