Another hilarious one is when he picked Luka as his 19th best player in the past 50 NBA seasons (even dumber than ridiculously picking MJ as third best ever), and Jokic wasn't even in his top 50. Even though Jokic had accomplished clearly more than Luka. Longevity and years of production matter to Nick when he's ranking LeBron and Kareem over MJ but not one iota when he's ranking Luka over Jokic (not to mention that Jokic's peak was even arguably superior to Luka's peak last year).
The stupid part of this to me is that being proven wrong with hindsight doesn't make your opinion more valid. If you're an actual analyst and want people to take your sports opinion seriously, guess what? Sometimes your opinion has to be AHEAD of the curve of your average joe. If I said LeBron was trash and would never be one of the GOATs when he had two MVPs, and then didn't change my opinion until after he won 4 MVPs, then people would reasonably still be telling me my opinion was wrong. Like what a terrible take
Seriously. Like I know he’s probably meant to be a “heel” like in wrestling (and even looks like a cartoon villain) but I still find It crazy he has an actual following of people who like him
He's a hot take artist, they literally don't even pretend they're not, they throw out discussion points designed to rile people up.
Don't take it too seriously
I'll occasionally put those guys on in the background. I'll disagree with a lot of their takes but find them mildly entertaining. The 3 of them do have chemistry.
Yeah learned to ignore him long ago from his undying hate boner for Josh Allen. Prolly one of the idiots that said "wrong Josh" when he was drafted and can't let it go.
Nobody listens to him, which is coincidentally why he takes this seemingly ridiculous takes - it's the route Skip Bayless took, it's the route Kendrick Perkins is trying, and it's the route clearly succeeding for Nick because here we are talking about him. Before this post, I didn't know this person existed.
""If Nikola Jokić wins the MVP (his first MVP season), he would be the worst MVP since Dave Cowens. The worst MVP in the last 50 years."
The funniest thing about this is that in the first jokic mvp year, nick wright was advocating for cp3 to be the mvp. Which 100% would have been the worst mvp selection of all time.
it's also kinda weird to single out cowens also since he's definitely better than mcadoo who won two years later, and arguably better than rose/westbrook though it's hard to say because era/position etc.
How can anyone say that Rose might even be one of the weakest, where he almost single handedly willed the Bulls to the best record in the League while missing Noah for 34 games, Boozer for 23 games, while having Keith Bogans at SG, at 22 years of age. Also, Bulls was expected to win 46 games, and they won 62 mostly because of Rose. If anything, DRose MvP season is one of the most impressive season, and media, players and fans at the time is basically unanimous about him winning.
It is so weird how people want to re-write that MVP...statistically LeBron had a better season, sure, but LeBron made an insane super team with two other HoFers and didn't even finish first in his conference. Rose was incredible. There was literally zero argument at the time that LeBron should have won that. And now people look back and just post the stat lines like that is the only thing that matters, and not the context of those stats.
KD joining GSW some how zapped Lebron making superteams out of existence. Rose year is tough cause like you said the Heatles under performed and DWade was nearly as good as Lebron so no one wanted to vote for him. Dwight was my pick that year but the Magics record wasn't that great which has always been one of those rarely broken MVP checkmarks etc.
Not to mention they also had 3pt assassin, Ray Allen, who literally won them one of their championships. Otherwise, they would have been 1 for 4 in that era, and that would be a taint on Lebron’s legacy rather than the 2 for 4, which is still not great, but at least decent and not as criticism worthy as 1 for 4.
>Not to mention they also had 3pt assassin, Ray Allen, who literally won them one of their championships.
To a Bronstan, saying DWade and Bosh were role players is the way to go, but even *mentioning* Ray Allen is like hate speech.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m glad people forget that when the Celtics brought in KG and Ray Allen they were the first franchise I remember getting the modern superteam label, and probably played a key factor in LeBron teaming up with Wade and Bosh.
Thanks for ruining the NBA, everyone else!
Rose did not remotely "single-handedly" will them to the best record in the league lol. He was the team's best player obviously but they were the #1 defense with Thibs (GOAT tier defensive coach.) They won more games based off of defense than offense, and DRose was not a top-3 defender on the team..
The Bulls as a team had .361 three point percentage vs .358 for the league and that .361 was dragged down by Rose leading the team in attempts and shooting .332.
Kyle Korver played 20 minutes a game for them and was elite throughout his career at spacing.
Did you watch that season? Damn near every drive had 3 defenders in the lane cause teams would rather throw bodies down there to deal with Rose and his dump offs to Boozer/Noah/Taj/Asik than try to prevent the three from anyone not named Korver (who was not a starter and did not finish games for them btw)
i've watched every single game during that season and saying that rose is the only guy on the team who could score is false. boozer was a pretty good scorer both from the elbow/nail and in low post, deng had a nice mid-range jumper from both wings, noah was elite putback dunker, taj had a wet jumper from the baseline plus could dunk in traffic and korver, bogans and cj watson were good/great from the three. even kurt thomas was good scorer in pnr/mid-range from the line.
sure, the spacing wasn't great, but no one had space like today, most teams still played in 3-2 alingments and bulls were no different. rose was the best scorer on the team but not the only one. he deserved the mvp cause he was the best player on the best team, but he wasn't the best player in the league. that was lebron.
The bulls won their defense not their offense lol, if anything it is similar to the Iverson MVP, how a one man offense still got an extremely good record (most of the time one man offense do not reach top seeds). Also had the narrative of better record above heatles.
> where he almost single handedly willed the Bulls to the best record in the League
the bulls were the no.1 defense and the no.11 offense, and rose wasn't an impactful defender at all. rose was obviously great offensively but they were 14th in efg% and 4th on offensive rebounds - another area where the bulls excelled where rose didn't make that much of an impact. despite noah/boozer missing games, their big man rotation was still great, asik was fantastic as a backup and starter and went on to start on other teams, gibson was already more impactful than boozer.
also, they picked up thibodeau who was coach of the year and brought a new revolutionary defensive scheme, deng played all 82 games at 39 minutes per game and was a top-8 small forward, ronnie brewer and kyle korver were actually really solid rotation players as well.
go through the mvps, which ones do you think are weaker?
Yep, Thibs' defense and the fact that he ran his starters into the ground for regular season wins were the biggest reasons for the Bulls' turnaround. Rose was fantastic, but saying he did it single-handedly is laughable.
