Who votes for NBA MVP? How did Giannis Antetokounmpo win 2020 MVP award over LeBron James?

Which select group of people are tasked with voting for each year’s MVP?

It was announced moments ago that Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis Antetokounmpo has been honoured with his second straight MVP, per ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski .

NBA fans took to social media to bash this decision as they believe LeBron James should have won MVP, due to Giannis’s poor Playoff performance. However, many people forget that the MVP award is bestowed upon the most valuble player in the regular season only; not including the Playoffs.

Also read: NBA MVP 2020: Giannis Antetokounmpo has won his second MVP award, beats LeBron James to it

There is always a debate about whether the right player was chosen to be the MVP for that particular, which results in people questioning the competency of the voters.

Who are the qualified individuals, casting votes on the regular season’s MVP?

Since the 1980-81 season, a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters from the United States and Canada cast votes on the MVP nominees.

However, from the 2016-17 season onwards, media members affiliated with NBA teams were not allowed to cast any votes, regardless of their stature in the NBA world. This was done to remove any sort of bias the team media members could have towards a nominee on their team.

Instead, the NBA recruits 100 media members who have no affiliation with any of the 30 NBA teams to negate any biased decisions.

How does the voting system work?

Placements in the MVP race go from 1^st place to 5^th place.

Voters are supposed to vote in the 5 MVP finalists in order of who they believe deserves the award more.

A 1^st place vote carries 10 points, 2^nd place vote carries 7 points; 3^rd place vote is worth 5 points; a 4^th place vote is worth 3 points and a 5^th place vote is worth 1 point.

Stephen Curry in the 2015-16 season is the only player in NBA history to have received all of the voters’ 1^st place vote.