Shai Gilgeous-Alexander's hype man Shaquille O'Neal endorses Thunder guard over Luka Doncic for MVP

Shaquille O'Neal is making his voice heard in regard to the MVP race for this season. With a closely contested race and a number of deserving players, this season's MVP award is poised to be one of the most controversial. While last season it was a two-man race between Joel Embiid and Nikola Jokic, this season has seen a number of players make strong cases.

Of course, at the same time, the NBA's 65-game requirement in order to be eligible to win regular season awards has factored into things as well. Joel Embiid, who was having a dominant year prior to tearing his meniscus, will be ineligible to win the award and go back-to-back, even if he returns to action.

With the postseason in sight, Shaquille O'Neal has made his voice heard in regard to who he thinks deserves to win the MVP award. In a post on Instagram, Shaquille O'Neal made the case for Shai Gilgeous-Alexander to win the award given his season totals.

As the photo posted by O'Neal indicates, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander ranks first in the league for points, steals, and 30-point games while having the best +/- total in the league. The way the Hall of Famer sees things, he deserves to win MVP.

Note: As is the nature of Instagram stories, after 24 hours they automatically delete, meaning the post may no longer be available on O'Neal's Instagram. As such, a screenshot can be seen below:

@Shaq - Instagram story

Looking at the MVP race on the heels of Shaquille O'Neal's recent post

As previously mentioned, there are a couple of notable contenders in the race for the regular season MVP award. With that in mind, let's take a look at the odds for the MVP race courtesy of FanDuel.

In first place, we have Nikola Jokic, who has -140 odds to win MVP, and sits as the betting favorite to win the award. While the Denver Nuggets currently sit in third place in the Western Conference, the fact that the reigning Finals MVP is in first place shouldn't be surprising.

While Jokic isn't leading the league in points, rebounds, or assists, he leads in one key category, efficiency. Much like in years past, Jokic's vision and ability to impact the game in a myriad of ways has earned him the betting favorite spot for MVP.

In second place on FanDuel, we have Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, who Shaquille O'Neal thinks deserves to win the award. With the OKC Thunder currently sitting in second-place in the West, his status as a +210 underdog in second place is no surprising.

In third place, with notably worse odds to win the award we have Luka Doncic, who leads the league in scoring this season. The case against Doncic seems to be that the Dallas Mavericks have struggled this season, however, whether or not that is the deciding factor in Doncic winning, or losing, the award, only time will tell.

As you can see below, the odds on BetWay are similar to FanDuel, albeit slightly different.