Shai Gilgeous-Alexander got the nod for nba mvp from a Denver Post voter who a year ago went the other way for Nikola Jokic. The ballot, sent Thursday, April 16 to a 100-member panel and due back within 24 hours before the playoffs began, laid out how one of the league's closest races changed.
Mike Singer Durando said he chose Gilgeous-Alexander over Jokic this time after voting for Jokic over SGA last year, when 29 voters made that same call. His reasoning came down to this season's shape: Jokic missed time after a hyperextended left knee injury in January, then was a pedestrian 3-point shooter for the final 33 games after returning. Gilgeous-Alexander, by contrast, averaged 31.1 points while shooting 55.3% from the field and posting a 66.5% true shooting mark, production that helped Oklahoma City stay dangerous even while Jalen Williams missed 50 games.
Durando said Jokic was still the second-best player in the NBA this season despite the dip, and he called the Denver center the best basketball player on the planet because his versatility at center is revolutionary. But he also wrote that Gilgeous-Alexander's consistency made him the best and most valuable player to his team over the regular season, helped by an Oklahoma City offense that carried a 121.5 offensive rating with him on the floor.
That vote reveals more than a single ballot swap. It shows how the league's top honor is being judged this year: not just on peak brilliance, but on availability, steadiness and the degree to which one player can hold a team together over six months. Jokic's own words on March 25 captured the wobble in his season, when he said it had been inconsistent and tied that to the injury recovery, adding that he believed he had played at a really high level before the setback and only so-so after it. He also said he was playing the best basketball of his life, a reminder of how high the standard remains even in a year when the ending felt less certain.
The ballot reveal is part of a transparent look at award voting that extends beyond nba mvp and into All-NBA and Rookie of the Year choices. It also fits a larger debate already circling the league, including a separate talk about Jokic and Luka Doncic that Danny Parkins has backed in public discussion. In the end, the shift from 29 votes for Jokic last year to a vote for Gilgeous-Alexander this spring says less about a collapse than about a narrow race decided by the smallest changes in health, timing and consistency.