The cases for and against Victor Wembanyama as 2025-26 NBA MVP

San Antonio Spurs star Victor Wembanyama made his case to the media recently on his 2025-26 NBA regular-season MVP candidacy, leading to an outpouring of support on his behalf to win the award. Here's part of what the French big man had to say: Wembanyama, who won NBA Rookie of the Year two years ago and was generally considered a lock for Defensive Player of the Year last season until he had to be shut down while dealing with deep vein thrombosis, has a three-part campaign pitch. "My first one would be that defense is 50% of the game and that it is undervalued so far in the MVP race.

I believe I'm the most impactful player defensively in the league," Wembanyama said. "Second argument would be that we almost swept OKC in the season, and we dominated them three times with their real team. ...

The third argument would be that offense impact is not just points. " Perhaps not so coincidentally, Wembanyama surpassed the reigning league MVP, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander , on NBA. com's official MVP ladder just a few days after he made his public comments, although most gambling sites still have SGA as the favorite to repeat.

Today, we're going to break down the case for and against Wembanyama to be named this season's league MVP. The case for Wembanyama As Wembanyama eloquently argued when campaigning for himself in a post-game interview, basketball is a two-way game, so defensive impact should be seen as just as important as offensive impact. If that is true, Wembanyama should have a strong case for MVP, as the big man is the runaway best defensive player in the NBA this season, so much so that we recently wrote he could become the first unanimous Defensive Player of the Year in NBA history.