The 2025-26 NBA MVP race is coming down to the wire (and, in part, who’s healthy). With multiple top candidates out of the running due to injuries, it’s not entirely clear who will come out on top — except among the NBA players, there’s a clear favorite.

In an anonymous poll, 159 NBA players told The Athletic who they think should win the MVP race. A significant chunk pointed to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, saying the star Oklahoma City Thunder guard should win his second straight league MVP.

The 159-player bloc represents about one-third of the total players in the NBA. Per The Athletic, players’ answers for the poll were collected over the past two months.

Gilgeous-Alexander received 39% (62 votes) of the total vote in the poll. That’s nearly double the next player, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokić, who ended with 21.4% of the vote.

The Boston Celtics’ Jaylen Brown, Detroit Pistons’ Cade Cunningham and Los Angeles Lakers’ Luka Dončić all earned 8.2% (13 votes each) after stepping up big for their teams this season.

San Antonio Spurs center Victor Wembanyama, who has openly campaigned for league MVP, said last month that he plans to “make sure there’s no debate” in MVP voting. The players don’t appear to agree, with the 22-year-old finishing sixth with 5% of the vote.

The poll also didn’t take into account the league’s 65-game minimum for postseason award voting. Multiple players on the list — including Cunningham and Dončić — are ineligible for the award after suffering long-term injuries late in the season, though Cunningham has since returned to play. Dončić, out for the regular season due to a hamstring injury, is challenging the rule.

But even with those players out, Gilgeous-Alexander’s dominance has been felt across the league. The 27-year-old guard is second in the NBA in scoring behind Dončić (with two games left to pass the Lakers guard on total points) and has been, in the words of Yahoo Sports’ Dan Devine, “the driving force behind the Thunder’s excellence.”

“He’s the best player on the best team,” one player told The Athletic. “What more do you have to say?”

The Washington Wizards play the Miami Heat at 7 p.m. tonight. Watch the game on Monumental Sports Network.

Should Dodgers two-way superstar Shohei Ohtani be granted extra time to warm up as a pitcher after he hits?

That was a big question this week coming out of the Dodgers’ series against the Blue Jays in Toronto, and it was a topic of discussion on the latest episode of “Baseball Bar-B-Cast.” Of course, it wasn’t the first time this question has come up, as it was also a source of discussion during the 2025 World Series.

Ohtani pitched Wednesday against the Blue Jays and was granted some extra time to warm up in the bottom of the first inning after being on base in the top of the frame. During that time, the broadcast showed Toronto leadoff hitter George Springer asking a question of the umpire and Dodgers manager Dave Roberts looking agitated.

After the game, Yahoo Sports’ Jake Mintz asked Roberts about that. “I was like, ‘Dave, what was that about?’” he said on the podcast. “And his answer was totally fine, in my opinion.”

Here’s Roberts’ full quote: “Just talking about the World Series, I think they were a little frustrated about how long Shohei takes in between innings. But if he’s on the bases, there’s got to be some grace, which the umpires are trying to give him. Yeah, if you’re on the other side, you’re trying to rush him as much as possible and treat him like any other pitcher. But the truth is he’s different. But I understand their gripe.”

Jordan Shusterman pointed out that some parts of Roberts’ answer were posted and shared without the full context, but in full, the manager’s response seems pretty reasonable. “The ‘he’s different’ and ‘there has to be some grace’ makes it sound like, if you don’t watch the whole clip, Roberts is like, ‘Sorry, this guy is more special than everybody else’ — which, by the way, he is,” he said. “But that was, I think, taken out and read as, ‘This is a ridiculous answer,’ and I didn’t understand that.”

As Shusterman pointed out, it’s totally fair for a hitter in Springer’s situation to be curious and to simply want to know how much time is being allotted so that he can plan accordingly.

“It’s also important for the batter to know when he needs to be in the batter’s box so that he’s not penalized,” he said.

Mintz made the point that while Ohtani is getting extra time compared to the other pitchers in the game today, he isn’t getting extra time compared to the preexisting standard for pitchers who hit.

When pitchers in the National League used to hit, Mintz noted, if a pitcher was on base at the end of an inning or finished the inning as a hitter, umpires granted that pitcher more time to get ready for the next inning. Even with the pitch clock today, that standard should still apply.

“Ohtani, being the only pitcher now that hits, in my opinion, is entitled to that same standard,” he said. “He is a different category. He’s being treated differently because he is quite literally doing something that no one else is doing.”

Perhaps, Mintz suggested, a specific amount of time should be set and communicated. “To end this debate, you would just say, ‘Oh, Ohtani gets 30 extra seconds.’

“Just write, ‘A pitcher that was on base during the previous inning is allotted 30 extra seconds of warm-up time.’ And then it’s like, OK, it’s in the rulebook. We’ve fudged the rules for Ohtani before. I don’t think that would be the end of the world.”

This is the final week of Dallas Mavericks basketball, thank goodness. We had a poll that went up earlier in the week asking fans just one question and there was the link to join the national survey, which you should do so we can get more Dallas representation. The one and only question asked where fans thought Dallas would finish.

The 6th worst record is what we tanking aficionados want and it’s still up in the air. If they lose tonight against the Spurs and the Grizzlies win in the Utah-Memphis supertank, then Dallas has the inside track to the 6th spot. But then they also have to lose to the Bulls Sunday. Seems hard to do for the Mavs, given how they play.

Now we get to the national poll. Remember, if you’re still tracking the league and want to make some bets, Fan Dual is the best place to do that. Question one asked which top 4 seed could get upset.

The Knicks and Cavs nearly split it and given how weird both teams play at times, that’s a good bet.

Next we have the same question but for the Western Conference.

This one’s a given. Too many injuries, with Luka Doncic and Austin Reaves likely missing the entire first round. It’s sad too, the Lakers were looking fantastic until that game against the Thunder.

This next question asks which lower round team could make the conference finals in the East.

Results here were clearly compiled before Joel Embiid was ruled out with appendicitis, another brutally timed injury for the Sixer Big man. I think the other three teams all suck, so perhaps the answer is still the Sixers!

Last question is the same for the Western conference lower seeding.

This tracks with what I think too. The Rockets are messy but have talent. Nothing they do would surprise me.