Woj Report: Giannis Antetokounmpo wins second straight NBA MVP Award
(UPDATE 12:10 p.m.) Giannis Antetokounmpo finished with 85 first place votes. LeBron James was in second place with the other 16 first place votes.
Portland Trail Blazers guard Damian Lillard finished in eighth place with one third place vote, four fourth place votes and six fifth place votes.
Check out the full voting results, and our original story, below.
MVP voting results. As I’ve said on TV 100x, I voted for Giannis, because the award right now is for who had the best stats in the regular season, not for who is the NBA’s best player. Which I have said on TV 1000x is…outdated. Needs to be separate awards for Best Season & MVP pic.twitter.com/K3qpgZYxO5
— Rachel Nichols (@Rachel__Nichols) September 18, 2020
(ORIGINAL 10:22 a.m.) Milwaukee Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo joined elite company Friday after winning his second consecutive NBA MVP award, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski.
The Greek Freak becomes the 12th player to earn back-to-back MVP honors. Only Wilt Chamberlain, Bill Russell and Larry Bird have won the MVP award in three straight seasons.
He also becomes the third player, joining Michael Jordan and Hakeem Olajuwon, to win the NBA MVP award and the Defensive Player of the Year award in the same season.
Antetokounmpo improved his scoring and rebounding numbers from last season — 29.5 points per game in 2019-20 compared to 27.7, and 13.6 rebounds per game in 2019-20 versus 12.5 in 2018-19. He was slightly worse in assists (5.6 down from 5.9), steals (1.0 down from 1.3) and blocks (1.0 down from 1.5).
In case you forgot, the MVP award is based on the regular season only — so the bubble games and postseason didn’t factor into the voting.
The official MVP announcement is scheduled for 11 a.m. PT. We’ll update the story with voting numbers when they’re released.
