The results are in, and in no big surprise, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has won the NBA’s Most Valuable Player award for the second consecutive season. SGA led the Oklahoma City Thunder to a league-best 64-win campaign and delivered a sublime statistical season of 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 6.6 assists per game on remarkably efficient shooting.
Yet while SGA’s crowning feels inevitable, the full MVP voting picture delivers a more sobering narrative in Denver. For the third time in six years, Nikola Jokic finished second. It marks his sixth straight season ending in first or second place—an outrageous run that cements him among the greatest players the league has ever seen. Still, the gap revealed in the ballots suggests the winds are shifting.
A global media panel of 100 voters selected the winner of the 2025-26 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player Award. SGA captured a dominant 83 first-place votes. Jokic received just 10.
The Serbian superstar posted video-game numbers once again: 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds, and 10.7 assists per game, averaging a triple-double for the second consecutive year while leading the entire NBA in both rebounding and assists—feats he had never before accomplished in his career. He did so while navigating the worst injury luck the Nuggets have faced in years, missing 16 straight games with the most serious injury of his career, all under a rookie head coach and front office. Despite those obstacles, Jokic willed Denver to 54 wins and the No. 3 seed in the brutally competitive Western Conference.
Those accomplishments make the voting margin even more striking.
At 27 years old and anchored by a loaded, young Thunder roster built for sustained contention, SGA shows no signs of slowing. Meanwhile, the 22-year-old Victor Wembanyama is accelerating faster than anyone anticipated. The French phenom led the San Antonio Spurs to 62 wins and finished third in MVP voting with five first-place votes, breathing down Jokic’s neck.
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The combination of elite, ascending competition and the natural toll of age, wear, and tear makes repeating Jokic’s statistical anomalies increasingly difficult. Even with another masterpiece season, he wasn’t particularly close to overtaking SGA. As time progresses, those gaudy per-game averages are likely to trend downward—whether by design or necessity.
For the Nuggets, that reality may ultimately prove beneficial. If Jokic wants to age gracefully and maximize his championship window, slightly reducing his regular-season usage could preserve his body for the playoffs. The pursuit of another MVP may no longer align with the team’s ultimate goals.
MVP voting has always been a young man’s game, and the torch appears to be passing. SGA has established himself as the new standard, while Wembanyama’s rapid ascent signals an even more daunting challenge ahead. For Nikola Jokic, one of the most transcendent talents in NBA history and the greatest Nugget of all time, this season may represent his last realistic window at adding to his three MVP trophies.
It is not a knock on his greatness. It is simply the relentless march of the league’s evolution. The numbers may dip, but Jokic’s impact on winning—and his place among the all-time greats—remains secure. The only question now is how he, and the Nuggets, choose to navigate the years ahead.