Giannis Antetokounmpo, Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic are competing for the most valuable player award.
Finnish player Lauri Markkanen is nominated for the most improved player of the year in the NBA basketball league. In the current season, Markkanen has scored hard points for the Utah Jazz and also participated in the league’s all-star game.
The Finn is competing for the title with the New York Knicks Jalen Brunson’s and the Oklahoma City Thunder by Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with.
NBA publicly three finalists in a total of seven award categories.
About honors this year, the award for the most sought-after, most valuable player in the league will go to either the Milwaukee Bucks Giannis Antetokounmpoof the Philadelphia 76ers Joel Embiid or the Denver Nuggets Nikola Jokic.
For the Cameroonian Embiid, the award would be the first of its kind, but his rivals each already have two victories under their belts. In the two previous years, Jokic won the award, while Antetokounmpo took the honor the two years before that.
The Greek Antetokounmpo piloted a team that also included Markkanen in the all-star game this year.
Markkanen is not the only Jazz player nominated, but teammate Walker Kessler is nominated for Rookie of the Year. He faces Orlando Magic’s Paolo Banchero and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Jalen Williams.
Markkanen, 25, had by far the best season of his NBA career. The Finn’s GPA rose to 25.6, and in January, for example, he was just one point short of the 50-point mark.
The season of Markkanen and his club, the Utah Jazz, ended last weekend after the end of the regular season, when the Jazz missed the playoffs.
Even though they didn’t get a place in the playoffs, the Jazz’s season went better than expected. The club’s balance from the season’s 82 regular season matches was 37 wins and 45 losses. The team was three wins away from the last qualifying spot in the playoffs.
The Jazz finished 12th in the western division.
Markkanen will next head to his military service, which he is scheduled to start on Monday at the Defense Forces’ sports school.
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