April 3, 2026, 9:00 p.m. CT
In one of the most anticipated ESPN MVP straw polls, the final batch of results showed one thing — Shai Gilgeous-Alexander looks like he’ll be a runaway winner for back-to-back MVP awards. The shocking development goes against the grain of the recent vibes.
ESPN released its latest NBA MVP straw poll on Friday. Tim Bontemps’ brainchild has been an accurate forecast tool over the years of who might come away with the yearly award. He questions 100 local, national and international media members in a mock vote that resembles the real thing.
Gilgeous-Alexander had 958 total voting points. That was enough for first place. For context, Victor Wembanyama was second with 644 points. Gilgeous-Alexander had 88 first-place votes, nine second-place votes and three third-place votes.
That meant only a dozen voters didn’t have Gilgeous-Alexander as the MVP winner. Wembanyama had eight first-place votes, Nikola Jokic had three first-place votes and Jaylen Brown had a single first-place vote.
Wow. This was quite the surprise. Despite Wembanyama’s momentum rolling in recent weeks as the San Antonio Spurs are right behind the Oklahoma City Thunder for the first seed, Gilgeous-Alexander has comfortably sat in first place in most mock voters’ minds.
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Heck, Gilgeous-Alexander is closer to winning unanimously than it is to being a real two-man race. With just a little over a week left in the regular season, it feels like there’s not a ton of time to really change that trajectory. Barring something unforeseen, he should win a second MVP trophy to add to his all-time legacy.
Gilgeous-Alexander has averaged 31.6 points on 55.1% shooting, 6.5 assists and 4.4 rebounds. The Thunder have sat atop of the NBA standings all season with a 61-16 record.