For the first 25 Most Valuable Player awards in NBA history, it was the league’s players, not the media, who determined the winner.
All that changed with the 1980-81 season, when “a panel of 69 writers and broadcasters” selected Julius Erving as MVP and a system was installed that has been in place ever since.
But it’s time, again, to give the players the microphone and honor all those well-informed views that were shaped on the hardwood over the past six months.
So now, we’re releasing the first set of results from The Athletic’s 2026 Anonymous NBA Player Poll, and we’re devoting this piece to the closely contested 2025-26 MVP debate.
From late February through the start of April, our writers fanned out across North America and asked the league’s players a wide array of questions, ranging from individual awards to player movement to league issues. Our writers surveyed 161 players, a record high for this annual project and a number that amounts to approximately one-third of the league’s workforce.
As always, we granted the players anonymity to give them the freedom to answer honestly, without fear of reprisals from opponents, teammates or fans. For the sake of transparency and context, we’ll tell you how many people responded to each topic. The rest of the results will be rolled out over the next month, giving each topic the full attention it deserves.
The timing of this MVP discussion is intentional, as we’re just days away from a panel of 100 writers and broadcasters who regularly cover the league casting their official ballots after the regular season ends.
Consider this an 11th-hour assist from the players who once led this process.
When San Antonio’s Victor Wembanyama sparked a robust MVP debate in late March, advocating for himself in the kind of direct and detailed way that forced voters and oddsmakers alike to reassess the situation, it was fair to wonder if it might be enough to bump Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander from his frontrunner spot.
Or … perhaps not.
If the players’ votes are any indication — and they usually are — then the silky smooth Thunder star is on his way to a second straight Michael Jordan Trophy. He didn’t just top our player polling; he nearly doubled the support of the second-place finisher, Denver’s Nikola Jokić.
And therein lies the irony of it all.
While Wembanyama’s choice to spotlight himself appeared to help his cause with the oddsmakers (he’s currently second behind SGA), he didn’t even crack the top five in the players’ vote. But that, as much as anything, is a testament to the strength of the field rather than an indictment of the Spurs phenom’s candidacy. This group is just that great. And Gilgeous-Alexander, in the eyes of most, is the best of them all. Again.
The 27-year-old Gilgeous-Alexander is second in the league in scoring (31.1 points per game), with a field-goal percentage (55.3) that dwarfs that of the league’s leading scorer (fellow MVP candidate/Los Angeles Lakers star Luka Dončić, who is averaging 33.5 points per game on 47.6 shooting). And for all the focus on his controversial ability to get to the line, it’s merely one of the many ways that Gilgeous-Alexander decimates defenses.
He’s a killer from the midrange, from long range and with those constant attacks at the rim that tend to free up the entire floor. And the footwork — that dazzling, dynamic footwork — is on the level of Michael Jordan and Kobe Bryant.
“Shai has been super consistent,” one supporter said. “They’ve had injuries, and he’s stayed consistent. We take it for granted, (but) he scores at least 20 every night. He’s had a lot of his guys injured, and they’re still No. 1 in the West.”
That historic streak of consecutive games with 20-plus points, by the way, now stands at an absurd 140 (he passed Wilt Chamberlain for the mark on March 12). Gilgeous-Alexander is also averaging 6.6 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.4 steals this season for the Thunder, who boast the league’s seventh-ranked offense, the top defense and the league’s best record (64-16).
There were many, many impressive moments along the way. But his back-and-forth battle with Jokić on March 9, when the pair were at their best, might have been the most memorable. On the same night SGA matched Chamberlain’s mark of 20-plus point games, he had 35 points, 15 assists, nine rebounds and no turnovers while burying two 3s in the final 14 seconds to seal the 129-126 win.
“He’s the best player on the best team,” another player said. “What more do you have to say?”
As the first player noted, it’s SGA’s incredible consistency — in addition to the efficiency — that has made him the most unstoppable perimeter player in the game today. If he does win a second consecutive MVP, SGA would become the first to do so since Jokić winning in 2021 and 2022, and the 14th player in NBA history to win the award consecutively.
Still, the part that hasn’t been discussed nearly enough, and which strengthens his case even more in this race, is that Gilgeous-Alexander did all of this while playing without his primary wingman, Jalen Williams, for more than half the season. The former All-Star, who was so integral in their title run last season, has missed 47 games because of wrist and hamstring injuries.
Yet considering the company Gilgeous-Alexander is keeping in this loaded MVP race, the fact that he is so widely seen as the deserving winner by these players is no small statement. In the Mile High City, where the injury-riddled Nuggets (52-28) have dealt with the extended absences of Aaron Gordon, Peyton Watson and others, the 31-year-old Jokić is averaging 27.8 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.9 assists — marks that have only been reached twice before in league history (once by Oscar Robertson in 1961-62, and by Jokić last season). What’s more, Jokić is on track to become the first player since Chamberlain in 1968, and just the second player in league history, to lead the league in assists and rebounds in the same season.
“I’ve always had a hard time not picking Jokić,” one player said. “He’s probably the best player on the planet. He’s phenomenal.”
In Boston — where Jrue Holiday was traded to Portland last summer, Kristaps Porziņģis was sent to Atlanta and Jayson Tatum missed most of this season while recovering from his Achilles tendon tear — Jaylen Brown (28.8 points, 7.0 rebounds, 5.2 assists and 1.0 steals per game) proved once and for all that he is worthy of ‘1A’ status while somehow keeping the Celtics in the contender ranks.
“In terms of what the team lost last year, to come in with the (low) expectations there were and to see the standings now, it’s because of him and the level of play he’s been at,” one player said. “He does it on both ends at a super high level. He’s consistent every night.”
In Detroit, where Cade Cunningham’s collapsed lung injury likely took him out of official contention because of the league’s 65-game rule, the young Pistons star (24.4 points, 9.9 assists, 5.6 rebounds, 1.5 steals and 0.9 blocks) showed out in a way that officially elevated him among the elites.
In Los Angeles, where the Lakers’ season was recently derailed by injuries to Dončić (hamstring) and Austin Reaves (oblique), the team surged in the second half largely because of Luka’s brilliance. He’s averaging 33.5 points, 8.3 assists and 7.7 rebounds — marks that have only been reached once before in league history, when he did it in Dallas in the 2023-24 season. Per Stathead.com, only four players (Dončić, Robertson, Jordan and Russell Westbrook) have ever reached the 30-point, eight-assist and seven-rebound marks.
“I think what he’s done with the team that they have is really ridiculous,” one player said of Dončić. “With a lot of guys in and out, with Austin Reaves and LeBron (James), who’s really old now, and guys like Deandre Ayton, who you never know if he’s going to play good or bad, I think he’s doing an incredible job.”
Even if it’s not quite as impressive as SGA, who — after winning last season’s MVP, the 2025 championship and setting the pace for the entirety of this regular season — is growing quite accustomed to being out in front.
Previous The Athletic Anonymous Player Poll MVP results
Note: The Athletic did not conduct polls in 2020, 2021 or 2022