Miami Heat Legend Dwyane Wade Endorses Three-Time All-Star For MVP

Former Miami Heat superstar Dwyane Wade, on his podcast 'Time Out with Dwyane Wade', gave his thoughts on an annual controversial topic: the NBA's MVP race.

“And one thing I’ve had an issue with in the MVP race is that [Nikola] Jokic has been so amazing, but it’s probably been like two times where his team been in fifth,” Wade said. “And I know that the Western Conference is a very challenging and tough league, but he’s been in fifth and he’s won MVP.”

The Denver Nuggets' Jokic, who has won three MVP awards along with a Finals MVP (against the Miami Heat), has been considered to be neck-and-neck with the Oklahoma City Thunder's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in this season's race for the most coveted individual award.

Gilgeous-Alexander passed Jokic on NBA.com's most recent MVP Ladder, with the Thunder sporting a league-best 59-12 record to the Nuggets' 45-28 record. With Jokic off the floor this season, the Nuggets are about 17 points per 100 possessions worse. For Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder, their Net Rating is about 12 points worse when he's off the floor.

"I thought SGA was the MVP of the league." Wade continued. "Now maybe that was biased because I’m not looking at all the statistical categories. This is an eye test sometimes. And my eye test, that kid over there, that got all that swag and is helping that team, with a young team, go to that level. I want to see him raise that trophy up."

Wade spoke to the recency bias that takes place with MVP voters down the stretch of the season, emphasizing the importance of the last couple of months.

“This is the time of the year where you lose MVPs as well," Wade said. "And I don’t think people understand, we’ve watched certain MVPs get hawked down towards the end of the year. This is the time where the voters tune in a little bit more. This is winning time. And so SGA is in the lead. SGA’s got to finish it out, because you watched past MVPs lose the MVP towards the end of the year, when it’s winning time.”