ESPN NBA analyst Mark Jackson faced some backlash online from basketball fans last week when he revealed his NBA MVP ballot was absent Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic.
Philadelphia 76ers big man Joel Embiid ended up claiming the award, and Jokic finished second in voting. Jackson voted Embiid first, Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo second, Boston Celtics forward Jayson Tatum third, Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander fourth, and Cleveland Cavaliers guard Donovan Mitchell fifth.
Jackson later apologized to Jokic for leaving him off, and said if he got a do-over he’d have Jokic third behind Embiid and Giannis.
Mark’s ESPN colleague Michael Wilbon defended him in an interview Friday on Waddle & Silvy on ESPN 1000 in Chicago.
Wilbon also cast votes for the MVP. His ballot read: Embiid, Giannis, Jokic, Tatum and Sacramento Kings guard De’Arron Fox fifth.
Wilbon said in the past when he’s voted, and he’s got two decades worth of MVP voting experience, he’d usually bounce his selections off of an ESPN researcher or someone at the Washington Post who’s an NBA fanatic. His sounding board now is his teenage son Matthew.
“Now I run it past my resident fanatic, who I live with, who says to me, ‘Dad you’re going to leave Gilgeous-Alexander off your top-five?'” he said. “And I was like, ‘Oh wow. I know. I forgot. I got De’Arron Fox.”
Wilbon said he considered swapping Fox and Gilgeous-Alexander on his ballot, but decided against it. He added that it’s easy to forget some other players and he empathized with Jackson.
“I believe Mark. If he says he forgot, he forgot,” he said. “Anybody who hasn’t done one of these doesn’t know what the hell they’re talking about. I had forgotten.” And I need a safety net, and I have a couple of safety nets so I won’t do that.”
“It’s a bad look, and you feel bad,” Wilbon added. “But it happens.”
