NBA to unveil MVP on Sunday, day before Thunder-Spurs series

The NBA will reveal this season’s MVP on Sunday, the day before Game 1 of the Western Conference finals between the Oklahoma City Thunder and San Antonio Spurs.

thunder guard Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the reigning MVP and one of many three finalists for the award this season, together with Spurs heart Victor Wembanyama and Denver‘s Nikola Jokic. Amazon Prime Video introduced that it could reveal the MVP winner Sunday throughout its pregame present, which begins at 7:30 pm ET.

No matter who wins, it is going to be the eighth consecutive season wherein a participant who was born outdoors the US takes the MVP trophy.

This worldwide run of MVPs began with Milwaukee‘s Giannis Antetokounmpo (born in Greece, of Nigerian descent) in 2019 and 2020, then Jokic (Serbia) in 2021 and 2022, Philadelphia‘s Joel Embiid (born in Cameroon however has since develop into a US citizen) in 2023, Jokic once more in 2024 and Gilgeous-Alexander (Canada) final 12 months.

Wembanyama can be the primary French participant to win MVP, and Jokic is searching for a fourth MVP, one thing solely Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Michael Jordan (5), Bill Russell (5), Wilt Chamberlain (4) and LeBron James (4) have executed.

It would be the twelfth MVP total award for a global participant. Before this present run, Nigeria’s Hakeem Olajuwon received in 1994, Canada’s Steve Nash received in 2005 and 2006, and Germany’s Dirk Nowitzki received in 2007.

The scheduling of the announcement might be a touch that Gilgeous-Alexander is the winner, as a result of it could have the identical timeframe as final 12 months’s MVP reveal. In 2025, Gilgeous-Alexander was introduced because the winner May 21, and he was formally introduced with the trophy before Game 2 of the West finals in Oklahoma City on May 22.

This 12 months, the Sunday announcement comes a day before the Thunder performs host to Game 1 of the West finals on Monday evening.