Oklahoma City Thunder superstar Shai Gilgeous-Alexander was named MVP for the 2025-26 NBA season on Sunday. While Gilgeous-Alexander was the deserving winner, something else stood out when the NBA released the voting results.
We already knew that Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic wasn’t in the top three, and while he finished fourth, he didn’t even receive a single first-place vote from the 100 media members. To say Lakers fans weren’t happy about that would be an understatement.
“This is ultimate disrespect from clown reporters,” one fan called out the voters for disrespecting Doncic.
“They hate him. Pretty obvious with zero first-place votes,” another fan believes the voters hate Doncic.
“It’s that jersey he put on, man… They did Kobe the same way,” one thinks Doncic being a Laker played a role in this.
“First player to get voter fatigue before even winning MVP,” a fan thinks voter fatigue is the explanation, even though Doncic has never won the award.
“The only way for Luka to get a first-place vote in a Lakers jersey is to average 50 points a game,” one more fan claimed that Doncic is being penalized for being a Laker.
“Luka needs to go scorched earth next season. The disrespect is wild,” a fan wants Doncic to go on a revenge tour next season.
Gilgeous-Alexander received the majority of the first-place votes with 83. As for the rest, Nikola Jokic got 10, Victor Wembanyama five, and Cade Cunningham two.
Doncic has only ever received four first-place votes in his entire career. They all came in 2024, when he finished third in voting. That’s actually the only time he’s finished in the top three.
In 2026, Doncic received one second-place vote, eight third-place votes, 60 fourth-place votes, and 23 fifth-place votes. That, in turn, means eight voters didn’t even have the Slovenian in their top five.
Now, Doncic did not have the best MVP case, and you can even argue he shouldn’t have gotten a first-place vote. For eight individuals to leave the six-time All-Star off their ballot is just absurd, though.
Let’s look at what Doncic did this season, shall we? The 27-year-old averaged 33.5 points, 7.7 rebounds, 8.3 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game. Doncic won the scoring title and helped the Lakers post an impressive 53-29 record. That is a sure-shot top-five pick for MVP.
As for first-place votes, Doncic won’t need to average 50 points a game for them, as one of the fans claimed. What will probably help his cause is leading his team to a higher seed than fourth for once.
Doncic’s teams have never finished higher than fourth in the Western Conference in his eight seasons in the NBA. If he puts up those numbers and the Lakers are the first or second seed, you better believe he’ll get a lot of first-place votes.
As for these Lakers fans claiming Doncic has been penalized because he plays for the team, that’s down to their players not winning an award in a very long time now. The last Laker to earn a regular-season award was Lamar Odom in 2011, when he was named Sixth Man of the Year.
We have to go back a bit further for the last MVP, with that being Kobe Bryant in 2008. WNBA icon Candace Parker had claimed voters had gotten bored with greatness in the case of Bryant, who only won one MVP, and was hoping Doncic didn’t suffer the same fate. Lakers fans will tell you that’s absolutely what has happened here.
