The 2023-24 MVP award announcement has come and gone, and Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic has now won the prestigious award for the third time in his career, garnering 79 out of a possible 99 first-place votes. In the end, despite the Dallas Mavericks' torrid stretch to end the season, Luka Doncic ended up finishing a distant third in the MVP voting, which might be seen by some Mavs fans as a grave injustice given how unmatched his stat-sheet stuffing ways are.

However, there might be an even more surprising injustice involving the Mavericks in the MVP race, although it has nothing to do with Doncic. Following the latest year of voting, Kyrie Irving has yet again gone through a season without tallying a single MVP vote. Per HoopsHype on Twitter (X), Irving remains the holder of the record for most All-Star games played without ever receiving a vote for MVP.

It is certainly a bit shocking that Irving hasn't yet picked up any down-ballot votes for the prestigious individual acclaim. Of course, this season, Luka Doncic was the Mavericks' MVP and Irving played mostly a secondary role, which explains his complete absence from the voting tally. The other players who picked up votes are either the best players on their team, or at least have a strong argument for being so.

Alas, a closer look at Kyrie Irving's career would suggest that it's not too hard to understand why the eight-time All-Star is yet to pick up even a fifth-place MVP vote.

Kyrie Irving, an S-tier second option

It didn't take long for Kyrie Irving to emerge as a high-caliber player; he was an All-Star during his sophomore season as he captured the hearts of fans with his endless bag of tricks and incredible ability to make the most difficult of shots. However, it was always going to be hard for him to pick up MVP votes for the first three years of his career, as his Cleveland Cavaliers won just 33.9 percent of their games from the 2011-12 season to 2013-14.

LeBron James then returned to the Cavs in 2014, and Irving settled into a role as a secondary option — a deadly closer in the clutch and a marvelous lead ballhandler in his own right. But playing alongside James cast a huge shadow on Irving and his MVP candidacy; it was difficult to argue that Irving was deserving of an MVP vote since James clearly was much better than him in the three years they shared together.

Irving took his game to the next level during the 2016-17 season, although realistically, who should he have knocked off in one of those MVP ballots? Seven players during that season received MVP votes without getting a single first-place vote, and all of them were the top guys on a playoff team (with the exception of Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant, teammates who ended up splitting votes). Irving simply wasn't that player for the Cavs.

The 2017-18 season perhaps represented Kyrie Irving's best shot at an MVP vote. He was the best player on a Boston Celtics team that finished second in the Eastern Conference. However, he missed the final 15 games of the regular season (and the rest of the playoffs as well) with an injury, which certainly put a damper on his candidacy. His days as the Celtics' best player didn't last too long, as his stint in Beantown ended with much discontent from both sides following a contentious 2018-19 campaign.

With the Brooklyn Nets and now the Mavericks, Irving is back as one of the best secondary options in the NBA, playing in support of Kevin Durant and Luka Doncic, respectively. Voters for the MVP award simply take into account how big of a role an individual plays in a team's success, and it's hard for second options like Irving to crack the ballot unless their teams play at a historically great level.

Mavericks embrace Kyrie with open arms

Another year may have passed without Kyrie Irving getting a single MVP vote, but it surely won't be as big of a deal anymore for the Mavericks star as it would have been in years past. Irving has settled in nicely in Dallas, with the team embracing him and allowing him to be himself after his Nets stint ended in controversy.

Irving has embraced the role of being the ultimate second option; in the first round of the 2024 NBA playoffs, he stuck one dagger after another into the hearts of the Los Angeles Clippers as they put up a marvelous effort in trying to slow Luka Doncic down. That, in itself, is valuable — which is what matters in the end for Irving and the Mavericks.