Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has secured his second consecutive MVP award.
The league announced the news on Sunday night, revealing that Denver Nuggets centre Nikola Jokic finished in second place. San Antonio Spurs phenom Victor Wembanyama, who is just 22 years old, placed third in the voting.
Jokic’s Streak Continues Despite Second Place
Jokic has now finished in the top two for six consecutive years. He joins Bill Russell and Larry Bird as the only players to achieve this feat.
The award is decided by a panel of 100 voters. These voters cover the NBA and its teams for various local, national and international media outlets.
Jokic appeared on all 100 ballots, earning 10 first-place votes and 48 second-place nods. He was third on 37 ballots, fourth on four, and fifth on one.
Gilgeous-Alexander Dominates First-Place Votes
Gilgeous-Alexander received the majority of the first-place votes, with 83. Wembanyama received five votes for first place.
Ballots are submitted before the playoffs begin. This ensures that only the regular season is taken into account.
Gilgeous-Alexander averaged 31.1 points, 4.3 rebounds and 6.6 assists for the first-place Thunder.
Jokic’s Impressive Regular Season
Jokic averaged 27.7 points, 12.9 rebounds and 10.7 assists per game. This marks the seventh time in NBA history that a player has averaged a triple-double.
Jokic, Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson are the only players to accomplish the feat. Jokic has done it two seasons in a row.
He shot 56.9% from the field, 38% from 3-point range and 83.1% from the foul line, good for a 67% true shooting clip that ranked fifth in the league. At 66.5%, Gilgeous-Alexander was the only non-center to rank in the top eight.
Nuggets’ Early Playoff Exit
Jokic’s season was split in two parts by a knee injury he suffered on Dec. 29, 2025, in Miami. Before the injury, he was averaging 29.6 points on 67% shooting inside the arc and 43.5% shooting outside it. After he returned a month later, his scoring dropped to 25.8 points per game at a 60.3% clip from 2-point range and an inefficient 31.9% mark from deep.
His shooting splits were even worse in the playoffs — 55.3% from two, 19.4% from three as the Timberwolves eliminated Denver in six games. The Nuggets failed to advance to the second round for the first time since 2022.
Jokic has won three regular-season MVPs in his career, in addition to NBA Finals MVP in 2023 when he led Denver to its first championship. He’s eligible to sign a contract extension this summer.