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Most fans get their information about players in the NBA from the media. It makes sense. Players have no incentive to voice their real opinion publicly, and the talking heads of the world fill in the gaps of that silence.
Oftentimes, TV personalities and bloggers will project what they sense is going on, either from actual inside information (which is kept super hush-hush) or simply from vibes. Thankfully, The Athletic published the results of an anonymous NBA player poll full of tea-provoking questions, which provides a glimpse into what these guys really think.
Many of the questions surrounded franchises, rules, coaches, and other NBA stuff that Big Blue Nation probably cares very little about, but multiple former Kentucky Wildcats received votes on questions related to players.
Who should win MVP?
It has long been a two-man race for this year’s NBA MVP, and former Wildcat Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the current frontrunner over former MVP Nikola Jokic. Out of 155 players polled, most tend to agree with this line of thinking, as 56.1 percent of them think SGA should win MVP compared to 37.4 percent for Jokic.
According to one player on why Gilgeous-Alexander should win: “He’s efficient. His team plays much better with him on the court. He’s the culture — the culture is kind of based on him — and they’re the best in the league.”
Hard to argue with that.
Five years from now, who will be the face of the league?
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is hot right now. With his stock soaring amidst a potential MVP selection at the ripe young age of 26, many players think he will be the face of the NBA in five years. Of course, far more players understandably predict it will be Victor Wembanyama.
Wemby earned a whopping 54.3 percent of the 138 votes cast while SGA came in third place with 10.9 percent of the votes. Anthony Edwards received just a few more votes, coming in at 13.8 percent.
Interestingly, no one voted for Nikola Jokic, and even more interestingly, one player voted for Shaedon Sharpe. No word on whether players were allowed to vote for themselves.
Who is the league’s most overrated player?
Now things are getting juicy. The Athletic really leaning into the animosity factor of this poll to elicit some scandalous feedback with this one. When asked who the most overrated player in the NBA was, four former Kentucky players made the list.
Out of 90 responses, Julius Randle received 4.4 percent of the vote, tying him for 5th place, while Tyler Herro received 2.2 percent of the vote, putting him in a tie for 10th place. Devin Booker and Anthony Davis each received one vote apiece.
It is hard to say how much of this is a true opinion of being overrated versus guys just having beef with each other, but the results are interesting nonetheless.
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