2024-25 NBA MVP announcement takeaways: How voters (and Clippers) got things very wrong

Here are three takeaways from the highly contested race.

1. Joke(r)'s on us

We'll let SGA have his moment — but not before acknowledging Nuggets center Nikola Jokic was robbed. Years from now, we'll look back and see that Jokic clearly had the better season of the two.

He became the first center in NBA history (and only the third player all-time) to average a triple-double in a season, finishing 2024-25 with 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists per game while shooting 57.6 percent, including a career-best 41.7 percent from three-point range.

It was Jokic's best season, which is impressive for a player with three previous MVP wins. But that also is likely why he was snubbed this year. Instead of choosing the actual most valuable player, voters were dictated by fatigue and an urge to see someone else celebrated.

To Gilgeous-Alexander's credit, voters didn't have to look far for a replacement.

2. 2019 Clippers trade looks even worse

When the Clippers traded for Paul George during the summer of 2019, they likely believed they had just built the next great NBA dynasty. And they might have — just not in Los Angeles.

That trade, which sent Gilgeous-Alexander and the rights to an astonishing seven future first-round picks (Clippers' unprotected picks in 2022, 2024 and 2026 plus picks swaps in 2023 and 2025 and Heat first-rounders in 2021 and 2023) to the Thunder, laid the groundwork for the Thunder becoming the West's best team and being seven wins away from the organization's first league title since arriving in Oklahoma City.

The Clippers had no way of knowing they were parting with a future MVP when they dealt Gilgeous-Alexander, but that hardly makes it any easier to swallow.

This season, Gilgeous-Alexander led the NBA in scoring and finished the regular season averaging 32.7 points, 6.4 assists, five rebounds, 1.7 steals and one block per game.

The trade shifted the balance of power in the West, just as we anticipated. But it's the Thunder on top, not the Clippers. For a franchise that's rarely (if ever) has had nice things, it's not necessarily surprising the transaction blew up in L.A.'s face.

Every accolade SGA receives is another knife in the Clippers' side.

3. NBA's disorganized process is embarrassing

So, this is how a billion-dollar organization chose to reveal its MVP, huh? 

The NBA turned its most prestigious individual honor into an anticlimax with its unorganized handling of the MVP reveal.

The deadline for voters to submit their 2024-25 awards ballots was April 15, more than a month ago, and the league didn't announce until earlier this week that the MVP award would be revealed on Wednesday, May 21 during TNT's pregame broadcast ahead of Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Finals between the Indiana Pacers and New York Knicks.

Then, hours before the official announcement, Charania leaked the news.

Is this a recreational league or one of the four major American sports leagues? We can't tell.

It shouldn't be as difficult as pulling teeth to get the NBA to share results of its regular-season awards.

The league should be embarrassed by its mishandling of the 2024-25 MVP award. If the NBA doesn't take it seriously, why should we?