The long wait for the first running back to be drafted finally came to an end.
The Carolina Panthers traded up six spots to take Texas running back Jonathon Brooks with the 46th pick in the NFL draft Friday night, the second-latest selection for the first running back to go off the board.
Brooks might have gone earlier but he tore his ACL late in the season after rushing for 1,139 yards in 11 games.
The only draft that had a longer wait for a running back came in 2014. Bishop Sankey was the first one taken when he went 54th to Tennessee that year.
The only other time in the common draft era starting in 1967 when no running backs were taken in the first round came two years ago, when Breece Hall was the first taken at No. 36 by the New York Jets.
“I think for us, we value the running backs and we value the running game," Panthers general manager Dan Morgan said. "I think to have a guy like Jonathon Brooks, he was a guy we loved and identified. ... They are valuable to us because we are going to be running the ball.”
There was a belief that the first running back picked could start a run at the position with several other top backs projected to go in the second and third rounds of the draft. But it took 20 more picks before the next back was selected, with Florida State's Trey Benson going to Arizona with the second pick in the third round.
Two more backs went later in the third round as the Rams took Michigan's Blake Corum 83rd and Green Bay took Southern California's MarShawn Lloyd with the 88th pick. The backs taken so far match the low for the first three rounds in the common draft era previously hit in 2021 and 2016.
“It’s hard to think about," Benson said about the lack of running backs drafted. “I know the position is devalued but that just means we have a lot of work to do and I know this running back class will turn it around.”
Teams have been shying away from using premium picks at running back in recent years as offenses have focused more on the passing game and teams have shifted away from using bell-cow backs.
There was a brief respite last season when Atlanta drafted Bijan Robinson eighth overall and Detroit took Jahmyr Gibbs with the 12th pick — both going off the board before any wide receivers.
This year there were a record-tying seven wide receivers drafted in the first round, marking the 13th time in the past 14 drafts that more receivers went in round one than running backs, with the lone exception being 2018. That happened just once in the first 17 years of the common draft era.
But since the start of the rookie wage scale in 2011, there have been 59 receivers taken in the first round compared to 19 running backs.
Brooks believes the league is underrating the position.
“I guess the league and all of the fans will see this year,” Brooks said. “I do agree that as a running backs class, and in the NFL in general, I think a lot of people are going to start showing why we should be held to a higher standard.”
The league is coming off the first season since 1990 when no running back carried the ball at least 300 times with Derrick Henry leading the league with 280. That followed a 2023 offseason when several star running backs failed to generate lucrative long-term contracts as NFL teams dedicate their resources more to the passing game.
AP Sports Writer Steve Reed in Charlotte, North Carolina, contributed to this report
AP NFL: https://apnews.com/NFL
FILE - Texas running back Jonathon Brooks runs free before scoring a touchdown against TCU during the first half of an NCAA college football game, Saturday, Nov. 11, 2023, in Fort Worth, Texas. The Dallas Cowboys are resetting at running back eight years after drafting Ezekiel Elliott. Brooks, who is recovering from a major knee injury, is the highest-rated running back in the draft, according to nfl.com, and the only one among the top 30 prospects. (AP Photo/Julio Cortez, FIle)
Nikola Jokic did it all again. And the MVP trophy is his again.
Jokic, the Denver Nuggets star from Serbia, was announced Wednesday night as the NBA's Most Valuable Player — his third time winning the award in the past four seasons, a feat that just six other players in league history have accomplished.
He averaged 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds and 9.0 assists. Others averaged more in each category — and Jokic has had better years in each of those categories — but he was the only player to rank in the NBA’s top 10 in points, rebounds and assists per game this season.
Jokic got 79 of a possible 99 first-place votes from the panel of reporters and broadcasters who cast ballots on awards when the regular season ended.
“It’s got to start with your teammates,” Jokic said on TNT, where the award was announced. “Without them, I’m nothing. Without them, I cannot do nothing. Coaches, players, organization, medical staff, development coaches ... I cannot be whoever I am without them.”
Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was second and Dallas’ Luka Doncic was third, both getting into the top three of MVP voting for the first time. With Jokic from Serbia, Gilgeous-Alexander from Canada and Doncic from Slovenia, it marked the third consecutive season that three players born outside the U.S. finished 1-2-3 in the MVP balloting.
This time, the foreign dominance atop the NBA was even more pronounced: Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who is from Greece, was fourth — so this became the first time in the award’s 69-year history that international players went 1-2-3-4 in the voting. It also became the sixth consecutive year that a player born outside the U.S. won the award.
Jokic appeared on television for the award announcement wearing a T-shirt commemorating the life of one of his mentors, Golden State assistant coach Dejan Milojević, who died earlier this year after a heart attack on a road trip.
