Wembanyama Is Already an MVP Finalist in His Sophomore Year

Victor Wembanyama is two years into his NBA career and he's already in the MVP conversation. Let that sink in.

ESPN reported that the three finalists for the 2026 NBA MVP award are Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama. This is the announcement that confirms what a lot of people have been quietly saying all season: Wemby isn't just a promising young player anymore. He's one of the best players on the planet.

The Company He's Keeping

Let's be clear about who Wembanyama is being mentioned alongside. Nikola Jokic is a three-time MVP and widely considered one of the greatest offensive players in NBA history. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander has been arguably the most unstoppable scorer in the league this season, and he's been building toward this moment for years.

These are not names you get lumped in with by accident. Being a finalist for MVP in your second season, competing against players at the absolute peak of their powers, is an achievement that has almost no historical parallel.

For context: most players are still figuring out NBA rotations in their sophomore year. Wemby is making MVP cases.

What Wemby Did This Year

This wasn't just a case of hype outrunning performance. Wembanyama led the San Antonio Spurs back to the playoffs — which by itself is a significant achievement for a franchise that spent years tanking and rebuilding. He did it with a season that combined elite shot-blocking, perimeter shooting, playmaking, and scoring in a package the NBA has genuinely never seen before.

His combination of size (7-foot-4 with a 8-foot wingspan) and skill (handles like a guard, shoots like a wing, sees the floor like a point forward) creates defensive problems that teams simply don't have answers for. When you're forcing opponents to design entirely new defensive coverages just for you — as a 20-year-old — that's not development. That's dominance.

The MVP Race Itself

Honestly, Shai probably has this locked up — he's been the best player on the best team in the West all season, and the Thunder have been historically dominant. Jokic is Jokic, and he always makes it interesting.

But the fact that Wemby is in the conversation is the real story. Third in MVP voting as a sophomore is the kind of baseline that gets built on. If he keeps this trajectory — and there's no reason to think he won't — we're looking at a player who could own this award for the next decade.

Why This Matters Beyond the Award

The NBA has been searching for its next transcendent superstar — the kind of player who carries the league the way LeBron, Kobe, and MJ did. Wembanyama might genuinely be that player, and this MVP nomination is the first official acknowledgment from the league's establishment that the search might be over.

Spurs fans have known it all season. Now everybody else is catching up.

The Bottom Line

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, Nikola Jokic, and Victor Wembanyama. That's the 2026 MVP finalist list. Two of those names were expected. One of them is 20 years old and in his second NBA season. That's the one you'll be telling people about in 10 years — when Wemby is collecting his fourth or fifth MVP trophy and everyone acts like they knew all along.