OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Last season, the NBA’s Most Valuable Player announcement timeline went like this: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was announced as the winner one day before he and the Oklahoma City Thunder played a home game in the Western Conference finals.
It seems like that script may get followed again.
The NBA will reveal this season’s MVP on Sunday — one day before Gilgeous-Alexander and the Thunder play host to a West finals home game against the San Antonio Spurs. The announcement is coming on Amazon Prime Video shortly after 7:30 p.m. EDT.
Gilgeous-Alexander was the overwhelming betting favorite in recent weeks to win what would be his second consecutive MVP trophy. He was announced last month as one of three finalists, joining the Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama and three-time MVP Nikola Jokic of the Denver Nuggets.
No matter the order, this will be the fifth consecutive season that players born outside of the U.S. will finish 1-2-3 in the MVP race — Gilgeous-Alexander is Canadian, Wembanyama is French and Jokic is Serbian.
— Last season the order was Gilgeous-Alexander, Jokic and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (Greek, of Nigerian descent).
— In 2024, it was Jokic, then Gilgeous-Alexander and then-Dallas guard, now Los Angeles Lakers guard Luka Doncic (Slovenian).
— In 2023, it was Philadelphia’s Joel Embiid (who was born in Cameroon and has since become a U.S. citizen), then Jokic, then Antetokounmpo.
— In 2022, it was Jokic, then Embiid, then Antetokounmpo.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry was the last player born in the U.S. to be in the top three of the MVP balloting; he was third in 2021 behind Jokic and Embiid. Antetokounmpo also won in 2019 and 2020; the last U.S. winner of the award was James Harden, then of Houston, in 2018. Harden has played for four different franchises since then.
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