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THE ARTIE AWARDS 2017

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Shai NBA MVP Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander For The Second Year In A Row And He Got 83 Of 100 Votes Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the 2025-26 Kia NBA Most Valuable Player on Sunday May 17, 2026, winning back-to-back MVP awards in one of the most dominant voting performances the award has produced in years. The Oklahoma City Thunder guard received 83 of 100 first-place votes from the global media panel, a margin so decisive that the debate about who deserved the award was largely academic for most of the season. Nikola Jokic finished second with 10 first-place votes. Victor Wembanyama finished third with five. The announcement was made at 7:30 PM Eastern on Amazon Prime just before the start of Game 7 of the Cleveland Cavaliers-Detroit Pistons series. ESPN's Shams Charania had reported the outcome earlier Sunday morning, beating the league's announcement by several hours in the same pattern that has become a feature of major NBA award reveals. Gilgeous-Alexander is the first guard since Stephen Curry won the award in 2015 and 2016 to win consecutive MVP trophies. He is the 16th multiple-time MVP in league history. His Thunder finished the regular season 64-18, securing the top overall seed in the Western Conference for the second consecutive year. He now has two days to enjoy it. The Thunder open their Western Conference Semifinals series Monday against the San Antonio Spurs and Victor Wembanyama, the player who finished third in MVP voting and who represents the most credible challenge to SGA's dominance heading into next season. The Season That Won It Gilgeous-Alexander's raw scoring numbers actually declined from last year's MVP campaign, he averaged 31.1 points per game in 2025-26, down from 32.7 the previous season. By virtually every other measure, the case for giving him the award was stronger than it was in 2025. The efficiency leap is the number that defines the season. Gilgeous-Alexander closed the year shooting 55.3 percent from the floor, 38.6 percent from three and 87.9 percent from the free throw line. He averaged 6.6 assists and 4.3 rebounds across 68 games. CBS Sports noted that the only other player in NBA history to achieve those shooting percentages on more than 250 total shots was Kevin Durant, who did it in 47 games during the 2022-23 season. Gilgeous-Alexander sustained it across a full season. The broader argument for his back-to-back was not purely individual production. The Thunder finished 64-18 despite dealing with injury absences throughout the year, not just Gilgeous-Alexander's own injury in February, but contributions from a roster that was tested at various points. Oklahoma City held off the San Antonio Spurs down the stretch for the top seed in a Western Conference that was more competitive than it had been in years. Every win during the periods when the roster was limited was a game in which Gilgeous-Alexander was the reason the Thunder were competitive at all. The Voting And What It Means The 83 first-place votes Gilgeous-Alexander received from 100 total media voters represent a near-landslide by the standards of a league where three-way MVP races have been common in recent seasons. Jokic, who received 29 first-place votes in the 2024-25 vote and 71 second-place votes, dropped to 10 first-place votes this year with 48 second-place. Wembanyama received five first-place votes, reflecting genuine support from a minority of voters who felt his combination of offensive improvement and unanimous Defensive Player of the Year impact made him the most valuable player in the league. The full voting breakdown shows a race that was decided long before Sunday's announcement. Luka Doncic, who posted a 600-point scoring month in March, the first player to do that in March since Michael Jordan in 1987, still finished fourth with zero first-place votes and 250 total points. Cade Cunningham of the Detroit Pistons received two first-place votes and 117 total points in fifth. Jaylen Brown, Kawhi Leonard and Donovan Mitchell also received voting points. The 83 first-place votes put Gilgeous-Alexander short of a unanimous award but well ahead of everything short of an actual coronation. In the modern era of MVP voting, where three-way debates have sometimes produced winners with fewer than 50 first-place votes, his margin is a statement about the clarity with which the voter community viewed the race. The Jokic and Wembanyama Context The second and third place finishers are both consequential stories in their own right. Nikola Jokic's second-place finish is his sixth consecutive top-two finish in MVP voting, a mark that matches Bill Russell and Larry Bird for the most consecutive top-two finishes in NBA history. Jokic averaged 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game this season, leading the league in both categories, while continuing to operate as one of the most creative offensive players the sport has ever produced. The argument against him was not that he was not excellent. It was that Gilgeous-Alexander was more excellent by the specific measure of individual impact on wins. Wembanyama's third-place finish represents something more complex. The 22-year-old Spurs center became the youngest player and first unanimous winner of the Defensive Player of the Year award in 2025-26, and the Spurs returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2019 largely on the strength of what Wembanyama has become. His late-season offensive surge, averaging over 29 points per game across the final month, generated the first serious MVP momentum he had accumulated in his young career. The specific question that the MVP debate around Wembanyama raised was whether a player who anchors both ends of the floor as completely as he does should be given more weight in MVP consideration than the voting ultimately reflected. Five first-place votes suggest that a meaningful minority of informed observers believed he should win. The Spurs-Thunder first-round series beginning Monday will be the first direct extended competition between the top two MVP vote-getters of the future, a matchup that will generate its own data points about which player's presence matters more in a playoff environment. The Back-To-Back In Historical Context Winning consecutive MVP awards places Gilgeous-Alexander in company that requires listing to appreciate. The other players who have won back-to-back NBA MVPs: Bill Russell, Wilt Chamberlain, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Moses Malone, Larry Bird, Magic Johnson, Michael Jordan, Charles Barkley, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, LeBron James and Stephen Curry. The list reads as a catalogue of the greatest players the sport has produced. Curry is the most relevant direct comparison. He won consecutive MVPs in 2015 and 2016, the second of which was unanimous, while leading Golden State teams that remain the template for modern NBA championship construction. Gilgeous-Alexander is following a similar trajectory, dominant individual production in service of a team that has genuinely transformed the Western Conference's competitive balance. The championship conversation is the next chapter. Jordan and LeBron are among the historical MVP winners who won championships in their back-to-back MVP seasons. If Gilgeous-Alexander leads the Thunder to the title this June, he joins a specific group, players who won consecutive MVPs and a championship in the same year as the second one. The Spurs are in his way starting Monday. Wembanyama is waiting. What's Next For Gilgeous-Alexander? Gilgeous-Alexander was asked about the upcoming series at his MVP press conference and offered the diplomatic generosity that the moment required before the competition began. "Obviously, a really good team," he said of the Spurs. "They've been right behind us all year, so we obviously don't take them in the slightest. They're a really good team." The Thunder are the No. 1 seed. The Spurs finished their own regular season as one of the most dramatic late-season stories in the Western Conference, Wembanyama carrying San Antonio back to relevance in a market that had gone quiet after the Tim Duncan era. The series is the matchup that the basketball world has been anticipating since mid-season when it became clear that these two teams would likely meet in the playoffs. SGA has the MVP trophy. Wembanyama has the Defensive Player of the Year award. Both are starting the second round of the playoffs Monday night in Oklahoma City. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander

NBA MVP Is Shai Gilgeous-Alexander For The Second Year In A Row And He Got 83 Of 100 Votes

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