Tag: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar

Nikola Jokic officially named MVP

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has been named the 2021-22 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, the NBA announced today. This is the second Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award for Jokić, who also earned the honor last season. He becomes the 13th player …

Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić has been named the 2021-22 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player, the NBA announced today. This is the second Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award for Jokić, who also earned the honor last season. He becomes the 13th player to win the award in consecutive seasons, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Stephen Curry, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Steve Nash and Bill Russell.

Source: NBA.com

What’s the buzz on Twitter?

StatMuse @statmuse
Stat leaders among the top 5 MVP finalists:
PPG — Embiid
RPG — Jokic
APG — Luka
SPG — Jokic
BPG — Embiid
FG% — Jokic
+/- — Booker pic.twitter.com/2Ob9rCrdSE – 6:47 PM

Tim Bontemps @TimBontemps
NBA MVP voting results:
Jokic: 65 1st place votes, 875 pts
Embiid: 26 1st place votes, 706 pts
Giannis: 9 1st place votes, 595 pts
Final ESPN MVP straw poll results:
Jokic: 62 1st place votes, 860 pts
Embiid: 29 1st place votes, 719 pts
Giannis: 9 1st place votes, 593 pts pic.twitter.com/MhP7nmjlvS – 6:46 PM

Eurohoops @Eurohoopsnet
OFFICIAL: Nikola Jokic voted #NBA #MVP for the second straight season
eurohoops.net/en/nba-news/13… – 6:46 PM
Adam Mares @Adam_Mares
Jokic is the best. That was great. – 6:45 PM
Rob Peterson @ShotDrJr
And Jokic’s place in the Naismith Hall of Fame is secured. – 6:44 PM
Callie Caplan @CallieCaplan
Luka Doncic: Year 4, No. 5 in MVP voting behind Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Devin Booker.
Luka and Booker both got 1 second-place vote but Booker got 8 third-place votes to Luka’s 0. pic.twitter.com/rtNccIdPzF – 6:44 PM

Michael Singer @msinger
Nikola Jokic earned 65 first-place votes (875 points overall) Joel Embiid had 26 first-place (706 points overall). Giannis Antetokounmpo had 9 first-place votes (595 points overall). – 6:43 PM
TJ McBride @TJMcBrideNBA
This Jokic MVP interview in front of his horse stable is elite, legendary, mesmerizing, and any other adjective you want to throw out there. What a joy. – 6:42 PM
John Schuhmann @johnschuhmann
Jokic is awesome.
Let us cherish him. – 6:41 PM
Ohm Youngmisuk @NotoriousOHM
Asked if he considers himself a long shot who won MVP, Jokic agreed while sitting in front of a horse and stable in the middle of the night: “If it’s not me, who is it. I’m coming from this city (Sombor)… from this stable basically.” – 6:41 PM
Sean Grande @SeanGrandePBP
Jayson Tatum finished 6th in the MVP voting, we’ll see if that’s a harbinger for the All-NBA 1st team.
The Jokic win wasn’t as close as a lot of people thought it would be. pic.twitter.com/pWookfa9xT – 6:40 PM

Gordon Gross @GMoneyNuggs
Laughing my ass off at Jokic doing exactly what all of us thought he was doing: harness racing his horses, doing this acceptance interview with the stable dog hacking up a hairball nearby. – 6:40 PM
Mike Vorkunov @MikeVorkunov
Nikola Jokic, MVP. He took 65 of 100 1st place votes. It’s the first time the top 3 are all international players. pic.twitter.com/XKhCXztZfu – 6:39 PM

Michael Scotto @MikeAScotto
Nikola Jokic is the NBA MVP. He’s the 13th player to be MVP in consecutive seasons, joining Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Giannis Antetokounmpo, Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Stephen Curry, Tim Duncan, LeBron James, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Moses Malone, Steve Nash and Bill Russell. pic.twitter.com/JVDpcqGYFw – 6:38 PM

Steve Aschburner @AschNBA
Here are the balloting results for the 2021-22 NBA Most Valuable Player Award won by Denver’s Nikola Jokic, again. pic.twitter.com/raNFMSI05D – 6:38 PM

Michael Singer @msinger
Nikola Jokic on the MVPs via @NBAonTNT: “When I’m old, fat and grumpy, hopefully I’m gonna remember (the awards).” – 6:37 PM
Christos Tsaltas @Tsaltas46
It’s official. Nikola Jokic is the 2022 NBA MVP of the season. Joker won the trophy for second straight season! #MileHighBasketball #Jokic #NBA75 pic.twitter.com/nrILYRicPW – 6:36 PM

Michael Singer @msinger
That’s Michael Malone, Ogi Stojakovic, Josh Kroenke and others from the #Nuggets contingent at the horse stable to celebrate Nikola Jokic’s B2B MVP. – 6:36 PM
Cody Taylor @CodyTaylorNBA
The NBA has officially announced Nikola Jokic as the Most Valuable Player. The full voting results: pic.twitter.com/ejc23Z9rjj – 6:35 PM

JD Shaw @JShawNBA
Full voting results for the MVP award. Behind Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid finishes second, Giannis Antetokounmpo third: pic.twitter.com/MOSvbrLXVD – 6:35 PM

Katy Winge @katywinge
A Sombor Surprise 🥺
Josh Kroenke, Tim Connelly, Coach Malone, Felipe (head strength and conditioning coach), Oggy (director of player development), all made the trip to Sombor to deliver Nikola Jokic his MVP award.
You could see it in the video, Joker was emotional. – 6:35 PM
Ohm Youngmisuk @NotoriousOHM
Nikola Jokic receiving his second MVP trophy at a Serbian horse stable is just perfectly Joker. – 6:35 PM
Howard Beck @HowardBeck
As expected, Nikola Jokic has won MVP for the 2021-22 season. pic.twitter.com/k6QToIs1Dd – 6:35 PM

