Jalen Brunson nearly unanimously won the MVP award in media votes after the Knicks secured their first-ever NBA Cup title. He fell short by 1 vote as 19 out of 20 media members voted for him.
The only media member who did not vote for him was Steve McGehee of News 9, who voted for Brunson’s teammate, OG Anunoby. He missed the chance to become the second unanimous MVP in NBA Cup history after Giannis Antetokounmpo won it unanimously last season (2024-25).
The voting results, leading to Jalen Brunson almost unanimously winning the NBA Cup MVP award. pic.twitter.com/vmCYWYPsoT
— Chris Haynes (@ChrisBHaynes) December 17, 2025
In the championship game, Brunson ended up with 25 points, four rebounds, and eight assists while shooting 11-of-27 from the field (40.7%). Meanwhile, Anunoby outscored him and had 28 points, nine rebounds, and three assists while shooting 10-of-17 from the field (58.8%) and 5-of-10 from beyond the arc (50%).
Additionally, Victor Wembanyama finished the game with 18 points, six rebounds, and two blocks while shooting 41.2% from the field (7-of-17).
NBA fans saw this on social media and expressed their opinions in several ways. Some believed that Steve McGehee was, in fact, correct to vote for Anunoby, and others also felt that Brunson unfairly missed the chance to win the award unanimously.
“Steve bro, we finna catch you.”
“Someone in the media always wanna be different, bro, lmfaoo.”
“The NBA Cup made Steve McGehee a star.”
“There’s always that one guy trying to be different.”
Since three out of the five fan votes went to Victor Wembanyama, fans also ridiculed their value in sports.
“Victor getting 3/5 fan votes is hilarious to me lol.”
“This shows why fan votes should have no place in sports lol.”
“Fan votes in sports should count for like 10% max.”
However, the NBA Cup MVP Award seems to take into account a player’s performance throughout the tournament and not just in the championship game. Wherein, Brunson performed much better than Anunoby. (Eliminating Wembanyama from the comparison simply because the Spurs lost the championship game, and he did not have a noteworthy performance.)
Brunson averaged 33.2 points, 5.8 rebounds, and 2.7 assists while shooting 53.1% from the floor and 46.2% from beyond the arc over six games he played in the NBA Cup.
Whereas Anunoby averaged 18.6 points, 5.6 rebounds, and 2.2 assists while making 56.9% of his shots from the field and 50.0% of his attempts from the three-point line in the five games he played.
Thus, it seems the media member who voted for Anunoby was under the impression that the decision was solely based on the championship game. Otherwise, Brunson clearly deserves to win the MVP award unanimously over Anunoby and anyone else on the Knicks.
