Draymond Green slams NBA MVP voters for disrespecting Jayson Tatum
For years, "best player on the best team" was the simple argument that held up while making a case for an NBA MVP. That narrative began to change when Russell Westbrook -- leading the sixth-seeded Thunder -- won the award in 2017 for averaging a triple-double. In 2022, voters went against the grain again, rewarding Nikola Jokic for posting incredible numbers on the sixth-seeded Nuggets.
This year, Jayson Tatum is in danger of falling victim to that changing narrative. Despite leading the top-seeded Celtics in points (26.9), rebounds (8.5) assists (4.8), and steals (1.1), Tatum is not a top-three candidate for MVP at this juncture of the season, per oddsmakers in Las Vegas. Even Luka Doncic (+1100) has considerably shorter odds than Tatum (+4000) despite his Mavs being the eighth seed.
Warriors star Draymond Green sympathizes with Tatum, contending on "The Draymond Green Show" that Tatum deserves more consideration for leading the Celtics to a league-best 45-12 record.
"The Celtics have a seven-and-a-half game lead over the No. 2 seed in the East," Green said. "Clearly, the goalpost has shifted dramatically. Because in this guy's [Tatum] case, he's fifth [in the race]? That goalpost is moving on JT. I don't know what JT gotta do…"
Green believes Tatum would have to lead Boston to an NBA title in June to earn the respect of voters. A part of his reasoning is that Tatum earned a bad rap with his mediocre showing in the 2022 NBA Finals, where he shot a paltry 36 percent from the field and came up short in big moments.
"That wasn’t the case for everybody else," Green lamented while reiterating that it's unfair for Tatum to be slapped with a "win the title first" pre-requisite when others such as Jokic, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Joel Embiid won the MVP without making deep postseason runs.
"I don’t know how it ended up that way for JT."
Tatum echoed a lot of Green's sentiments during All-Star weekend, stating that other MVP candidates "don't get the same treatment" as he does due to their lack of postseason runs.
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