The 2025-26 NBA MVP race is coming down to the wire (and, in part, who’s healthy). With multiple top candidates out of the running due to injuries, it’s not entirely clear who will come out on top — except for the NBA players, who have a clear favorite.
In an anonymous poll, 159 NBA players told The Athletic who they think should win the contested MVP race. A significant chunk pointed to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, saying that the star Oklahoma City Thunder guard should win his second-straight league MVP.
The 159-player bloc represents about one-third of the total players in the NBA. Per The Athletic, players’ answers for the poll were collected over the course of the past two months.
Gilgeous-Alexander received 39% (62 votes) of the total vote in the poll. That’s nearly double the next-nearest player, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, who ended with 21.4% of the vote.
Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham and Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Dončić all ended with 8.2% (13 votes each) after stepping up big for their teams this season.
San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, who has openly campaigned for league MVP, said last month that he plans to “make sure there’s no debate” around MVP voting. The players don’t appear to agree, with the 22-year-old finishing in sixth place with 5% of the vote.
The poll also notably didn’t take into account the league’s 65-game minimum for postseason award voting. Multiple players on the list — including Cunningham and Dončić — are ineligible for the award after suffering long-term injuries late in the season, though Cunningham has since returned to play. Dončić, out for the regular season with a hamstring injury, is challenging the rule.
But even with those players out, Gilgeous-Alexander’s dominance has been felt across the league. The 27-year-old guard is second in NBA scoring behind Dončić (with two games left to pass the Lakers guard on total points), and has been, in the words of Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine, “the driving force behind the Thunder’s excellence.”
“He’s the best player on the best team,” one player told The Athletic. “What more do you have to say?”
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