Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo is back as an MVP candidate again as the NBA released the list of this year’s contenders for the Michael Jordan award.
Paschke Giannis
The Greek Freak was named into the Top 3 of MVP race joining Denver Nuggets’ Nikola Jokic and Oklahoma City Thunder’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander.
The road there was quite rough for Antetokounmpo who already won the award twice after his Bucks struggled at the start of the season, found their groove by November and then struggled again. The season was marred by injuries to key players and suspension of their sixth man.
This is the reason why his name was hardly in the MVP conversations throughout the course of the season.
They eventually settled for fifth place in the Eastern Conference standings, the lowest finish they had since the 2017-2018 season when they seventh, the year season before Giannis won his first MVP award.
This is the fifth time in the last seven years Antetokounmpo is in the Top 3. He missed it last season with Luka Doncic battling for the award together with Jokic and SGA.
He also missed the Top 3 in 2021, the time he won the NBA title, with Jokic (won it), Stephen Curry, and Joel Embiid, racing for it.
The last time he contended for the NBA MVP award was in 2023, which Embiid won.
Giannis Antetokounmpo’s astounding numbers for 2025
Antetokounmpo was at one point in the running for the scoring champion title but his numbers dipped due to the team struggle.
Despite that, he still recorded great numbers this season.
(1) First off, he won his first NBA Cup title and in the process won the NBA Cup Finals MVP.
(2) He also became the second player in NBA history to record above 30ppg on 60 percent shooting. The last one was also him.
(3) The Greek Freak also became the first player in league history to have 27 straight games with at least 20 points on 50 percent shooting.
(4) This is also the third season he finished with 30/10/5, the most by any player in league history.
(5) His all around game also showed as he finished second (11) behind Jokic (34) in most triple doubles recorded this season.
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