Every year the NBA MVP debate seems to go down to the wire, with even the final games of the regular season playing a factor in the year-long race. That was no different this past season, with a legitimate case to be made for Joel Embiid, Nikola Jokic, or Giannis Antetokoumpo to win The Michael Jordan Trophy or NBA MVP award.
While the MVP trophy voting only considers a player’s regular season achievements, we won’t learn the identity of this year’s winner until June during the televised NBA Awards ceremony.
We may not know who the winner is, but we do know the finalists, with Embiid, Jokic, and Antetokounmpo officially announced on April 14.
Even though NBA players don’t get a chance to vote on the MVP, naturally, they do form their own opinions on who deserves the trophy. A players poll conducted by The Athletic spoke to 108 different current NBA players, including at least one from each team, on a wide array of topics.
One of the most notable questions in the survey polled fellow hoopers on who should win the 2023 MVP. It’s clear, in the minds of the players, Philadelphia 76ers superstar Joel Embiid deserves to win his first MVP award.
As much as 50% of the basketball players who were polled voted Embiid as MVP, with 25.5% going to Jokic, 15.7% to Antetokounmpo, 3.9% to Jayson Tatum, and a lesser amount to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Luka Doncic. A total of 102 current NBA athletes took part in the MVP voting portion of the survey.
While current basketball players may strongly feel Embiid should win MVP, or at least this group of athletes, we’ll see how the MVP voting panel views the competition in a couple of months.
Related: NBA MVP race 2023: Between Nikola Jokic, Joel Embiid, and Giannis Antetokounmpo, who’s the winner?