The NBA will reveal this season’s Most Valuable Player on Sunday, which just happens to be the day before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and the San Antonio Spurs.
Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the reigning MVP and he’s one of the three finalists for the award this season — along with Spurs center Victor Wembanyama and Denver’s Nikola Jokic. Amazon Prime Video announced that it would reveal the MVP winner during its pregame show Sunday, which starts at 7:30 p.m. EDT.
No matter who wins, it’ll be the eighth consecutive season in which a player who was born outside the U.S. takes the MVP trophy.
This international run of MVPs started with Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Denver’s Nikola Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon but has since become a U.S. citizen) in 2023, Jokic again in 2024 and Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) last year.
Wembanyama would be the first French player to win MVP, and Jokic is seeking a fourth MVP — something only Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Michael Jordan (five), Bill Russell (five), Wilt Chamberlain (four) and LeBron James (four) have done.
It’ll also be the 12th MVP award overall for an international player. Before this current run, Nigeria’s Hakeem Olajuwon won in 1994, Canada’s Steve Nash won in 2005 and 2006, and Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki won in 2007.
The scheduling of the announcement may be a hint that Gilgeous-Alexander might be the winner, because it would have the same time-frame that the MVP reveal followed a year ago. In 2025, Gilgeous-Alexander was announced as the winner May 21, and he was formally presented with the trophy before Game 2 of the West finals in Oklahoma City on May 22.
This year, the Sunday announcement comes a day before the Thunder plays host to Game 1 of the West finals on Monday night.
Awards so far this season
A breakdown of the awards already announced by the NBA this season:
— Defensive Player of the Year: Victor Wembanyama, San Antonio.
— Clutch Player of the Year: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Oklahoma City.
— Sixth Man of the Year: Keldon Johnson, San Antonio.
— Most Improved Player: Nickeil Alexander-Walker, Atlanta.
— Rookie of the Year: Cooper Flagg, Dallas.
— Executive of the Year: Brad Stevens, Boston.
— Twyman-Stokes Teammate of the Year: DeAndre Jordan, New Orleans.
— Hustle Award: Moussa Diabaté, Charlotte.
— Sportsmanship Award: Derrick White, Boston.
The league’s Coach of the Year award (San Antonio’s Mitch Johnson, Detroit’s J.B. Bickerstaff, or Boston’s Joe Mazzulla) has yet to be announced, as have the All-NBA, All-Rookie and All-Defensive teams.
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AP NBA: https://apnews.com/nba
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