Lakers' Luka Doncic Got Surprisingly Little NBA MVP Love Despite Historic Season

During the 2025-26 NBA season, few players in the league played at a higher level than Los Angeles Lakers superstar Luka Doncic, who really turned it on in March before going down with what turned out to be a season-ending hamstring injury in April.

Doncic was doing things on the basketball floor that were truly awe-inspiring, setting the league ablaze with his incredible scoring performances and career and franchise milestones on a nightly basis.

As a result of Doncic’s remarkable performances during his second season with the Lakers, the Slovenian superstar was getting a lot of NBA MVP buzz, along with Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), Nikola Jokic (Denver Nuggets) and Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs).

Unfortunately, the perennial All-Star didn’t get enough buzz to outshine Gilgeous-Alexander, who won his second straight MVP award.

Luka Doncic Finishes Fourth in NBA MVP Voting

Luka Doncic received zero first-place votes for NBA MVP, coming in fourth in the voting results, ahead of Cade Cunningham, Jaylen Brown, Kawhi Leonard and Donovan Mitchell pic.twitter.com/mmxWR70B2J
— Ryan Ward (@RyanWardLA) May 18, 2026

After Gilgeous-Alexander was officially named MVP, the voting results surfaced, with Doncic failing to receive even one first-place vote. He finished fourth in the voting, ahead of Cade Cunningham (Detroit Pistons), Jaylen Brown (Boston Celtics), Kawhi Leonard (LA Clippers) and Donovan Mitchell (Cleveland Cavaliers).

Although Doncic fell short in the MVP voting, he did win the NBA scoring title for the second time in his career, averaging 33.5 points per game. That is the second-highest scoring average of his career, with his highest being 33.9 points per game during the 2023-24 season.

Along with the second-highest scoring average of his career, Doncic finished the season averaging 8.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals per game, shooting 47.6 percent from the floor and 36.6 percent from beyond the arc.

With Doncic putting up some monster numbers and helping the Lakers win 53 games during the 2025-26 campaign, the 27-year-old guard is in the running to earn All-NBA First Team honors, which would be the sixth time in his career he will have accomplished that feat.

All-NBA teams will likely get announced when the Western and Eastern Conference Finals get underway next week, with the San Antonio Spurs going head-to-head against the Thunder and the New York Knicks set to face the winner of Game 7 between the Detroit Pistons and Cleveland Cavaliers.

As the NBA offseason gets underway for the Lakers, longtime general manager Rob Pelinka will have his work cut out for him, with the primary goal being to sign Austin Reaves to a long-term deal and put the right talent around Doncic to turn this team into a perennial title contender in the West.

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