“To be honest, I’m wearing this shirt pretty much every day, especially when I’m in the training facility,” Jokic said. "Deki was the guy who gave me the freedom. He showed me the way how you’re supposed to do things — act, train, workout. ... He trusted me and I can just say, ‘thank you.’”
Jokic appeared on all 99 ballots, with 18 second-place votes and two third-place votes. Gilgeous-Alexander also appeared on every ballot, with 15 first-place votes, 40 second-place, 40 third-place, three fourth-place and one fifth-place nod.
Doncic was on all but one ballot and got four first-place votes. Antetokounmpo got one first-place vote on his way to fourth. New York's Jalen Brunson was fifth, followed by Boston’s Jayson Tatum, Minnesota’s Anthony Edwards, Sacramento’s Domantas Sabonis and Phoenix’s Kevin Durant.
“Some people say it’s the best player on the best team,” Jokic said, when asked to define an MVP. “To me, it’s the guy who’s the most valuable, the team couldn’t play without him.”
Jokic is now the ninth player to win the MVP award at least three times. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won it six times, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan each won five, Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James won four, and Moses Malone, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson are the other three-time winners.
Jokic’s surprise rise to superstardom has been chronicled time and again over the years: He was the 41st overall pick in the 2014 draft, didn’t even think he had a realistic chance at playing in the NBA when his career was beginning and now has a Hall of Fame resume at 29.
The other players with three MVP trophies in a four-year span are James, Johnson, Bird, Abdul-Jabbar, Chamberlain and Russell. And Jokic becomes the fifth player to be first or second in the MVP voting in four consecutive years — joining Bird, Abdul-Jabbar, Russell and Tim Duncan.
Gilgeous-Alexander had perhaps the best feel-good story in the NBA this season, helping Oklahoma City to the No. 1 seed in the Western Conference by averaging 30.1 points, 5.5 rebounds and 6.2 assists. The Thunder won 57 games, 17 more than they did last season and 33 more than they did two years ago, their rise coinciding with Gilgeous-Alexander’s emergence as one of the game’s elite players.
“There is not a night when I don’t feel like we have the best player on the floor. … There’s no one I’d rather have on our team than him,” Thunder coach Mark Daigneault, the league’s coach of the year this season, said last month.
Doncic made a case for the MVP award by posting the first season in NBA history in which a player averaged 34 points, nine rebounds and nine assists per game. There had been 14 instances before this year in which a player averaged that many points and rebounds in a season — of those, five had resulted in MVP wins, including last season when Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid averaged 33 points and 10 rebounds.
And this was the second time ever that a player averaged at least 33 points and nine assists per game. The other was in 1972-73, when Kansas City’s Tiny Archibald averaged 34 points and 11 assists. He finished third in that season’s MVP voting, just like Doncic did this season.
But in the end, it was Jokic who stood above all others — and the vote wasn't close.
“I think he’s stated his case pretty well," Nuggets guard Jamal Murray said. “He does it every night. It’s hard to do what he does and face the kind of pressure that he does each and every game. He does it with a smile on his face. He makes everybody around us better. And he’s a leader on the court and somebody that we expect greatness from every time he steps on the court and he’s delivered.”
AP Sports Writers Arnie Stapleton and Pat Graham in Denver contributed to this report.
AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/NBA
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic drops back to defend during the second half of Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series against the Minnesota Timberwolves, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, left, looks to pass the ball as Minnesota Timberwolves center Naz Reid defends during the second half of Game 2 of an NBA basketball second-round playoff series, Monday, May 6, 2024, in Denver. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski)
FILE - From left are Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic, Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2023. Jokic, Doncic and Gilgeous-Alexander are the three finalists for the NBA MVP Award that will be announced Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/File)
FILE - Dallas Mavericks guard Luka Doncic, center, shoots as Los Angeles Clippers guard Norman Powell, right, defends during the second half in Game 5 of an NBA basketball first-round playoff series Wednesday, May 1, 2024, in Los Angeles. Doncic, Nikola Jokic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the three finalists for the NBA MVP Award that will be announced Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Mark J. Terrill, File)
FILE - Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, left, scores against Golden State Warriors guard Brandin Podziemski, middle, and forward Dario Saric during the second half of an NBA basketball game in San Francisco, Saturday, Nov. 18, 2023. Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic and Luka Doncic are the three finalists for the NBA MVP Award that will be announced Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
FILE - Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (15) shoots against Memphis Grizzlies guard Jordan Goodwin (4) in the second half of an NBA basketball game, Sunday, April 14, 2024, in Memphis, Tenn. Jokic, Luka Doncic and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the three finalists for the NBA MVP Award that will be announced Wednesday, May 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Brandon Dill, File)
