DENVER — NBA legend Shaquille O'Neal started off his interview with newly crowned MVP Nikola Jokic awkwardly when he told the Denver Nuggets superstar he shouldn't have won the award for a third time.
"You know I love you, you're the best player in the league and I want to congratulate you," O'Neal began the Wednesday night interview on TNT's "Inside the NBA." "But I want you to hear it from me first, I thought SGA should've been MVP. That's no disrespect to you, but congratulations."
Jokic seemed to take the possible slight in stride in his response to Shaq.
“Thank you, Shaq, we don’t judge people here," Jokic said. "That’s fine it’s your opinion. I'm joking."
O'Neal tried to make it clear that there is no ill will between the two.
"Hey, all good," Shaq replied. "I love you, I love your brothers. The thing we're always going to do is keep it real with each other."
During the show, Shaq elaborated on why he thought the Canadian guard deserved the award over the Serbian center.
"I don't like to rain on people's parade, but I'm not happy with this one," the 2000 NBA MVP said. "I think Shai deserved it."
Shaq said Gilgeous-Alexander fulfilled his criteria of being a stat-stuffer on a number one seed. The Thunder and Nuggets finished tied for the best record in the Western Conference with 57 wins each. The Thunder took the top seed over the Nuggets due to a better conference record.
"Congrats to Jokic, you are the best big man in the league," Shaq said. "But based on everyone's criteria, my criteria - stats, stats-stuffer - your criteria [of] number one seed, which team has the better record, I thought Shai Alexander deserved it."
O'Neal also discussed his near misses in the MVP voting and how he is sympathetic for Gilgeous-Alexander coming up just short.
"I've been number two [in MVP voting] a lot, and I played my a** off [for] number two," Shaq explained. "So that fact that he has to start all over next year and try to win it again, I think it was... I know this is going to be hurtful for him. Hopefully, he uses this to win a championship. But I thought, and again no disrespect to the Joker, best big man in the league by far, you could've went this way, but I thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, one of only a few players with 30 points 50 times, stat stuffer, great season, his team is number one, nobody expected them to be number one, I thought Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was going to win it, but congratulations to Joker, I'm happy for him. Third-time MVP, you really can't be mad at this vote."
Despite making it clear Jokic is not a very controversial choice, Shaq continued to argue Jokic wasn't the correct choice.
"But the fact that [Gilgeous-Alexander] has to start all over next year and win it over again, cause again I felt I was robbed two or three times, right? And I played my a** off, stat stuffer, I won championships those years. But again, no disrespect to Joker, I just personally would've given it to Shai."
"Inside the NBA" host Ernie Johnson then interjected to ask, was Jokic not a stat stuffer?
"Yeah, but not like Shai," Shaq answered.
"Really?" a seemingly surprised Johnson asked.
"Shai is one of the few players that had 30 points in 50 games, Erine," Shaq said.
"But you're talking about stuffing the stat sheet, look at all the triple-doubles for Nikola Jokic and his ranks in scoring, rebounding and assists," Johnson argued. "I don't think stat stuffing is an argument here."
"But even doing all of that, OKC was the number one seed," Shaq replied.
O'Neal, who won three NBA championships and three NBA Finals MVP awards with the Los Angeles Lakers, is widely considered one of the greatest players in league history. However, he is no stranger to controversial opinions in his years as an analyst on TNT.
Jokic resoundingly won his third MVP in four years with 79 first-place votes. Gilgeous-Alexander received the second most first-place votes with 15. Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic (4) and Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokunpo (1) were the only other players to receieve first-place votes.
During the regular season, Jokic averaged 26.4 points (10th in the NBA), 12.4 rebounds (4th), 9 assists (3rd), and 1.4 steals (13th), according to the NBA's website.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 30.1 points (3rd), 6.2 assists (19th), 5.5 rebounds (58th) and 2 steals (2nd).
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