The NBA unveiled the three finalists for each of its seven major individual awards for the 2024-25 regular season Sunday night, with Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic and Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander headlining the finalists for the league’s Most Valuable Player award.
Jokic, a three-time MVP who is looking to become the third player — along with LeBron James and Bill Russell — to win four MVPs in five years, is virtually assured of finishing in the top two of voting for the league’s top individual honor for a fifth straight season. It’ll be the first time anyone has accomplished that feat since Larry Bird did it from 1981 to 1986.
The only question is whether Jokic — who averaged 29.6 points, 12.7 rebounds and 10.2 assists to join Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson as the only players to average a triple-double for a season — will finish first or Gilgeous-Alexander will earn his first MVP award.
The Thunder superstar, who led the league in scoring with 32.7 points per game, fueled Oklahoma City to a franchise-record 68 wins — the most in the NBA since the Golden State Warriors set the record with 73 victories in 2016 — and finished atop the last two versions of ESPN’s MVP straw poll.