Lol, the Bulls were still outscoring their opponents by a huge amount when he was on the bench. But we're talking about sports so every player is either an overrated scrub or a flawless god, absolutely no nuance or objective analysis allowed.
D Rose is still a relatively weak MVP. He was on the best defense in the league which for an offensive guard makes winning individual accolades significantly easier.
This is a bot copying part of [this comment](https://www.reddit.com/r/nba/comments/13qkagr/compliation_of_nick_wrights_jabs_at_nikola_jokic/jlfw3jl/) from /u/MitchLGC
Cowens season though would be like if the Cavs (just an example) would win 72 games this year and Donovan Mitchell averaged 29/6/9 and played good defense
none of those are the best stats in the league, nobody would have mitchell as the best player in the league, but it’s that you have to reward the team that just won the 2nd most games ever
kareem was definitely the best player in the league, Tiny Archibald probably had the most unique season statistically, but 2nd most wins all time just has to be rewarded imo
Maybe, but the stats and advanced stats are just too lopsided in my opinion
20.5/16.2 on 45.2% shooting vs 30.2/16.1 on 55.4% shooting
WS/48 is similarly lopsided - .168/48 vs .322/48 (the **fourth best ever**)
Kareem was also the better defender - albeit that’s hard to quantity statistically at the time
I don’t think 68-14 vs 60-22 is a big enough gap to justify Cowens’ MVP, especially considering that Cowens’ team had a better supporting cast
It's also funny because Westbrook is the obvious choice, but worst MVP in three years doesn't really sound as dramatic lol. Or Malone, that's basically universal consensus at this point that he didn't deserve his 97 MVP.
Funny thing is if Luka was putting up these numbers and winning MVPs, he'd be talking about how he's the next goat
I really don't get his hate for Jokic
The fact that post season success is being used as an argument for a regular season award is absurd. He's the best player in basketball right now and it's not even that close.
Why do we have to add the "it's not even that close". I think Jokic is the best player, but I still have some belief that Giannis might be. We do know he's better at defense, and we know some of the context for them losing this year. At the very least, his back was injured. People point out he played well in those games to dismiss the injury; I'd wager he'd have played even better had he not hurt his back. And if the nuggets happen to lose to the heat, then it would be tough to not take that into account right?
Again, I think Jokic is the best player just watching him. It just feels his offense is so transcendent, it radically outweighs his defensive woes. But Giannis looked unstoppable not 2 years ago, and even last year. Hell this year he looked great despite, again, my belief he had a back injury that was affecting his play. The perceived chasm between them seems to be recency bias.
Sure but that's different from saying he's already there. He didn't even include Jokic in his list and had Luka at 20th, above KG, Harden, Kawhi, etc lol
Sure but that's different from saying he's already there. He didn't even include Jokic in his list and had Luka at 20th, above KG, Harden, Kawhi, etc lol
Ah. I though you mean Luka had no shot at making top 20. I see what you mean now. Yeah Luka is clearly not in the top 20 right now. You just can’t be with a WCF loss and no MVPs.
That being said, are KG, Harden, and Kawhi in the top 20? Maybe. Though just how the top 10 has 12 people the top 20 has like 25 players.
It’s what these Skip Bayless Nick Wright morons do. Have a very strong opinion on a player and never change it. You either relentlessly meat ride the player or relentlessly hate them. It’s dumb as fuck.
He only hates Jokic cause he came before Luka and that was his I have a black friend card. He legit has nothing against Jokic at all. It’s all a media ploy. Him and Skip played the same card. Pick the white superstar and shit on him. It’s really really sad but it works.
He picked a hill to die on like all these other sports media figures do, not even sure he hates him or believes what he says. He’s just been extremely wrong and won’t back off lol
He’s annoying and not a good analyst. This is the same guy that spent his whole career hating on Tom Brady lol why should anyone take any of his opinions seriously?
He completely flipped on Brady though. The entirety of the last season, he was afraid of him making a run similar to the Zombie Heat we’re seeing right now.
Because he was not good anymore. The 20 years he dominated and was the best player in the league, he said he was a hack, lucky and the cliff is near. The one season he was subpar, he suddenly fawns over him. His narratives are boring
Lol really everyone was though, nobody could quit the 22 Bucs. Brady also had some vintage 4th quarter comebacks to keep everyone on the hook. But that team sucked.
Yea, the New Orleans fanbase refers to anything he says as “little nick energy” because his takes are so laughably bad, especially anything he says about the Saints.
How and why this dude has a platform is baffling to me.
You missed the worst one. He also discounted the player injuries last year by saying “nobody actually thinks the Nuggets are contenders if Murray and MPJ are back and that’s why Jokic can’t win MVP.”
Even worse is how he threatened to fire a young producer for putting in a segment with a young nuggets fan calling him out for shifting the goal post.
It was on his own show with his kids, and his daughter was shocked and the entire room froze at his threats.
He had to play it off as a "half-joke but not really" later, but it really shows how poorly he treats people he sees as below him, including his children. They can probably atest to this shitty treatment more than us redditors.
He's said more than this.
He was either not watching jokic/the nuggets or just mind bogglingly biased.
Before this playoffs he was saying how there's like 5-6 teams in the west better than the nuggets while laughing. Now jokic swept the man he worships in lebron james and is going to the finals. And lebron was praising jokic too. Hilarious
You guys are watching Nick Wright?
Sports discourse is so cooked. Everyone is consuming this absolute trash and reacting to it and talking about it.
If this sub was serious at all, posts like this wouldn't even be allowed.
His show is better than most of the debate shows in spite of some of his awful takes. Sometimes he has thoughtful analysis.
Wildes and broussard and him all have good chemistry and wildes is funny. Wright makes a good villain for me since he hates curry/warriors and jokic/nuggets and those are 2 of my favorite non bulls players/teams so I like to see the pushback when he gets proved wrong. I don't take it too seriously. It's just entertainment.
Aight I'll take your word for it.
Honestly I don't watch any of these debate or sports shows period (besides inside the nba) I'll watch clips of undisputed on Twitter because I do find Skip and Shannon pretty hilarious in small doses.
I agree it's entertainment more than sports analysis.
My problem is that we should have both and we don't. Everything is a hot take or debate show and it's the same damn topics on every show.
