ESPN.com · Apr 2, 2025
NBA MVP straw poll: 100 league insiders make their final votes
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In mid-February, the second of ESPN's three NBA most valuable player straw polls showed Oklahoma City Thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander with a comfortable -- if not ironclad -- lead over Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic.
Six weeks later, the race is virtually unchanged.
If the results from our final straw poll are accurate -- for each of the past five seasons, they have been -- Gilgeous-Alexander will claim his first MVP award. And in a poll that mirrors the league's official voting and was conducted over a 24-hour period Sunday and Monday, Gilgeous-Alexander claimed 77 of 100 first-place votes.
How the NBA MVP straw poll works