NBA releases 2025-26 award voting records: Thunder dominance detailed in full ballot data
The Oklahoma City Thunder’s success in the 2025-26 season is further quantified by the official release of award ballots, which reveal the specific media members who deviated from the consensus on top honours.
The National Basketball Association has published the complete voting records from 100 media members regarding the awards for the 2025-26 season. The results indicate a significant dominance by Oklahoma City Thunder players, with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander securing both the Most Valuable Player (MVP) and Clutch Player of the Year honours. Chet Holmgren placed second for the Defensive Player of the Year award. The release includes granular vote counts and identifies the specific media members who did not vote for Thunder players in the top categories.
Gilgeous-Alexander won the 2025-26 MVP award in a landslide that was described as closer to being unanimous than competitive. He received 83 first-place votes, meaning 17 voters placed him between second and fourth place. The minority voters who did not select him for first place included Jason Anderson of the Sacramento Bee, Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald, Coty Davis of the Detroit News, Chris Fedor of the Cleveland, Robin Gremmel of AFP, James Herbert of CBS Sports, CJ Holmes of the New York Daily, Sebastian Martinez-Christensen of ESPN Latin America, Yoav Modai of Sport 5, Kevin O’Connor of Yahoo! Sports, Michael Pina of The Ringer, Keith Pompey of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Jason Quick of The Athletic, Remi Reverchon of beIN Sports, Bill Simmons of The Ringer, Justin Termine of SiriusXM NBA Radio, and Stan Van Gundy of Prime.
The Oklahoma City Thunder brought home a couple of trophies as they had a league-best 64-18 regular-season record. Gilgeous-Alexander also secured the 2025-26 Clutch Player of the Year trophy by a wide margin. He received 96 first-place votes, one second-place vote, and one third-place vote. Two voters left him completely off their ballot, while four voters did not place him in first: Robin Gremmel of AFP, Jim Owczarski of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, Ramona Shelburne of ESPN, and Stan Van Gundy of Prime.
Elsewhere, Chet Holmgren finished 2025-26 Defensive Player of the Year runner-up. Because Victor Wembanyama was the first unanimous winner ever, nobody had Holmgren in first place. Instead, he had 76 second-place votes and 11 third-place votes. Thirteen voters had him outside of their top three: Steve Aschburner of the NBA, Rod Boone of the Charlotte Observer, Antoni Daimiel of Movistar+, Michael Grange of Rogers Sportsnet, Robin Gremmel of AFP, Frank Isola of SiriusXM, Richard Jefferson of ESPN, Tony Jones of The Athletic, Law Murray of The Athletic, Michael Pina of The Ringer, Ryen Russillo of Barstool, Flavio Tranquillo of Sky Italia, and Stan Van Gundy of Prime.
The Thunder had two representatives on the All-Defense Teams once again. Holmgren made the First Team with 93 First Team votes and four Second Team votes. Cason Wallace made the Second Team with 14 First Team votes and 66 Second Team votes. Both Thunder players were selected to the All-NBA Team, with Gilgeous-Alexander receiving 100 First Team votes for a clean sweep. Holmgren had eight Second Team votes and 63 Third Team votes.
Head coach Mark Daigneault finished sixth in the voting for Coach of the Year. Six voters had Daigneault in their top-three ballot: Claire de Lune of The Guardian, Tolis Kotzias of SDNA, Yoav Modai of Sport 5, Duane Rankin of the Arizona Republic, John Schuhmann of the NBA, and Atsushi Suzuki of Kyodo News. Ajay Mitchell also received mentions in 21 voters’ ballots for Sixth Man of the Year, despite playing only 57 games.
