The NBA’s Most Valuable Player award announcement is scheduled for Sunday evening, and the timing bears a striking resemblance to last year’s reveal. In the previous season, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received the MVP honor just 24 hours before he and the Oklahoma City Thunder took the court for a Western Conference finals home game.
History appears poised to repeat itself this year. The league will unveil this season’s MVP winner on Sunday, exactly one day ahead of another Thunder home game in the West finals, this time against the San Antonio Spurs. The announcement will air on Amazon Prime Video beginning shortly after 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Betting odds have strongly favored Gilgeous-Alexander in recent weeks to capture what would be his second straight MVP award. The league previously named him among the three finalists last month, alongside the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and Denver Nuggets’ three-time MVP Nikola Jokic.
Regardless of how the voting concludes, this marks the fifth straight year that international players will claim the top three spots in MVP voting. Gilgeous-Alexander hails from Canada, Wembanyama represents France, and Jokic comes from Serbia.
The previous season saw Gilgeous-Alexander finish first, followed by Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo, who was born in Greece to Nigerian parents.
In 2024, Jokic claimed the top spot, with Gilgeous-Alexander second and Luka Doncic of Slovenia third. Doncic previously played for Dallas and now suits up for the Los Angeles Lakers.
The 2023 voting results placed Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid first, followed by Jokic and Antetokounmpo. Embiid was born in Cameroon and has since obtained U.S. citizenship.
In 2022, Jokic topped the balloting ahead of Embiid and Antetokounmpo.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry holds the distinction as the most recent U.S.-born player to crack the MVP top three, finishing third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. Antetokounmpo also claimed MVP honors in 2019 and 2020. The last American-born player to win the award was James Harden in 2018 while playing for Houston. Since that victory, Harden has suited up for four different teams.
