Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received a glowing endorsement for NBA MVP from former Denver Nuggets head coach Michael Malone following his performance in Game 1 of the Western Conference Finals on Tuesday (May 20).
Malone, who was fired by Denver last month, voiced his support for Gilgeous-Alexander over Nuggets big man Nikola Jokić in this year's MVP race during his appearance on SportsCenter last night. "Shai Gilgeous-Alexander showed why he's the MVP," he said. "He took over in the second half. Did so in a very efficient manner, and put the team on his back when they needed him to do so."
It was quite the about-face for Malone, who delivered a strong argument as to why Jokić was the obvious choice to win the award a mere two months ago.
"My thing is this: If you didn't know that Nikola won three MVPs, and I put Player A and Player B on paper, and you had no idea that the guy who's averaging a triple-double, the guy who's top-three in the three major statistical categories, things that no one's ever done, he wins the MVP 10 times out of 10," he said at the time.
While there were some personal circumstances that could have influenced Malone's change of heart, the 53-year-old also took a moment to praise Gilgeous-Alexander for not only being a "great player," but well-deserving of the award, if he were to win.
Another former Nuggets head coach George Karl did not agree with Malone's backing of SGA. "Jokic was the MVP again this season and it wasn't that close,” Karl wrote in a post on X. “But I guess I’m the only former Nuggets coach who knows that.”
The hotly contested MVP race between Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokić led to an unexpected result with the Oklahoma City Thunder star winning the award with 71 first-place votes to Nikola's 29.
SGA averaged a league-leading 32.7 points per game for a Thunder team that finished with an NBA-best 68-14 record.