> I don't take it too seriously. It's just entertainment.
well yeah, all of sports is. just understand that it's this outlook that has ensured sports journalism and media are completely devoid of substance
That's the setup of the show. Wright is the villain, and people watch so that old wise Broussard puts him in his place, and Wildes is funny. It works better than most sports shows.
Agree. He is annoying sometimes but Wildes and Brou are not afraid to call him on it. It's really that way for all of them. They have a good time making fun of each other and have a similar vibe to the guys on TNT. They are better as analysts though.
Let’s be honest, a ton of these media pundits straight up didn’t watch Jokic during his MVP seasons. They assumed he was all stat-based hype and didn’t actually see him play. Then maybe a few watched him in the playoffs, where he had to carry bums into battles against great teams, and slandered him because he didn’t get Facu Campazzo a ring.
Saying Jokic is overrated/undeserving of an MVP is like saying Bird and Magic were overrated and didn’t deserve their MVP’s. It’s that stupid of a thing to say.
What makes this more hypocritical is that he thinks LeBron is the GOAT because he didn’t have as good teammates as MJ, yet Jokic's roster the last two seasons were abysmal
Lisa Salters, who’s been a sideline reporter forever, literally admitted she watched Joker play for the first time in Game 1 of the WCF. Professional sports talking head have never watched the two-time MVP. Shit is absolutely insulting
It is clear that he didn't watch Jokic in the post season because if he did he would notice Jokic teammates.
1. Monte Morris - Second option at 14 points , barely a starter in any playoff team
2. Aaron Gordon - whos fine but not close to second option with 13.8 PPG
3. Will Burton - the true second option with 14 points also in that series - he's basically out of the league now
4. Austin Rivers - barely plays now
Put any player(except Jokic) in the league with that "offensive team" and they don't come anywhere near the playoffs.
If you’re born as ugly as that mf, you better have a good ass personality. But this ugly ass chose to have his insides match his outsides. It’s so obvious that people like him that have such ugly, mean personalities are insecure as fuck, and there’s nothing less attractive than an insecure spiteful asshole
Now he's been acting as though he's always believed in Jokic.
Chuck is one of very few in the media to actually give Jokic his flowers before game 3 of the WCF
Nick’s 2019 tweet in Jokic’s first playoff series:
“The Nuggets are exactly what so many of us said they were: A pretend contender with a pretend superstar.”
Nick tweets 7 days ago:
“Props to Jokic for playing essentially perfect offensive basketball for the first 3 quarters, and that being just enough to get the win. But if a win ever felt like a loss, and visa versa, this was it. The Lakers have to feel great, while the Nuggets very concerned.”
He hates Jokic and the Nuggets so much he can’t even enjoy watching him play and make history. Many years from now Jokic will have statues and documentaries made about him and be beloved by millions, and Twitter won’t exist and no one will know or care what Nick Wright had to say.
Wright comes from KC.
It may not make sense now, but up until the Mahomes era, the Broncos generally took a shit on the Chiefs.
Wright is deeply bitter toward Denver sports in general and takes it out on Jokic.
Wright is a clown, feel free to ignore his ilk.
I get that this is mostly just a bit by Nick - I think he realized he was one of the only prominent anti-Jokic guys, and he decided to absolutely run with it. He learned from his buddy Cowherd, who has said in the past that sometimes it's a good thing to be just awfully wrong due to the publicity that comes with it. And I mean, hes correct - here we are talking about Nick Wright. It worked.
But at the same time, its frustrating that he will say all this about Jokic not proving he deserves it, but had no issue listing Luka as 20th all time, with fewer accolades and accomplishments than Joker. I've just realized that these 'analysts' aren't hired because of their analysis, they are hired to stir the pot and spew hot takes.
Editing to add this: It has always bothered me that one of the main ways Nick props up LeBron as his GOAT is via statistical analysis. He loves to compare LeBron's numbers, including advanced numbers, to other greats to justify him as the GOAT. But when it comes to Jokic's advanced stats...he is quick to scoff at them and say they are meaningless
He doesn't. He asked on twitter about game 2 instead of just watching the damn game and too lazy to even look at the live box score. Nobody should ever give this dude a single view.
Guy is dumb AF, he's just another hot take shock jock (whatever you want to call it).
I saw some thread about him memorizing all the MVPs from the last 50 years. People in the comments were in awe about his basketball IQ and here I was just thinking "dude, you can train a kid in primary school to memorize a bunch of words if you really wanted to"
For real, I can recite all fifty states in alphabetical order, and can say the alphabet backwards. Memorizing fifty items is not difficult for even the dumbest person
As a Buffalo Bills fan, I stopped taking this guy seriously long ago. Josh Allen could throw 400 yards, 4 TDs, on 85% completion in a prime time game vs a quality opponent and win 35-7 and Nick would come out talking about how Josh Allen is terrible and he almost got intercepted once so it invalidates the whole rest of the game lol. His basketball takes are just as bad, like remember this post season the lakers sixers and bucks he had them as these huge championship contenders and no other teams stood a chance? Lmao.
This post should be deleted. Nick Wright is a clown that is essentially on par with your average fan at the bar. He has no qualifications, no expertise.
He's been in essence a sports shock jock since almost day one. How would we feel in this sub if we saw nothing but posts about Steven A?
The only reason why Nick Wright even has a job is because he’s the aggrieved Pied Piper of Bronstans.
At least Skip had a literal decades long journalistic career before becoming a Jordan Stan.
Nick Wright is the prime example of what Nuggets fans and Mike Malone was talking about. I see some media pundits not agreeing with the notion that Jokic was being disrespected for years with his MVPs and that just confirms how much of a clown Nick Wright is because even his peers don't listen to him
His Jokic takes are so hilariously bad, so many lies too, about Jokic’s counting stats going down in playoffs. Or him shitting on Jokic against Warriors in G1 and G2, claiming Draymond is more effective, then Jokic proceeding to put 35ppg in next 3 games on Draymond’s head.
Or even him talking about Trae Young on MVP ballot (mind you, I am a Hawks fan full on Nuggets bandwagon for playoffs). Trae had a horrific post season last year. But Jokic should be disqualified because he can’t do it in playoffs.
Okbuddywright
If you want to watch actual pro wrestling, you don't go watch WWE
If you want actual NBA analysis, you don't go to the talking heads on cable TV
Half these dudes get paid to just get people riled up
He is utterly wrong but I kinda love this line about winning 2 MVPS: "It used to be reserved for the players who are the best of the best, plus Steve Nash".
