Retired NBA All-Star has awful take about Luka Doncic's case for MVP

Luka Doncic cracked the top three in MVP voting for the first time in his career. The highest he had finished before was fourth, which he accomplished in his sophomore year after leading the Dallas Mavericks to a 10-win improvement in the standings.

However, signs are pointing toward the league wrongfully robbing Doncic of the top individual plum. Some voters don't even have the Slovenian superstar in their top two, which is a major disrespect, considering his body of work this season.

Curiously, there are even some folks in the NBA world who don't believe Doncic deserves to be a finalist for the award, arguing that other players, like Jayson Tatum and Giannis Antetokounmpo, should have joined Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander on the list.

Kenyon Martin doesn't think Luka Doncic should be an MVP finalist

Appearing on Gilbert Arenas' podcast, "Gil's Arena," Kenyon Martin expressed his disappointment about how the criteria for MVP voting changes from year to year. 

The retired power forward argued that the voters "continue to move the goalpost," saying that Tatum and Antetokounmpo should be ahead of Doncic in the ranking.

His reason?

Tatum is the best player on the team with the top record, and Antetokounmpo is averaging 30-12-7 for a top-three squad in the Eastern Conference.

Perhaps Martin's most ludicrous take is stating, "The winning part doesn't really anymore, which is sad." He even brought up LeBron James, declaring that if Doncic got a high amount of votes this season, the four-time champ should have won more MVP awards earlier in his career.

Maybe the one-time All-Star didn't watch NBA games that much this year because his points don't appear to hold water.

First of all, the MVP is an individual award and has historically just factored in team success. There have been several winners in the past whose teams didn't reach the 50-win mark, including Jokic in the pandemic-shortened 2020-21 season and the following campaign.

Martin may also have overlooked the fact that the Mavs' 50-32 record would have put them in second place in the Eastern Conference - better than Antetokounmpo's Milwaukee Bucks. That's a testament to how tough the West is, underscoring further how impressive Doncic's leading Dallas to the No. 5 seed is.

What about the assertion that Tatum deserves to rank higher than the four-time All-NBA First-Team selection in the MVP voting? There's certainly an argument there, but the award having the term "most valuable" should provide a clue as to who deserves to rank higher in the ballots between the two potential faces of the league.

While Tatum is undoubtedly valuable to his team, the Boston Celtics actually did well, going 7-1, and showcased their depth when he had to watch from the sidelines this season. On the other hand, the Mavs lost eight of the 12 contests Doncic missed.

So, perhaps Martin should reconsider his stance on this year's MVP voting result and join the group of people and outlets that have finally given Doncic the respect he deserves.

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