San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama finished his third NBA season last week. All in all, few players at his age before him pulled off what he just did.
After a more up-and-down first few months of the season, Wembanyama turned it on in a big way. His Spurs soared in the Western Conference standings and Wembanyama began setting his eyes on the league’s most prized individual honor.
After San Antonio won just 34 games a season ago, few were expecting them to make such an enormous climb. It’s certainly not easy to name a team that went from 30-something wins to NBA Finals hype off the top of your head. The Spurs have achieved that, though they have much to prove first.
Keeping it to the parameters of the regular season, San Antonio was arguably the best team the last two months of the season. Had the Oklahoma City Thunder slipped up even for a game or two, the Spurs would’ve snatched the top seed in the West.
Nevertheless, Wembanyama began making serious MVP noise — both on the court and verbally.
He publicly lobbied for the award and keenly laid out why he believes he should take home this year’s Michael Jordan Trophy.
With the official ballots submitted to the league office, the 2025-26 MVP has been decided.
It’ll just take a few more weeks for the winner’s name to be announced.
Victor Wembanyama Sees Shocking Drop in MVP Ladder
All regular season, NBA.com released a weekly ranking of the league’s top MVP candidates. In the weeks leading up to the regular season finale, Wembanyama supplanted reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, generating belief among fans that the Spurs star might be on his way to claiming the prestigious award at just 22 years old.
Multiple 40-point bursts authored by Wembanyama down the stretch of the 82-game season appeared to pad his case. In his final appearance of the regular season, Wembanyama, despite missing the previous game and the leaving the one before that early because of a rib contusion, came out and tallied 40 points in just 26 minutes against Rookie of the Year frontrunner Cooper Flagg and the Dallas Mavericks.
That felt like the final nail for all other MVP candidates. But indeed no longer appears to be the case.
On NBA.com’s final MVP ladder, Wembanyama not only surrenders his top spot but falls to third place. Reclaiming the top spot is none other than Gilgeous-Alexander, the season-long favorite to win the award.
At No. 2 is Denver Nuggets star Nikola Jokic. Perhaps it was Jokic’s 40-point, 13-assist outing in a victory over Wembanyama’s Spurs ahead of the final week of the season bumped him up to second place.
According to this ranking and various other polls done by credible sources, Wembanyama is likely to fall short of winning MVP.
But hey, even garnering major consideration as a third-year player is one heck of an accomplishment.
Adding Hardware to His Trophy Room
Who can truly deny Gilgeous-Alexander’s case?
Fans often lose sight of the fact that the MVP voting encompasses the entire regular season.
Wembanyama may have had a more dominant stretch at one point than Gilgeous-Alexander; Jokic may have statistically peaked slightly higher than Gilgeous-Alexander, though he was outdone by the Thunder star in each of the three times they faced this season; but Gilgeous-Alexander has been a model of consistency from the beginning.
He broke a Wilt Chamberlain record for crying out loud. He led the second-most injured team in the regular season to the top seed in not just the West but the NBA. He became the first player ever to record a season averaging 30 points per game while shooting 55% from the field.
Wembanyama is MVP material. Jokic is an MVP.
Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP.
Any reservations? Quarrel? Pushback? Let it fly in the comments section below, dear readers.
NBA Announces Stunning Victor Wembanyama MVP News