LeBron James has played at such a high level for so long that he is incredibly far ahead of the chasing pack when it comes to first-place MVP votes earned since 2010. A look at the top 10 vote-getters in that time shows James being over 100 votes clear, and there are some surprises in there as well.
1. LeBron James – 368
2. Stephen Curry – 236
3. Giannis Antetokounmpo – 185
4. Nikola Jokic – 171
5. James Harden – 156
6. Kevin Durant – 147
7. Derrick Rose – 114
8. Joel Embiid – 100
9. Russell Westbrook – 69
10. Kawhi Leonard – 9
LeBron being so far ahead of Curry in second place is just absurd. What makes it even crazier, is that we are excluding the MVP he won in 2009, so his advantage at the top would seem even more ridiculous if we just go a year back.
A bulk of James’ votes (321) did come in 2010, 2012, and 2013, the years he won MVP. He has gotten at least one first-place vote on nine separate occasions, though, which is well clear of everyone else here.
Almost all of Curry’s votes came in the two-year span when he won his MVPs. He earned 100 first-place votes in 2014-15 and then all 131 in 2015-16 when he was the unanimous MVP with averages of 30.1 points, 5.4 rebounds, 6.7 assists, and 2.1 steals per game.
The remaining five came in 2020-21, when he led the league in scoring for the second time in his career. He might still have a shot at overtaking LeBron, but it seems unlikely.
Giannis and Jokic seem like the ones in the best position to potentially overtake James one day. All of the Serbian’s MVP votes have come in just the last three seasons, and you’d expect him, along with Giannis, to be in the running for the next few years as well.
It’s not surprising at all to find Harden that far up. He won the award in 2018 with 86 first-place votes and was runner-up in 2015, 2017, and 2019. His days of being in contention for MVP seem over now, though.
While Harden being fifth isn’t a surprise, his former teammate Kevin Durant being down at sixth sure is. You’d be surprised to find out, that Durant hasn’t received a single first-place vote for MVP after winning the award in 2014, when he averaged 32.0 points, 7.4 rebounds, 5.5 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game.
The explanation for that is rather simple, though. Durant missed a chunk of the 2014-15 season due to injury and then the following year, Curry was the unanimous MVP. After that, Durant joined Curry and the Golden State Warriors, which basically ensured he was not going to get strong consideration for the award.
Following his departure from Golden State, Durant hasn’t even managed to play 60 games in a season. He just has not been able to stay on the court long enough to be in the mix.
Speaking of not being able to stay on the court, we get to Rose. 113 of his votes came when he won the award in 2011 with averages of 25.0 points, 4.1 rebounds, 7.7 assists, 1.0 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game. His injury nightmare started a year later and Rose only ever managed to get one more vote, which actually was a fan vote in 2021.
Embiid, meanwhile, is another who has had injury problems, but he managed to hit triple-figures after winning MVP this past season. He netted 73 first-place votes after averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.0 steals, and 1.7 blocks per game.
While you’d expect him to stay in the mix in the coming years, I think his poor play in the postseason is going to cost him some votes. Technically it shouldn’t, but a lot of the voters do take into account those playoff failures.
Westbrook got all his votes in his MVP season of 2015-16 after Durant’s departure, as he averaged 31.6 points, 10.7 rebounds, 10.4 assists, 1.6 steals, and 0.4 blocks per game to win the award.
He became the first player since Oscar Robertson in 1961–62 to average a triple-double for a whole season, and that achievement made him the obvious pick. He has done it three more times since then, but the luster of it was gone by that point.
Rounding off the top 10 in Kawhi, who got all nine of his votes in 2017. Leonard had averaged an impressive 25.5 points, 5.8 rebounds, 3.5 assists, 1.8 steals, and 0.7 blocks per game in the 2016-17 campaign. He had led the Spurs to a 61-21 record as well and deserved some consideration. It was also the last season he played at least 70 games.
We should see significant changes in this list in a few years. It is just a matter of time before Luka Doncic gets in here, and I’d give someone like Victor Wembanyama a great shot at being here at some point, too.
