Joel Embiid will presumably win his first career NBA Most Valuable Player award on Tuesday after finishing as the runner-up in each of the past two seasons behind Nikola Jokic. There is a “long time coming” feel to Embiid’s MVP, but he only ranks in the middle of the pack for accumulated MVP share before winning his first trophy, according to historical voting data from Basketball Reference.
In the time period since 1984, Kevin Durant ranks first as the most decorated first-time MVP with a 2.02 accumulated share. Durant finished as the runner-up in 2010, 2012 and 2013 before breaking through in 2014.
Larry Bird has the second highest share at 1.75 as he also was a runner-up three separate times before winning.
James Harden and Kevin Garnett are the other two players to have two runner-up finishes before winning the award.
Derrick Rose, Steve Nash, Stephen Curry, Giannis Antetokounmpo and Nikola Jokic were the first-time MVPs with the least accumulated MVP share.