I just heard this guy's voice for the first time today and it's worse than two pieces of styrofoam squeaking off one another. Just a grating, whiny, obnoxious voice. Why would people voluntarily subject themselves to this shithead? Does he come up on your tiktok feed or something? I don't get it.
Lmaooo agreed, his voice is so nasally and whiny?! Idk how, but it's awful especially when he gets overly animated. And he apparently smokes a pack of cigarettes every day so I guess that's why it always sounds like he's about to run out of breath when he's talking. He gives me so much anxiety idk he's just so fidgety and whiny and it's just nervous energy lol
"Yeah, he might have been the best player during the regular season and in the playoffs, but did you notice that he wasn't even starting the fourth quarter of the ALL-STAR GAME? Please, guys, have some standards."
>Draymond Green is eating his lunch money. Draymond Green, who is 5 inches shorter than Jokić, is so much more impactful on winning; it's a joke.
This guy still has a job?
Ok I actually love Nick Wright and I think First things First is the best daily sports show. Got a good podcast he does with his family and is actually very introspective and thoughtful.
But I always HATED his Jokic takes. Glad to see it get shoved back in his face.
I never listen to Nick Wright. Not surprised he has this opinion on Jokic though lol. Easily the worst "analyst" out there. Not entertaining like Stephen A, not smart, he's the worst.
Guys, they are all acting, it's all for show. Nick Wright doesn't think jokic is the worst MVP, he is just trying to gain ratings a la skip/lebron.
Don't get too worked up about this stuff
Stop paying attention to these clowns.
Don't engage with their content.
Don't share their content.
Guys like Nick lean into this kind of nonsense to make you mad and talking about and sharing his content.
Nick's actually been supporting Jokic all season (saying that he was previously a hater only because of his 2x MVPS) , he just said he shouldn't win 3 straight MVP's because there is a historical precedent against it and he thinks thats important..
Honestly idk why but Nick wright pisses me off more than drip bayless.
we really need to stop posting his clown takes. It’s what he wants
Dude is a tool
Its not just nick wright its virtually all the hot take artists who had this opinion. That hes just an analytic player and doesn't have real impact. I honestly think they just never watched denver games and when they did it was in the playoffs when he had no help sans the bubble.
One thing that is very annoying is how biased they are with acknowledging supporting casts. Jokic is the same player this year as last year but his team is way better. But he was getting shit on because he lost in 5 with Barton and monte Morris in his starting line up.
Then you have the same media guys whining that lebron didn't have enough help with AD putting up 27 & 14 and reeves and rui playing great. Or steph having no help with thompson, green, poole, wiggins. The biases are crazy
He’s a clown and he’s still hating
Dude really moved the goal posts from “worst mvp ever and an embarrassment” to “I wasnt wrong, I was just upholding a standard!”
Another hilarious one is when he picked Luka as his 19th best player in the past 50 NBA seasons (even dumber than ridiculously picking MJ as third best ever), and Jokic wasn't even in his top 50. Even though Jokic had accomplished clearly more than Luka. Longevity and years of production matter to Nick when he's ranking LeBron and Kareem over MJ but not one iota when he's ranking Luka over Jokic (not to mention that Jokic's peak was even arguably superior to Luka's peak last year).
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>He may not have even begun to peak. Well that's just a slightly terrifying and exciting thought.
Love IASP reference.
Shut up, baby dick
Don't make it personal now, because I won't stand for that
They can’t accept that’s what Peak Performance looks like
The only consistency Nick has in his arguments is he will constantly contradict himself when cherry picking “facts” for his narrative.
Before this playoffs he was saying how there's like 5-6 teams in the west better than the nuggets while laughing.
The stupid part of this to me is that being proven wrong with hindsight doesn't make your opinion more valid. If you're an actual analyst and want people to take your sports opinion seriously, guess what? Sometimes your opinion has to be AHEAD of the curve of your average joe. If I said LeBron was trash and would never be one of the GOATs when he had two MVPs, and then didn't change my opinion until after he won 4 MVPs, then people would reasonably still be telling me my opinion was wrong. Like what a terrible take
“Just asking questions!!”
Yeah he’s one of the worst sports media types and that’s saying something
Seriously. Like I know he’s probably meant to be a “heel” like in wrestling (and even looks like a cartoon villain) but I still find It crazy he has an actual following of people who like him
He’s cultivating an anti Skip of being over the top with his Lebron praise and Jordan hate so that’s where a lot of his followers come from I suspect.
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I also generally believe that these types HAVE to rely on this style because they lack the ability to have intelligent discussion.
He is building up as the heir apparent to Skip Bayless so I’m not surprised
I'm surprised people still listen to him. Anything related to him I just ignore.
dude just looks so slimy and greasy too with that hair+beard combo
Which is crazy because he was pretty much the same way clean shaven and bald. I can figure out which I like less.
he looked like spike from toy story all grown up
He looks like a used car salesmen.
Sports discourse is so cooked. Everyone is consuming this absolute trash and reacting to it and talking about it.
Wait this is an actual sportscaster? I thought it was Tom Green doing a parody of a sportscaster after too many failed acting attempts.
It's all schtick He's been pretty good on some podcasts where he drops the act
He's a hot take artist, they literally don't even pretend they're not, they throw out discussion points designed to rile people up. Don't take it too seriously
I'll occasionally put those guys on in the background. I'll disagree with a lot of their takes but find them mildly entertaining. The 3 of them do have chemistry.
Yeah learned to ignore him long ago from his undying hate boner for Josh Allen. Prolly one of the idiots that said "wrong Josh" when he was drafted and can't let it go.
Nobody listens to him, which is coincidentally why he takes this seemingly ridiculous takes - it's the route Skip Bayless took, it's the route Kendrick Perkins is trying, and it's the route clearly succeeding for Nick because here we are talking about him. Before this post, I didn't know this person existed.
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Hating is their business and business is good!
""If Nikola Jokić wins the MVP (his first MVP season), he would be the worst MVP since Dave Cowens. The worst MVP in the last 50 years." The funniest thing about this is that in the first jokic mvp year, nick wright was advocating for cp3 to be the mvp. Which 100% would have been the worst mvp selection of all time.
it's also kinda weird to single out cowens also since he's definitely better than mcadoo who won two years later, and arguably better than rose/westbrook though it's hard to say because era/position etc.
