Jokic Ranked ESPN's Top NBA Player for Third Year in a Row
ESPN's annual top 10 NBA rankings for 2026/27 put the Serbian center on top for the third year running, in the tightest race yet, decided by just three points.
Seven panelists each built their own top 100 list, working independently with no discussion between them, and when the results were added together, the players at the very top were separated by just three points. That was the entire gap between Nikola Jokic, Victor Wembanyama and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. The Denver Nuggets center ended up on top again, just as he had the previous two years.
ESPN released its annual ranking of the NBA’s ten best players on Thursday, September 24, this time ahead of the 2026/27 season. The voting method changed from previous years: instead of polling more than 100 journalists, editors and producers who cover the league, the outlet assembled a panel of seven of its own analysts, Ben Golliver, Vincent Goodwill, Zach Kram, Bobby Marks, Dave McMenamin, Andre Snellings and Matt Williams, and each of them ranked the league’s top 100 players on their own. The final order came from adding those lists together, with every player judged on his expected contribution during the regular season alone, both in quality of play and in minutes on the floor.
That is exactly why the top of the list ended up so tight. Jokic finished first, Wembanyama second and Gilgeous-Alexander third, but the trio was separated by only three voting points, and each of them was ranked number one by at least one panelist.
Who rounds out the rest of the top 10?
Luka Doncic follows the top three, then Giannis Antetokounmpo, now playing for Miami. Sixth place went to Jalen Brunson, who led the New York Knicks to their first NBA title in more than half a century last season. Behind him come Anthony Edwards, Cade Cunningham, Jayson Tatum and Donovan Mitchell, who closes out the top 10.
This marks Jokic’s third straight year at the top of ESPN’s list, and the numbers behind that streak explain why the panel did not hesitate this time either. He averaged a triple-double for the second straight season, a feat that puts him alongside Russell Westbrook as the only player in league history to pull it off more than once. Over the past six seasons, he has finished among the top two in MVP voting every single time, either winning the award or coming in second.
The panel made its picks on paper, before a single official game of the 2026/27 season had been played. Jokic has consistently backed up those kinds of predictions with numbers once the season actually starts, and that will once again be the clearest answer to whether the top spot really belongs to him.
