Luka Doncic of the Los Angeles Lakers finished fourth in the voting for the 2025-26 NBA Most Valuable Player Award, according to results released on May 17. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named MVP for the second consecutive year, finishing ahead of Nikola Jokic and Victor Wembanyama, who were also finalists.
The annual award is decided by a global media panel of 100 voters. This season’s MVP race included several strong contenders, with four or five players having significant cases for consideration.
Doncic nearly missed eligibility for NBA awards after playing only 64 regular season games, one short of the league’s requirement. However, he filed an Extraordinary Circumstances appeal due to missing two games for the birth of his daughter; this appeal was accepted and made him eligible. In those games, Doncic led the league in scoring with an average of 33.5 points per game along with 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, and 1.6 steals while shooting 47.6% from the field and 36.6% from three-point range.
Despite these numbers and earning multiple Player of the Month honors—including March when he helped lead the Lakers to a strong record—Doncic did not make it into the top three finalists this year.
Lakers head coach JJ Redick commented on Doncic’s omission from finalist status: “Disappointed,” Redick said of Doncic not being an MVP finalist. “I think he deserved to be there and I think all three guys that did end up being finalists had strong cases. A lot of this, unfortunately, is media momentum.
“Sometimes a team, I guess we underperformed even though we didn’t have any expectations coming into the year. But I guess we underperformed for a couple months despite him getting Player of the Month one of those months. The media momentum just never got built.”
As team performance plays a major role in MVP considerations each season, observers are watching what changes might occur during the offseason as Los Angeles looks to strengthen its roster.