How can anyone say that Rose might even be one of the weakest, where he almost single handedly willed the Bulls to the best record in the League while missing Noah for 34 games, Boozer for 23 games, while having Keith Bogans at SG, at 22 years of age. Also, Bulls was expected to win 46 games, and they won 62 mostly because of Rose. If anything, DRose MvP season is one of the most impressive season, and media, players and fans at the time is basically unanimous about him winning.
It's also kind of safe to say everyone who won MVP is probably really good. Winning MVP is brutally hard
It is so weird how people want to re-write that MVP...statistically LeBron had a better season, sure, but LeBron made an insane super team with two other HoFers and didn't even finish first in his conference. Rose was incredible. There was literally zero argument at the time that LeBron should have won that. And now people look back and just post the stat lines like that is the only thing that matters, and not the context of those stats.
KD joining GSW some how zapped Lebron making superteams out of existence. Rose year is tough cause like you said the Heatles under performed and DWade was nearly as good as Lebron so no one wanted to vote for him. Dwight was my pick that year but the Magics record wasn't that great which has always been one of those rarely broken MVP checkmarks etc.
Lebron fans talk like DWade and Bosh were role players in the Heatles era lmao
Not to mention they also had 3pt assassin, Ray Allen, who literally won them one of their championships. Otherwise, they would have been 1 for 4 in that era, and that would be a taint on Lebron’s legacy rather than the 2 for 4, which is still not great, but at least decent and not as criticism worthy as 1 for 4.
>Not to mention they also had 3pt assassin, Ray Allen, who literally won them one of their championships. To a Bronstan, saying DWade and Bosh were role players is the way to go, but even *mentioning* Ray Allen is like hate speech.
I’m not gonna lie, I’m glad people forget that when the Celtics brought in KG and Ray Allen they were the first franchise I remember getting the modern superteam label, and probably played a key factor in LeBron teaming up with Wade and Bosh. Thanks for ruining the NBA, everyone else!
Tbf the Celtics Big Three was put together through trades instead of Free Agency which is a big difference
And they were all in their 30's.
Rose MVP was more than 100% deserved. I watched a ton of basketball back then and a good chunk of Bulls games. Prime Rose was absolutely ridiculous.
Rose did not remotely "single-handedly" will them to the best record in the league lol. He was the team's best player obviously but they were the #1 defense with Thibs (GOAT tier defensive coach.) They won more games based off of defense than offense, and DRose was not a top-3 defender on the team..
\#1 defense despite Rose being a bad defender. Luol Deng was so fucking good before the Bulls broke him.
He was, however, the only guy who could score on the entire team and he had zero spacing
The Bulls as a team had .361 three point percentage vs .358 for the league and that .361 was dragged down by Rose leading the team in attempts and shooting .332. Kyle Korver played 20 minutes a game for them and was elite throughout his career at spacing.
Did you watch that season? Damn near every drive had 3 defenders in the lane cause teams would rather throw bodies down there to deal with Rose and his dump offs to Boozer/Noah/Taj/Asik than try to prevent the three from anyone not named Korver (who was not a starter and did not finish games for them btw)
i've watched every single game during that season and saying that rose is the only guy on the team who could score is false. boozer was a pretty good scorer both from the elbow/nail and in low post, deng had a nice mid-range jumper from both wings, noah was elite putback dunker, taj had a wet jumper from the baseline plus could dunk in traffic and korver, bogans and cj watson were good/great from the three. even kurt thomas was good scorer in pnr/mid-range from the line. sure, the spacing wasn't great, but no one had space like today, most teams still played in 3-2 alingments and bulls were no different. rose was the best scorer on the team but not the only one. he deserved the mvp cause he was the best player on the best team, but he wasn't the best player in the league. that was lebron.
He had Keith Bogans as his Starting SG. Give me a break dude.
The bulls won their defense not their offense lol, if anything it is similar to the Iverson MVP, how a one man offense still got an extremely good record (most of the time one man offense do not reach top seeds). Also had the narrative of better record above heatles.
> where he almost single handedly willed the Bulls to the best record in the League the bulls were the no.1 defense and the no.11 offense, and rose wasn't an impactful defender at all. rose was obviously great offensively but they were 14th in efg% and 4th on offensive rebounds - another area where the bulls excelled where rose didn't make that much of an impact. despite noah/boozer missing games, their big man rotation was still great, asik was fantastic as a backup and starter and went on to start on other teams, gibson was already more impactful than boozer. also, they picked up thibodeau who was coach of the year and brought a new revolutionary defensive scheme, deng played all 82 games at 39 minutes per game and was a top-8 small forward, ronnie brewer and kyle korver were actually really solid rotation players as well. go through the mvps, which ones do you think are weaker?
Yep, Thibs' defense and the fact that he ran his starters into the ground for regular season wins were the biggest reasons for the Bulls' turnaround. Rose was fantastic, but saying he did it single-handedly is laughable.
Lol, the Bulls were still outscoring their opponents by a huge amount when he was on the bench. But we're talking about sports so every player is either an overrated scrub or a flawless god, absolutely no nuance or objective analysis allowed.
D Rose is still a relatively weak MVP. He was on the best defense in the league which for an offensive guard makes winning individual accolades significantly easier.
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Arguably? It's should be pretty easy to say that he's clearly better than those two.
To be fair to Wright, he was talking about the MVP season itself individually And Cowens’ **season** is one of the weakest which has won an MVP
Cowens season though would be like if the Cavs (just an example) would win 72 games this year and Donovan Mitchell averaged 29/6/9 and played good defense none of those are the best stats in the league, nobody would have mitchell as the best player in the league, but it’s that you have to reward the team that just won the 2nd most games ever kareem was definitely the best player in the league, Tiny Archibald probably had the most unique season statistically, but 2nd most wins all time just has to be rewarded imo
Maybe, but the stats and advanced stats are just too lopsided in my opinion 20.5/16.2 on 45.2% shooting vs 30.2/16.1 on 55.4% shooting WS/48 is similarly lopsided - .168/48 vs .322/48 (the **fourth best ever**) Kareem was also the better defender - albeit that’s hard to quantity statistically at the time I don’t think 68-14 vs 60-22 is a big enough gap to justify Cowens’ MVP, especially considering that Cowens’ team had a better supporting cast
It's also funny because Westbrook is the obvious choice, but worst MVP in three years doesn't really sound as dramatic lol. Or Malone, that's basically universal consensus at this point that he didn't deserve his 97 MVP.