Michael Singer @msinger
It’s official: Nikola Jokic is your back-to-back MVP.
denverpost.com/2022/05/11/nik… – 6:33 PM
Brian Mahoney @briancmahoney
NBA MVP to be announced today on TNT’s pregame show at 6:30 p.m. EDT. Will feature an interview with Nikola Jokic. – 5:07 PM
Salman Ali @SalmanAliNBA
It’s not “virtuous” to not want the MVP award. Most of the time it’s disingenuous. Everybody wants it.
Steph wanted it, Giannis wanted it, Jokic wanted it. These players have nothing to gain by saying that they want it because it’ll inevitably be labeled “selfish”. – 12:27 PM
Keith Pompey @PompeyOnSixers
‘I’m not mad’: Joel Embiid shrugs off losing MVP to Nikola Jokic and vows to focus on winning a championship with Sixers inquirer.com/sports/sixers-… via @phillyinquirer – 8:38 AM
Justin Grasso @JGrasso_
Joel Embiid congratulates Nikola Jokic for winning MVP. Says there is “no right or wrong” for the winner. He mentioned that he figured he wasn’t going to win weeks ago #Sixers – 10:50 PM
Tim Bontemps @TimBontemps
Joel Embiid congratulates Nikola Jokic on winning MVP, says there was no wrong answer and that he, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Devin Booker all had deserving cases to win. – 10:50 PM
Dave Early @DavidEarly
TNT really pushing this narrative that Embiid may be just moping and sulky from Jokic winning MVP. No sources cited but some consistent spec. pic.twitter.com/293U5w8dee – 9:20 PM

Duvalier Johnson @DuvalierJohnson
Imagine the timeline if Nikola Jokic ever played this poorly in a playoff game. – 8:48 PM

More on this storyline

Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid finished in second place with 706 points (26 first-place votes). Milwaukee Bucks forward Giannis Antetokounmpo finished in third place with 595 points (nine first-place votes), followed by Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker in fourth place with 216 points and Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Dončić in fifth place with 146 points. -via NBA.com / May 11, 2022
This is the first time that both the top three and four of the top five finishers in voting for the Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award are international players, with Jokić (Serbia), Embiid (Cameroon) and Antetokounmpo (Greece) comprising the top three and Dončić (Slovenia) joining them in the top five. -via NBA.com / May 11, 2022

Justin Kubatko: Giannis Antetokounmpo …

Justin Kubatko: Giannis Antetokounmpo yesterday: ✅ 42 PTS ✅ 12 REB ✅ 8 AST He’s recorded at least 30p/10r/5a in 13 playoff games, the sixth-most such games in NBA history: 48 – LeBron James 20 – Elgin Baylor 20 – Kareem Abdul-Jabbar 19 – Larry Bird 14 – Wilt Chamberlain 13 – Antetokounmpo pic.twitter.com/1FUsZckpMT

On this date: Kareem makes statement versus 76ers in NBA Finals

On May 4, 1980, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar sent the tone for the Lakers in their NBA Finals matchup versus the Philadelphia 76ers.

The 1979-80 season was a revelation for the Los Angeles Lakers.

They had traded for Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, the best player in the NBA, in 1975, but it had been a fruitless endeavor to that point, as they had failed to reach the NBA Finals.

But in 1980, thanks to a once-in-a-generation rookie named Magic Johnson, the Lakers went from a good team to a great one.

They won 60 regular season games, just one shy of the league’s best record, and after disposing of the defending champion Seattle SuperSonics in the Western Conference Finals, they advanced to the Finals for the first time since 1972.

There, L.A. faced the Philadelphia 76ers, who featured the regal and poetic Julius Erving, plus a rough-and-tumble supporting cast and an even rougher fan base.

According to Jeff Pearlman’s book about the 1980s Lakers, 18 NBA head coaches were asked who they thought would win the matchup, and 11 said Philly.

But Abdul-Jabbar didn’t care what anyone thought. He was hungry for a ring.

In Game 1, he tossed in 33 points on 14-of-21 shooting, 14 rebounds, five assists and six blocked shots, and the Lakers had their way with the Sixers in a 109-102 win.

Abdul-Jabbar would dominate the rest of the series, at least until an ankle injury in Game 5 forced him to sit out the following contest.

Luckily for him and his team, Johnson would pick up the slack – and then some.

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As the writers and directors of the …

As the writers and directors of the movie “Airplane!,” we were asked to briefly play ourselves in “Winning Time.” Because we had never seen the script, we were surprised to see the actor playing Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (Solomon Hughes) say to a child actor, in response to an autograph request, “F— off, kid.” We had never seen anything like that on the “Airplane!” set. In fact, during the “Airplane!” shoot, and in the years since, we’ve found Kareem to be both professional and kind.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar rips ‘Winning Time’ HBO show

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar: I’ll start with the bland characterization. The characters are crude stick-figure representations that resemble real people the way Lego Hans Solo resembles Harrison Ford. Each character is reduced to a single bold trait as if the writers were afraid anything more complex would tax the viewers’ comprehension. Jerry Buss is Egomaniac Entrepreneur, Jerry West is Crazed Coach, Magic Johnson is Sexual Simpleton, I’m Pompous Prick. They are caricatures, not characters. Amusement park portraits that emphasize one physical feature to amplify your appearance—but never touching the essence. The result of using caricatures instead of fully developed characters is that the plot becomes frenetic melodrama, sensationalized invented moments to excite the senses but reveal nothing deeper. It’s as if he strung together a bunch of flashing colored lights and told us, “This is the spirit of Christmas.”