The NBA regular season is 82 games. A team can play a maximum of 28 more in the playoffs. But it's that second season, the postseason, that largely drives our conversations about who the league's best player is.
Never mind the lack of variety (you play the same team four to seven times in a row, then move on to the next series), at least relative to the regular season. Never mind the fact that winning 16 games and a championship is a team accomplishment. Media, fandom and the basketball world at large view these pressure-packed, high-stakes performances as the ultimate test of an individual player's worthiness.
And honestly, at least to an extent, that's fair. Trades, the draft, free agency, summer workouts and leagues, the preseason and the regular season all builds to one thing. The entire point is winning the title.
And in basketball, when teams only have five players on the floor at a time, superstars have a bigger impact on that pursuit than they do in soccer, baseball or even football (though quarterbacking seems to become more important every year). So, it should come as no surprise that despite winning back-to-back MVPs and having three of the greatest statistical seasons in NBA history, plenty of people were reluctant to accept Nikola Jokić as the best player in the world till he won a title in 2023. That run undoubtedly changed the Serb's profile, but not for long.
After being eliminated in the second round this year, the debate seems to be open again. And a very .