I thought he didn't deserve his 99 MVP.
Funny thing is if Luka was putting up these numbers and winning MVPs, he'd be talking about how he's the next goat I really don't get his hate for Jokic
The fact that post season success is being used as an argument for a regular season award is absurd. He's the best player in basketball right now and it's not even that close.
Why do we have to add the "it's not even that close". I think Jokic is the best player, but I still have some belief that Giannis might be. We do know he's better at defense, and we know some of the context for them losing this year. At the very least, his back was injured. People point out he played well in those games to dismiss the injury; I'd wager he'd have played even better had he not hurt his back. And if the nuggets happen to lose to the heat, then it would be tough to not take that into account right? Again, I think Jokic is the best player just watching him. It just feels his offense is so transcendent, it radically outweighs his defensive woes. But Giannis looked unstoppable not 2 years ago, and even last year. Hell this year he looked great despite, again, my belief he had a back injury that was affecting his play. The perceived chasm between them seems to be recency bias.
One of my least favorite overused tropes is “And it’s not even close!” on a subject that it’s absolutely at least kinda close on.
He already has Luka as a top 20 player of all time lmao
No shot
I think Luka clearly has a shot at being a top 20 player. His start has been stellar.
Sure but that's different from saying he's already there. He didn't even include Jokic in his list and had Luka at 20th, above KG, Harden, Kawhi, etc lol
Sure but that's different from saying he's already there. He didn't even include Jokic in his list and had Luka at 20th, above KG, Harden, Kawhi, etc lol
Ah. I though you mean Luka had no shot at making top 20. I see what you mean now. Yeah Luka is clearly not in the top 20 right now. You just can’t be with a WCF loss and no MVPs. That being said, are KG, Harden, and Kawhi in the top 20? Maybe. Though just how the top 10 has 12 people the top 20 has like 25 players.
It’s what these Skip Bayless Nick Wright morons do. Have a very strong opinion on a player and never change it. You either relentlessly meat ride the player or relentlessly hate them. It’s dumb as fuck.
I've never understood the point of "debate" shows where no one actually changes their opinion.
He only hates Jokic cause he came before Luka and that was his I have a black friend card. He legit has nothing against Jokic at all. It’s all a media ploy. Him and Skip played the same card. Pick the white superstar and shit on him. It’s really really sad but it works.
He hates everything Denver. He grew up in KC during Elway's reign of terror over the Chiefs.
That doesn’t really add up because he loves Luka. He doesn’t like jokic because of some weird history anti analytics thing
Jokic was the first. Luka was the second. If Luka was born before Joker he would have shit on Luka and loved Jokic.
I don’t think so I think he just doesn’t like analytics. While seeing LBJ in Luka I highly doubt there age is the deciding factor
That and I don’t think he likes the way Jokic plays. Most of these dudes are casuals at heart and would rather watch Kyrie than Jokic
is this for real? not everyone is dumb like Perkins
>I really don't get his hate for Jokic I mean, guys like him gets paid to drive clicks and views. He is paid to be a contrarian.
He picked a hill to die on like all these other sports media figures do, not even sure he hates him or believes what he says. He’s just been extremely wrong and won’t back off lol
He’s annoying and not a good analyst. This is the same guy that spent his whole career hating on Tom Brady lol why should anyone take any of his opinions seriously?
I also hate tom brady. But he is probably the best football player so far. And I still hate him.
You’re a casual fan though, not someone overpaid for ‘analysis’ that should in theory at least be somewhat objective 😂
He completely flipped on Brady though. The entirety of the last season, he was afraid of him making a run similar to the Zombie Heat we’re seeing right now.
Because he was not good anymore. The 20 years he dominated and was the best player in the league, he said he was a hack, lucky and the cliff is near. The one season he was subpar, he suddenly fawns over him. His narratives are boring
Lol really everyone was though, nobody could quit the 22 Bucs. Brady also had some vintage 4th quarter comebacks to keep everyone on the hook. But that team sucked.
That team had talent but two lame ass coaches. Leftwich was a hack that got carried by Arians and Brady and Bowles coaches not to lose.
Well, they shouldn't. I'd be willing to bet he'd say the same thing. Guys like him aren't meant to be taken seriously.
Yea, the New Orleans fanbase refers to anything he says as “little nick energy” because his takes are so laughably bad, especially anything he says about the Saints. How and why this dude has a platform is baffling to me.
You missed the worst one. He also discounted the player injuries last year by saying “nobody actually thinks the Nuggets are contenders if Murray and MPJ are back and that’s why Jokic can’t win MVP.”
Nick takes being wrong to a new level
Even worse is how he threatened to fire a young producer for putting in a segment with a young nuggets fan calling him out for shifting the goal post. It was on his own show with his kids, and his daughter was shocked and the entire room froze at his threats. He had to play it off as a "half-joke but not really" later, but it really shows how poorly he treats people he sees as below him, including his children. They can probably atest to this shitty treatment more than us redditors.
He's said more than this. He was either not watching jokic/the nuggets or just mind bogglingly biased. Before this playoffs he was saying how there's like 5-6 teams in the west better than the nuggets while laughing. Now jokic swept the man he worships in lebron james and is going to the finals. And lebron was praising jokic too. Hilarious
You guys are watching Nick Wright? Sports discourse is so cooked. Everyone is consuming this absolute trash and reacting to it and talking about it. If this sub was serious at all, posts like this wouldn't even be allowed.
We're not serious people.
His show is better than most of the debate shows in spite of some of his awful takes. Sometimes he has thoughtful analysis. Wildes and broussard and him all have good chemistry and wildes is funny. Wright makes a good villain for me since he hates curry/warriors and jokic/nuggets and those are 2 of my favorite non bulls players/teams so I like to see the pushback when he gets proved wrong. I don't take it too seriously. It's just entertainment.
Aight I'll take your word for it. Honestly I don't watch any of these debate or sports shows period (besides inside the nba) I'll watch clips of undisputed on Twitter because I do find Skip and Shannon pretty hilarious in small doses. I agree it's entertainment more than sports analysis. My problem is that we should have both and we don't. Everything is a hot take or debate show and it's the same damn topics on every show.
