On Sunday evening, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named the 2025-26 NBA Most Valuable Player, the second consecutive season he’s won the award.
It was known prior to the announcement that Luka Dončić was out of the running after not being named one of the finalists. Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama finished second and third, respectively, in award voting.
Unsurprisingly, Luka finished fourth in MVP voting as the league released the full standings for the award.
What was surprising, however, was that, somehow, eight people simply did not vote for Luka for any of the five spots. There should be no excuse regarding whether he was eligible or not as the ballots weren’t released until he was ruled eligible.
So, the decision to leave him off was based on his on-court production, which is insane. The league will release the full ballots of every voter after all awards have been handed out, so eventually, there will be an answer as to who left him off their ballot.
None of this is to also question whether Luka deserved to finish fourth. The gap between him and the top three should not have been as pronounced as it ended up being.
He led the league in scoring and was the central cog in the Lakers’ attack. The end of the regular season and the postseason were prime examples of how important he was to the team as they went from fringe or dark horse title contenders to scratching and fighting to win one playoff series.
But he complains about the officials too much for some voters’ liking or doesn’t campaign enough for himself to the media, so he doesn’t get the credit he deserves.
You can follow Jacob on Twitter at @JacobRude or on Bluesky at @jacobrude.bsky.social.
