Shai-Gilgeous Alexander's Second NBA MVP Has Many Wondering Who Votes for the Award

The NBA MVP award has a pretty astonishing history behind it. Players who have won the award join an exclusive club of some of the greatest players in the history of the sport, and players who win the award multiple times are in even more rarified air. Shai-Gilgeous Alexander just won the 2026 MVP award, becoming only the 14th player in the league's history to win the award in back-to-back seasons.

Following the news that SGA had won the award, many wanted to better understand who votes for the MVP and how they become eligible to do so. Here's what we know.

Through 1980, the league's MVP award was given based on votes from other players in the league. Since then, though, the award has been handed out by a large group of NBA broadcasters and sports writers who each rank five players.

There are 100 voters for the award in total, and the exact makeup of the voting body changes from year to year based on the roles of the sports writers who vote.

Points are awarded to NBA players based on the votes they receive on ballots, and the player who receives the highest point total is ultimately the one who hoists the MVP award at the end of the season. SGA received 83 out of the 100 first-place votes, with Nikola Jokic finishing second, Victor Wembanyama finishing third, Luka Doncic finishing fourth, and Cade Cunningham finishing fifth.

The fact that the award is voted on by analysts as opposed to players, fans, or another group has rankled some over the years, especially because the winners of the award can sometimes seem odd in retrospect. LeBron James was widely considered the world's best player for basically a decade, but he only won four MVP trophies in that time. Michael Jordan, another widely beloved superstar who dominated his era, won just five MVPs in his career.

As the defending champion and finals MVP, though, SGA is going to be widely perceived as a worthy two-time MVP, and that's assuming he doesn't win again. His team, the Thunder, has yet to lose in the playoffs and won the most games during the regular season. In the end, this year's MVP voting was not particularly close, which might indicate that SGA was always going to win the award.

NBA writers and broadcasters spend as much time thinking about the game as anyone does, and they are, at least ostensibly, supposed to leave their biases at the door during their work and during voting. While no group is infallible, this year's result doesn't suggest that this voting body doesn't know what it's doing.

SGA could be the best player in the world, and he's certainly one of the best. If his team wins a second title at the end of this season, all those voters who put him first on their ballots will feel vindicated, and let's face it, his regular season speaks for itself.