NBA Most Valuable Player

• 1. The Perfect Ballot

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  The NBA Most Valuable Player award handed Stephen Curry a unanimous verdict in the 2015-16 season, something no other player has ever achieved. Every voter placed him first. That total consensus has set a standard that more than six decades of competition have not replicated.

  Shaquille O'Neal and LeBron James each came close. Both received 120 of 121 possible votes in their respective seasons, yet one ballot slipped away each time. The gap between near-perfect and perfect has never closed.

  Thirty-six players in total have claimed the trophy since the 1955-56 season. Some won it once; a handful collected it so often that expectations followed them into every spring. Who decides, and how? And how has the award been reshaped over seven decades?

• 2. The Trophy's Two Names

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  Maurice Podoloff ran the NBA from 1946 until 1963, first as its president and later as its commissioner. His name graced the Most Valuable Player trophy from the award's earliest years until 2021. When a new name arrived for the hardware, it reflected a different era of the game.

  Since the 2022-23 season, winners receive the Michael Jordan Trophy. Jordan won the award often enough to be considered among its most decorated recipients, earning that tribute. Podoloff's legacy was not abandoned. His name moved to a separate trophy, presented each year to the team with the best regular season record.

  Every player who has won the MVP and later become eligible for the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame has been inducted.

• 3. How the Voting Works

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  Ten points go to any player who receives a first-place vote. Second place earns seven, third earns five, fourth earns three, and fifth earns one. The player with the highest total across all ballots wins the award.

  Sportswriters and broadcasters from the United States and Canada make up the current voting panel. For an earlier part of the award's history, the decision belonged to NBA players themselves. The transition moved that power from the locker room to the press.

  Starting in 2010, one additional ballot entered the count each season. Fans gained the ability to cast it through online voting. Since that expansion, every winner has needed to accumulate enough points across many independent voices to claim the award.

• 4. The Record Books

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  Larry Bird, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain stand alone as the only players to win three consecutive MVP awards. No other player has sustained that stretch. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar holds the all-time record with six career wins, three with the Milwaukee Bucks and three with the Los Angeles Lakers.

  Abdul-Jabbar also holds a distinction no other winner shares. He is the only MVP recipient whose team failed to qualify for the playoffs in the winning season. Three others won while their teams finished with fewer than 50 wins. Moses Malone did it twice; Nikola Jokic and Russell Westbrook each did it once.

  Bill Russell and Michael Jordan each won five times. Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James both accumulated four. James and Russell share a narrower milestone. Both won four times within a span of five seasons. No other player has matched that pace.

  Moses Malone, Magic Johnson, and Nikola Jokic each won three times. Bob Pettit, Karl Malone, Tim Duncan, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo, and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander each took it twice. Only two players have ever won it in their first NBA season. Wilt Chamberlain was one; Wes Unseld was the other, earning it in 1968-69.

  The Boston Celtics hold the franchise record with ten MVP seasons. The Los Angeles Lakers rank second at eight. Behind those storied rosters, the award has increasingly traveled to players born far outside the United States.

• 5. The Global Award

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  Eight players classified as international by the NBA have won the award, combining for thirteen total awards. They represent countries across multiple continents.

  Hakeem Olajuwon of Nigeria was among the earliest international winners. Tim Duncan, who grew up in the U.S. Virgin Islands, took the award with the San Antonio Spurs. Steve Nash of Canada won with the Phoenix Suns in 2005 and 2006, the first time a Canadian had claimed the honor. Dirk Nowitzki of Germany won in 2007 with the Dallas Mavericks.

  Giannis Antetokounmpo of Greece won with the Milwaukee Bucks in 2019 and 2020. Nikola Jokic of Serbia won with the Denver Nuggets in 2021, 2022, and 2024. Joel Embiid of Cameroon won in 2023. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of Canada won with the Oklahoma City Thunder in 2025 and 2026.

  Players from the United States account for 59 of all-time wins. A formal eligibility requirement now governs how many games every candidate must play to qualify for consideration.

• 6. Eligibility in the New Era

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  Sixty-five games: that is the minimum a player must appear in to qualify for the MVP award. The rule took effect with the 2023-24 season as part of a new collective bargaining agreement between the NBA and its players' union. Its stated purpose was to reduce load management, the practice of resting healthy players during the regular season.

  To count a game toward that total, a player must have logged at least 20 minutes. The agreement allows two exceptions: games in which the player was on the court for between 15 and 19 minutes can still count. The agreement calls these partial credits 'near misses.'

  Players who suffer season-ending injuries qualify with 62 credited games rather than 65. A separate protection covers those affected by what the agreement calls 'bad faith circumstances.' Neither group is penalized for conditions beyond their control.

  Shai Gilgeous-Alexander of the Oklahoma City Thunder is the award's current holder. He is only the second player from Canada to have won it, following Steve Nash.