When Is The NBA MVP Announced?

The NBA MVP is normally announced each year after the regular season around the first week of May. This year, the 2022-23 season MVP was announced on May 2, 2023, and was won by the Philadelphia 76ers star Joel Embiid.

You can see the video tweet with the celebration by Embiid and his teammates below.

Now that we answered the key question for this year let’s dig a little deeper into one of the most prestigious awards in all of sports. In this blog post, we will take a look at when the history of the NBA MVP award and its winners.

NBA MVP List By Year

Here is the complete list of NBA MVP winners from the inception of the award in 1956 to 2021, listed in descending order by year:

NBA Players With Multiple MVP Awards

These players have won the NBA MVP award multiple times.

History of the NBA MVP Award

The National Basketball Association (NBA) Most Valuable Player Award is an annual award in NBA history given since the 1955–56 season to the best-performing player of the regular season.

NBA MVP Trophy

Since 2022 the winner receives the Michael Jordan Trophy. Previously, it was the Maurice Podoloff Trophy, which was named in honor of the first commissioner (then president) of the NBA, who served from 1946 until his retirement in 1963. He is now the namesake of a new team award for the NBA team with the best regular season record.

How Is The NBA MVP Winner Chosen?

The NBA uses a weighted voting system. Each voter fills out a ballot with their top five picks for the MVP, ranking them from first to fifth place.

A first-place vote is worth 10 points, a second-place vote is worth seven points, a third-place vote is worth five points, a fourth-place vote is worth three points, and a fifth-place vote is worth one point.

The player with the highest total points across all ballots wins the MVP award. If two players have the same number of points, the player with more first-place votes wins. If they’re still tied, it goes to the player with more second-place votes, and so on.

NBA MVP Voters

Until the 1979–80 season, the MVP was selected by a vote of NBA players. Since the 1980–81 season, the award has been decided by a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada.

A twist was put in from the 2009-2010 season until the 2019-2020 season, the NBA incorporated fan voting into the selection process for the MVP award. The fans’ vote collectively accounted for one vote in the total ballot. Fans were able to vote online for their top five MVP choices.

However, as of the 2020-2021 season, the NBA returned to its previous method of having a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters determine the MVP.

Do They Usually Award The NBA Awards Before Playoffs?

The voting for the NBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) award is conducted at the end of the regular season but, in many cases, it is not announced until the early rounds of the playoffs have already started.

Again, it’s important to note that the MVP award is based on regular-season performance. Playoff performance doesn’t factor into the MVP voting, which is why the voting takes place before the playoffs begin.

Controversial MVP Issues

In recent years, media members have questioned whether players who come off the bench should be eligible for the NBA Most Valuable Player Award. In 2017, ESPN’s Zach Lowe said “The MVP race has been hijacked” by voters who give too much credit to starters, while USA Today’s Jeff Zillgitt wrote that “maybe it’s time to re-examine the MVP award and give serious consideration to making players who come off the bench ineligible”. In 2018, Bleacher Report’s Howard Beck argued that “the very definition of ‘valuable’ has changed in the modern NBA”, and that voters should consider changing the criteria for the award. The following year, ESPN’s Tim Bontemps argued that “it might be time to start thinking about changing how we judge MVPs”, suggesting that players who come off the bench could be eligible for the award.

Conclusion

You would think the question “When Is The NBA MVP Announced?” would be simple to answer, but we only know for certain that the voting is done after the regular season. Once the votes are tabulated it is likely up to the commissioner to decide the specific date of the announcement. We will keep this post updated from year to year once we know when the date of the NBA MVP announcement each year. We will also keep our NBA MVP list updated.

Troy Wallace

Troy Wallace is Certified Basketball Speed Specialist and shares his experiences in trying to stay as healthy as possible to stay on the court. He is active in coaching youth basketball in YMCA, Team Work Sports Nebraska, and, currently, in the Jr. Warriors program in Omaha, NE. Visit Troy's Full Author Bio Page or email him directly.

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