Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was fourth-most valuable player in world that doesn’t exist

The NBA released the voter ballots for the 2025-26 regular-season awards on Wednesday. Although everyone already knew that Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is the MVP for the second straight year, it's still entertaining to look through and see how each person voted. Apparently, there is a world out there where he was the fourth-best player in the league this past year, and that's not a joke.

One person actually gave SGA a fourth-place vote. Seriously. They had Cade Cunningham as first, Victor Wembanyama as second, Jaylen Brown as third, and Gilgeous-Alexander in fourth, followed by Nikola Jokić.

I'm not going to say who that person was (you can look that up yourself), because the point of this piece isn't to call them out by name and point fingers and laugh, but to actually think about how there is someone out there who truly believes that SGA wasn't even a top-three player in the league this past season.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander received one fourth-place MVP vote

Voter fatigue is real. It shouldn't be, but it is. Gilgeous-Alexander won the award just one time before people began to discount what he does on a nightly basis, hopping aboard the Wembanyama hype train after the French star answered a question about why he should be MVP. It doesn't take much for people to direct their attention to something new, especially when they stand seven-foot-four.

A few people gave Wembanyama their first-place MVP vote, but the 22-year-old finished third in voting, behind Jokić. The race didn't come down to Wemby or SGA as many anticipated, though that could be the case next season.

In other words, Gilgeous-Alexander won't be the fourth-best player next year, either. And probably not the year after that. And the year after that.

He has already surpassed Jokić, and even Thunder fans can admit that Wemby is on his heels, a lot closer than he should be in his third season.

Cunningham and Brown aren't on SGA's level, though, and that's not to discredit what they did this past year. Leading Detroit and Boston to top-two finishes in the East, respectively, were impressive achievements, but just because OKC was expected to finish first in the West again doesn't diminish SGA's role in that. You shouldn't fault him for delivering just because you're bored.

Of course, everyone is entitled to their own opinion. It is very rare (see Steph Curry in 2015-16) for voters to agree unanimously on the MVP. People see things in different ways all of the time, but even when you squint really hard, you still can't see how SGA should've received a fourth-place vote on any ballot.

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