Luka Doncic ranks fourth overall in MVP voting

Giannis Antetokounmp is this year’s NBA MVP. It’s the second consecutive year that he’s won the award. Good for him. We’re not here to talk about Giannis, though. He’s not on the Dallas Mavericks—yet.

Luka Doncic made things very interesting for MVP voters this season. His stellar play kept him in the MVP discussion as a dark horse all season. And while he may not have been a finalist for this season’s MVP award, he wasn’t far off. The second year star ranked No. 4 overall in voting once the final tallies came in.

Doncic totaled 14 third place votes, 36 fourth place votes, and 22 fifth place votes for a total point accrual of 200. A nice round number. That landed him squarely in fourth place overall, beating out Kawhi Leonard by 32 points.

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LeBron James (he’s 35) came in second in the overall voting and James Harden came in third.

The MVP results come just days after the league announced that Doncic was named to the All-NBA First Team. He’s just the second Mavericks player in history to receive the distinction. Dirk Nowitzki, naturally, is the other. Nowitzki made the All-NBA First Team four times in his career.

Doncic was also named an All-Seeding Games First Team selection by a unanimous vote and was a finalist for the NBA Most Improved Player award. This year he also made his first All-Star appearance. He was the NBA Rookie of the Year last season.

It’s only a matter of time before Doncic cracks the top-three and stays there for a number of years. It could happen as soon as next season—whenever that is. The Mavericks have an elite level talent in Doncic and he’s only going to keep getting better.