Kevin Durant being blunt here:

Here’s more of the quote in question, from Stefan Bondy at the New York Daily News:

“There’s a lot of players that’s been controlled by their narrative,” Durant said. “Some of it has been because of the player and some of it has been about the perception other people have about that player. In Joel’s case, more people just like Giannis (Antetokounmpo) and (Nikola) Jokic.

“It’s as simple as that. His personality, his story I guess. As a basketball player, if people look at just the game and what is on the floor,” Durant continued, “then narrative and who you are and your personality, that stuff doesn’t really matter or shouldn’t matter. Joel, they probably just like those guys better. It’s not fair. But that’s how it goes at time. If I had a vote, I would choose Joel.”

This is Kevin Durant calling the MVP race a popularity contest, more or less. The larger story probably has more to do with the Sixers than Joel as an individual, though, don’t you think? National media dipshits aren’t going to vote for the Philly guy, because “they hate the Process,” as Embiid once said. We see now with some of the votes going public that “media members” we’ve never even heard of are overwhelmingly going for Jokic or Giannis over Embiid.

Honest to God, all three of those guys are amazing. It really comes down to what pieces of nuance you want to focus on. Joel played most of the season without Ben Simmons, before James Harden came on board. But Jokic also played without Jamal Murray AND Michael Porter Jr. while his top running mates were Will Barton and Aaron Gordon. Then Denver went ahead and won more games than last year, so go figure. Meantime, Embiid had Tobias Harris and Tyrese Maxey. How does that duo compare to Murray/MPJ?

You go through all of the numbers, sidebar topics, intangible considerations, etc, and it’s really damn close. Could be a coin flip, and when that’s the case, perhaps these voters just pick their favorite guy, which is what KD is suggesting.