Nikola Jokić has been so good for so long that we’ve started treating it like weather. Another season, another 29-point triple-double average, another MVP trophy ceremony he may or may not attend. But buried in the routine excellence is a piece of history nobody has touched in 60 years — and nobody has ever owned outright.
If Jokić finishes first or second in MVP voting for the 2026–27 season, he will become the first player in NBA history to record seven consecutive top-two MVP finishes. He currently sits at six straight, tied with Larry Bird and Bill Russell for the longest such streak the league has ever seen.
The run, confirmed by Basketball Reference’s award voting records, began in 2020–21, when Jokić won his first MVP averaging 26.4 points, 10.8 rebounds, and 8.3 assists on a Denver team missing Jamal Murray for the stretch run. He repeated in 2021–22 with an even better statistical profile — 27.1 points, 13.8 rebounds, 7.9 assists — becoming one of only three players since 1975–76 to win MVP on a sub-50-win team, joining Moses Malone and Russell Westbrook.
Then came the near-misses that somehow made the streak more impressive, not less. Jokić finished second to Joel Embiid in 2022–23 despite leading the league in player efficiency rating and guiding Denver to the top seed en route to a championship. He reclaimed the trophy in 2023–24 with a career-high 26.4 points, 12.4 rebounds, and 9.0 assists. The last two seasons brought runner-up finishes — to Shai Gilgeous-Alexander both times, per the NBA’s official award records — but the top-two placement held.
That’s the streak: 1st, 1st, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd. Six for six.
Bird’s matching run came across the heart of his Celtics prime. From 1980–81 through 1985–86, he finished second, second, second, first, first, first — three consecutive MVPs bookending three consecutive runner-up campaigns. Basketball Reference confirms each placement. Russell’s six-year top-two streak, which the NBA’s historical records place in the late 1950s and early 1960s, predates the modern media-voting format that began in 1980–81; MVP balloting was conducted by players until 1979–80, making direct era comparisons imperfect but no less remarkable.
What separates Jokić’s case is the degree of difficulty baked into the modern voting landscape. Since the 2023–24 collective bargaining agreement, players must appear in at least 65 games to qualify for MVP consideration. Jokić played 70 games in 2024–25 and 65 in 2025–26, clearing the threshold but leaving almost no margin for the kind of load management that earlier eras never had to navigate. Bird played 77, 79, 79, 80, and 82 games during his streak. Russell played in a league with eight to nine teams.
The 2026–27 MVP race will feature the usual suspects — Gilgeous-Alexander coming off back-to-back wins, Luka Dončić, Anthony Edwards, Victor Wembanyama — but Jokić’s baseline is the thing nobody can plan around. He has averaged a triple-double in each of his last two seasons. His career regular-season triple-double count sits at 198, fifth all-time and climbing. He turns 31 in February.
Seven straight top-two finishes would not just break a tie with two of the five greatest players ever. It would reframe the conversation about sustained excellence in the modern NBA — a conversation Jokić has been quietly winning for six years, whether anyone notices or not.
Sources:
- Basketball Reference — Nikola Jokić career stats and awards
- Basketball Reference — Larry Bird career stats and awards
- Wikipedia — NBA Most Valuable Player Award