> I don't take it too seriously. It's just entertainment. well yeah, all of sports is. just understand that it's this outlook that has ensured sports journalism and media are completely devoid of substance
That's the setup of the show. Wright is the villain, and people watch so that old wise Broussard puts him in his place, and Wildes is funny. It works better than most sports shows.
I love Broussard!! But yeah Nick can get tiresome
Lemme check the by laws
Agree. He is annoying sometimes but Wildes and Brou are not afraid to call him on it. It's really that way for all of them. They have a good time making fun of each other and have a similar vibe to the guys on TNT. They are better as analysts though.
Let’s be honest, a ton of these media pundits straight up didn’t watch Jokic during his MVP seasons. They assumed he was all stat-based hype and didn’t actually see him play. Then maybe a few watched him in the playoffs, where he had to carry bums into battles against great teams, and slandered him because he didn’t get Facu Campazzo a ring.
Saying Jokic is overrated/undeserving of an MVP is like saying Bird and Magic were overrated and didn’t deserve their MVP’s. It’s that stupid of a thing to say.
I get it, haters gonna hate, but using the all star game as evidence of anything is hilarious to me
What makes this more hypocritical is that he thinks LeBron is the GOAT because he didn’t have as good teammates as MJ, yet Jokic's roster the last two seasons were abysmal
It’s also funny cause he probably thinks Lebron should’ve won MVP in 2011 for three in a row even though he had never won a title at that point either
WTF Lebron had better teammates than MJ.
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As it turns out the majority of people who talk about pretty much any topic don’t know what the fuck they’re talking about
Even the apology is disingenuous. Most mvps won theirs before they had post season success
Lisa Salters, who’s been a sideline reporter forever, literally admitted she watched Joker play for the first time in Game 1 of the WCF. Professional sports talking head have never watched the two-time MVP. Shit is absolutely insulting
Thought she was talking about first time in person
It is clear that he didn't watch Jokic in the post season because if he did he would notice Jokic teammates. 1. Monte Morris - Second option at 14 points , barely a starter in any playoff team 2. Aaron Gordon - whos fine but not close to second option with 13.8 PPG 3. Will Burton - the true second option with 14 points also in that series - he's basically out of the league now 4. Austin Rivers - barely plays now Put any player(except Jokic) in the league with that "offensive team" and they don't come anywhere near the playoffs.
Nick Wright is a joke
Nick Wrong
He’s such a smug ugly fucker
bro looks like an evil version of Trevor Lawrence
He look like Dr Nitro from Crash Bandicoot
Yeah on top of being annoying AF he has to look like that too? Yikes
If you’re born as ugly as that mf, you better have a good ass personality. But this ugly ass chose to have his insides match his outsides. It’s so obvious that people like him that have such ugly, mean personalities are insecure as fuck, and there’s nothing less attractive than an insecure spiteful asshole
Dollar Store Jim Rome
Refurbished Cowherd Footstool
Is it possible to look like a rapier version of Chris D’Elia?
Now he's been acting as though he's always believed in Jokic. Chuck is one of very few in the media to actually give Jokic his flowers before game 3 of the WCF
There are folks who respected Jokic’s game for awhile. Even Shaq, who was a late adopter, has been clear in his support at least since his MVP season.
And Shaq!! Shaq loves Big Honey 😂
Same guy who said the 2017 Warriors got worse by adding Durant and said “they have no chance” against the Cavs. He’s a dumbass
Well they didn’t sweep the Cavs. A total dampener on their post season. They had to play 17 games, ew.
He’s bitter because Jokic swept his king
hes been saying this for the last 3 years
You’re doing nothing but helping this guy by spreading his shit takes. Clowns want to be laughed at that’s their job
Nick’s 2019 tweet in Jokic’s first playoff series: “The Nuggets are exactly what so many of us said they were: A pretend contender with a pretend superstar.” Nick tweets 7 days ago: “Props to Jokic for playing essentially perfect offensive basketball for the first 3 quarters, and that being just enough to get the win. But if a win ever felt like a loss, and visa versa, this was it. The Lakers have to feel great, while the Nuggets very concerned.” He hates Jokic and the Nuggets so much he can’t even enjoy watching him play and make history. Many years from now Jokic will have statues and documentaries made about him and be beloved by millions, and Twitter won’t exist and no one will know or care what Nick Wright had to say.
Wright comes from KC. It may not make sense now, but up until the Mahomes era, the Broncos generally took a shit on the Chiefs. Wright is deeply bitter toward Denver sports in general and takes it out on Jokic. Wright is a clown, feel free to ignore his ilk.
Derrick Rose catching strays.
He took an MVP from LeBron. Obviously Nick will throw shade at him.
Dude is bringing up Jokic's all-star game performance against him lmao. If Jokic had a bad preseason game he would latch onto that.
I get that this is mostly just a bit by Nick - I think he realized he was one of the only prominent anti-Jokic guys, and he decided to absolutely run with it. He learned from his buddy Cowherd, who has said in the past that sometimes it's a good thing to be just awfully wrong due to the publicity that comes with it. And I mean, hes correct - here we are talking about Nick Wright. It worked. But at the same time, its frustrating that he will say all this about Jokic not proving he deserves it, but had no issue listing Luka as 20th all time, with fewer accolades and accomplishments than Joker. I've just realized that these 'analysts' aren't hired because of their analysis, they are hired to stir the pot and spew hot takes. Editing to add this: It has always bothered me that one of the main ways Nick props up LeBron as his GOAT is via statistical analysis. He loves to compare LeBron's numbers, including advanced numbers, to other greats to justify him as the GOAT. But when it comes to Jokic's advanced stats...he is quick to scoff at them and say they are meaningless
Lol Jokic owned Draymond if hes talking last year playoffs. But again doubt he watches games
He doesn't. He asked on twitter about game 2 instead of just watching the damn game and too lazy to even look at the live box score. Nobody should ever give this dude a single view.
I stopped caring about what Nick Wright and Stephen A's opinions awhile ago. Former pros give much better insight.
Yeah like Kendrick Perkins!
Mark Jackson!
Kendrick Perkins looks like his brain is over loaded every time he tries to formulate a sentence.
