Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beats Nikola Jokic in ESPN’s first MVP poll

Oklahoma City Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander beat up Denver Nuggets All-Star Nikola Jokic in ESPN’s first MVP poll of the 2025-26 campaign. Doc Gilgeous-Alexander has earned comparisons to Michael Jordan this season, he led the Thunder to a historic 25-2 record as the defending champions. However, Jokic is not far behind in the ESPN poll.

However, Gilgeus-Alexander still defeated Jokic with plus 15 in first place votesaccording to Tim Bontemps of ESPN.

“For the third straight time, Gilgeous-Alexander (57 first-place votes, 865 total points) has a clear but narrow lead over Jokic (42 first-place votes, 822 points) and 13 other stars who received at least one vote in the poll conducted Monday and Tuesday,” McMahon said.

For Gilgeous-Alexander, the Thunder’s potential 70+ win season could give him a slight edge over Jokic for what would be back-to-back SGA MVP awards.

“With our early snapshot of the MVP race predicting another razor-thin margin between Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic, the Thunder’s pursuit of 70 wins (and more) could be the deciding factor,” McMahon added.

Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Doncic, Detroit Pistons All-Star Cade Cunningham and New York Knicks’ Jaylen Branson rounded out the top 5 in votes. Doncic is the only one of the three who received one vote for 1st place for MVP, while leading the pack with 74 votes for third place.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander embraces Thunder-Spurs rivalry

Thunder All-Star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nuggets All-Star Nikola Jokic — winners of the last two MVP awards — have created a bit of a rivalry as both finished runner-up to each other in back-to-back seasons. at the same time, Gilgeous-Alexander embraces Thunder-Spurs rivalryaccepting all challenges.

A reporter asked Gilgeous-Alexander if the Spurs could become one of the Thunder biggest rivals in the coming years.

“Possibly, yes – there’s a good chance,” Gilgeus-Alexander replied. “They’re young — really good — they’ve got a lot of talent, they’re playing the right way. They’re playing a good brand of basketball. But, yeah, definitely, there’s a possibility. I’ve noticed that anything can happen in a few years. So, yeah, definitely a possibility. It’s not 100 percent. But definitely a possibility for sure.”

The Thunder beat the Clippers 101-122 to improve to 25-2 and face the Timberwolves on Friday.