Nikola Jokic won MVP. As expected and deserved.
Derrick Rose got a first-place vote. What?!
Marc Stein of The New York Times:
The first-place vote for Derrick Rose was a cumulative fan vote for the MVP award rather than a media member, league spokesman Tim Frank confirms.
— Marc Stein (@TheSteinLine) June 8, 2021
This makes far more sense than a media member selecting Rose.
But it’s still pretty darned surprising.
The NBA has given fans an MVP vote through online voting the last 12 years. For the previous seven years, the league has announced the the fans’ top five (along with each media ballot).
In the first six years with public disclosure, fans’ gave their first-place vote to the MVP winner. Last year, the fan first-place vote went to LeBron James, who received 15 first-place media votes and finished second overall.
In 2019, LeBron got his only MVP vote – a fifth-place vote – from fan voting. That was the wonkiest revealed fan-voting outcome until Rose this year.
Rose is a popular player, and playing for the New York Knicks only boosts his profile. Be he still ranked just 33rd in All-Star fan voting this year.
And that’s not even accounting for him, you know, not coming anywhere close to deserving an MVP vote.