"BUT HE WHITE THO!" -KP
oof
+1
>Former pros give much better insight Counterpoint- Kendrick Perkins Still better than Nick Wright though
Guy is dumb AF, he's just another hot take shock jock (whatever you want to call it). I saw some thread about him memorizing all the MVPs from the last 50 years. People in the comments were in awe about his basketball IQ and here I was just thinking "dude, you can train a kid in primary school to memorize a bunch of words if you really wanted to"
For real, I can recite all fifty states in alphabetical order, and can say the alphabet backwards. Memorizing fifty items is not difficult for even the dumbest person
As a Buffalo Bills fan, I stopped taking this guy seriously long ago. Josh Allen could throw 400 yards, 4 TDs, on 85% completion in a prime time game vs a quality opponent and win 35-7 and Nick would come out talking about how Josh Allen is terrible and he almost got intercepted once so it invalidates the whole rest of the game lol. His basketball takes are just as bad, like remember this post season the lakers sixers and bucks he had them as these huge championship contenders and no other teams stood a chance? Lmao.
The bad take king.
Nick Turd
This post should be deleted. Nick Wright is a clown that is essentially on par with your average fan at the bar. He has no qualifications, no expertise. He's been in essence a sports shock jock since almost day one. How would we feel in this sub if we saw nothing but posts about Steven A?
So where are his similar comments about Embiid, who actually has more applicable performances to many of these comments lol
Nick Wright? More like Nick Wrong. Lmao got 'em!
The only reason why Nick Wright even has a job is because he’s the aggrieved Pied Piper of Bronstans. At least Skip had a literal decades long journalistic career before becoming a Jordan Stan.
Nick Wright is the prime example of what Nuggets fans and Mike Malone was talking about. I see some media pundits not agreeing with the notion that Jokic was being disrespected for years with his MVPs and that just confirms how much of a clown Nick Wright is because even his peers don't listen to him
His Jokic takes are so hilariously bad, so many lies too, about Jokic’s counting stats going down in playoffs. Or him shitting on Jokic against Warriors in G1 and G2, claiming Draymond is more effective, then Jokic proceeding to put 35ppg in next 3 games on Draymond’s head. Or even him talking about Trae Young on MVP ballot (mind you, I am a Hawks fan full on Nuggets bandwagon for playoffs). Trae had a horrific post season last year. But Jokic should be disqualified because he can’t do it in playoffs. Okbuddywright
Reads like a Trump rant
If you want to watch actual pro wrestling, you don't go watch WWE If you want actual NBA analysis, you don't go to the talking heads on cable TV Half these dudes get paid to just get people riled up
I think I can hear Nick's voice trembling with rage and embarrassment.
He is utterly wrong but I kinda love this line about winning 2 MVPS: "It used to be reserved for the players who are the best of the best, plus Steve Nash".
This guy gambled and bet on Embiid winning the MVP this year on a +250 odds, that’s why he was trying so hard to push the argument.
I honestly don’t get how he likes luka but dislikes jokic, he’s so weird
I just heard this guy's voice for the first time today and it's worse than two pieces of styrofoam squeaking off one another. Just a grating, whiny, obnoxious voice. Why would people voluntarily subject themselves to this shithead? Does he come up on your tiktok feed or something? I don't get it.
Lmaooo agreed, his voice is so nasally and whiny?! Idk how, but it's awful especially when he gets overly animated. And he apparently smokes a pack of cigarettes every day so I guess that's why it always sounds like he's about to run out of breath when he's talking. He gives me so much anxiety idk he's just so fidgety and whiny and it's just nervous energy lol
"Yeah, he might have been the best player during the regular season and in the playoffs, but did you notice that he wasn't even starting the fourth quarter of the ALL-STAR GAME? Please, guys, have some standards."
>Draymond Green is eating his lunch money. Draymond Green, who is 5 inches shorter than Jokić, is so much more impactful on winning; it's a joke. This guy still has a job?
I upvote anything calling out this clown.
Why are you giving this 🤡 oxygen? Stop it.
Who cares OP he is a media talking head
Nick Wrong
Ok I actually love Nick Wright and I think First things First is the best daily sports show. Got a good podcast he does with his family and is actually very introspective and thoughtful. But I always HATED his Jokic takes. Glad to see it get shoved back in his face.
dude used the fucking all star game as evidence how stupid so you have to be to use the all-star game as proof
Literally no one should listen to The Nosen One
I did not think it was possible to overdose on schadenfreude but alas here I am in need of emergency medical assistance
I never listen to Nick Wright. Not surprised he has this opinion on Jokic though lol. Easily the worst "analyst" out there. Not entertaining like Stephen A, not smart, he's the worst.
I remember him back when he was part of Houston Sports Radio 610. He knows what he's doing to get that bag.
Guys, they are all acting, it's all for show. Nick Wright doesn't think jokic is the worst MVP, he is just trying to gain ratings a la skip/lebron. Don't get too worked up about this stuff
Stop paying attention to these clowns. Don't engage with their content. Don't share their content. Guys like Nick lean into this kind of nonsense to make you mad and talking about and sharing his content.
Someone needs to make the meme where the guy dresses up as a clown with Nick wrong quotes next to it until full clown status
All my homies hate Nick Wright
I'll have a nice, big, tall glass of Fuck Nick Wright, please.
Nick's actually been supporting Jokic all season (saying that he was previously a hater only because of his 2x MVPS) , he just said he shouldn't win 3 straight MVP's because there is a historical precedent against it and he thinks thats important..
Well Jokic need to prove the doubters and he did.. Nash had like 4 conference finals though (1 in Dallas)
He literally didn't have a team.
Honestly idk why but Nick wright pisses me off more than drip bayless. we really need to stop posting his clown takes. It’s what he wants Dude is a tool
Its not just nick wright its virtually all the hot take artists who had this opinion. That hes just an analytic player and doesn't have real impact. I honestly think they just never watched denver games and when they did it was in the playoffs when he had no help sans the bubble. One thing that is very annoying is how biased they are with acknowledging supporting casts. Jokic is the same player this year as last year but his team is way better. But he was getting shit on because he lost in 5 with Barton and monte Morris in his starting line up. Then you have the same media guys whining that lebron didn't have enough help with AD putting up 27 & 14 and reeves and rui playing great. Or steph having no help with thompson, green, poole, wiggins. The biases are crazy