{"id":619763,"date":"2026-04-20T19:08:13","date_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:08:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619763\/"},"modified":"2026-04-20T19:08:13","modified_gmt":"2026-04-20T19:08:13","slug":"luka-doncic-snubbed-as-mvp-finalist-nba-fans-react-as-lakers-star-not-top-3-despite-exemption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/619763\/","title":{"rendered":"Luka Doncic Snubbed as MVP Finalist? NBA Fans React as Lakers Star Not Top 3 Despite Exemption"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">With only three finalists for the NBA MVP award, it was anything but a surprise that Luka Don\u010di\u0107 was not included in Sunday&#8217;s announcement.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">But that didn&#8217;t stop fans from reacting to the Los Angeles Lakers star not being on the list of finalists alongside Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Oklahoma City Thunder), Nikola Joki\u0107 (Denver Nuggets) and Victor Wembanyama (San Antonio Spurs).<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Here is a look at some of the reaction:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Don\u010di\u0107&#8217;s eligibility for the MVP, All-NBA consideration and other awards was recently under the spotlight since he appeared in 64 games and failed to reach the 65-game threshold.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">However, the NBA and National Basketball Players Association <a class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-inherit MuiLink-root MuiLink-underlineAlways MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__ui__link__medium_strong css-lu48cp\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/NBAPR\/status\/2044804296596713865\">announced<\/a> Thursday that he was eligible due to the &#8220;extraordinary circumstances provision in the CBA&#8221; because he missed two games for the birth of his daughter in Slovenia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">That ruling drew a reaction from the Lakers star:<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">While he won&#8217;t be the MVP, the successful appeal means he will be eligible for the All-NBA First Team. That will bolster his already excellent resume and serve as recognition for what was an incredible 2025-26 campaign.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">Don\u010di\u0107 led the NBA at 33.5 points per game while also averaging 8.3 assists, 7.7 rebounds and 1.6 steals and shooting 47.6 percent from the field and 36.6 percent from deep. He was a major reason the Lakers finished with the fourth-best record in the Western Conference.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">In a typical season, that type of production likely would have been enough to be named an MVP finalist. However, Gilgeous-Alexander, Joki\u0107 and Wembanyama were all unbelievable in their own right and led their teams to the top three seeds in that Western Conference race.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">If Gilgeous-Alexander takes home the award, it will mark his second straight MVP and throw him even further under the NBA spotlight after he led the Thunder to the title last season.<\/p>\n<p class=\"MuiTypography-root MuiTypography-bp_small__body__article__medium css-1vqr2el\">And it will also give Don\u010di\u0107 and Co. someone to beat in next season&#8217;s MVP race.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With only three finalists for the NBA MVP award, it was anything but a surprise that Luka Don\u010di\u0107&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":619764,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-619763","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619763","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=619763"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/619763\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/619764"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=619763"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=619763"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=619763"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}