Jalen Brunson is the runaway favorite on the Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 board after a Finals MVP run that carried the New York Knicks to their first championship since 1973. He headlines a four-man field alongside Victor Wembanyama, Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, and Nikola Jokic, with the ESPYS set to reveal the winner on July 15, 2026. The live board above tracks where the market has each nominee.
The Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 is the pro-basketball category at the ESPY Awards, ESPN's annual show honoring the past 12 months in sports. Winners are decided by online fan voting rather than a media panel, so the award tends to follow the player who defined the season that just ended. This year that player is Jalen Brunson, who finished the 2025-26 campaign as NBA Finals MVP, and the board above treats him as the clear front-runner.
Jalen Brunson is the reason this race has a heavy favorite. He led the New York Knicks to the 2026 title, their first since 1973, and was named Finals MVP by a unanimous vote after closing out Victor Wembanyama and the San Antonio Spurs in five games. He dropped 45 points in the clinching Game 5, a Knicks Finals record, and averaged 32.6 points, 4.6 assists, and 4.2 rebounds across the series. A championship plus a Finals MVP is the exact profile fan voters reward, and Kalshi has him as the runaway favorite on the board.
Victor Wembanyama is the market's clear second choice on Kalshi. The San Antonio big man carried the Spurs all the way to the 2026 NBA Finals before falling to the Knicks, a leap that turned him into the sport's most-discussed young star. He is the national storyline in this field, and if the vote rewards the season's breakout rather than its champion, he is the name best positioned to run down Brunson.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander enters as the reigning Best NBA Player ESPY winner, having taken the 2025 edition of this award. The Oklahoma City guard is still one of the most productive scorers in the league, but repeat winners are rare once a new champion emerges, and the board reflects a field that has shifted to this season's headline names.
Nikola Jokic is the most decorated name on the ballot, a multiple-time MVP and the 2023 winner of this same award. His resume is the strongest in the group over the long run, but the ESPYS reward the most recent season, and without a deep title run this year he sits at the back of the market.
The Best NBA Player ESPY follows a clear pattern: it goes to the season's dominant story, almost always a champion or an MVP. Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won it in 2025 after his Oklahoma City breakout. Luka Doncic took the 2024 award, and Nikola Jokic won in 2023 on the back of his first title and Finals MVP. Stephen Curry won it back-to-back in 2022 and 2021. The 2020 ceremony did not hand out its standard sports categories because the pandemic reshaped that year's virtual show, so no Best NBA Player was named. Giannis Antetokounmpo won in 2019, and LeBron James took the 2018 award, one of many across his career. Read against that history, a Finals MVP like Brunson fits the mold of past winners almost exactly.
The Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 market resolves on the night of the ceremony, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The ESPYS air live at 8pm ET on ABC, streaming on the ESPN app, from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Each nominee trades as a separate contract that pays out if that player is announced as the winner and settles at zero otherwise. The result is set by ESPN's official on-air announcement of the fan-voted winner, and a Tie contract is listed to cover the rare case of a shared award.
The Best NBA Player ESPY 2026 is one node in a full slate of ESPYS categories on the board. Brunson also runs through the Best Team ESPY 2026 market by way of the champion Knicks, while the Best NFL Player ESPY 2026 odds and the Best MLB Player ESPY 2026 market track the other league races. The top individual honor sits on the Best Male Athlete ESPY 2026 board, and every category rolls up under the broader sports prediction markets hub.
Resolves to the winner of the Best NBA Player award at the 2026 ESPYS, announced during the live broadcast on Wednesday, July 15, 2026, from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles. Each nominee is a separate contract that pays $1 per share if that player wins and settles at $0 if they do not. The winner is set by ESPN's official on-air announcement of the fan-voted result. A Tie contract covers the rare case of co-winners. If the award is not presented or the ceremony is canceled, contracts resolve per each platform's stated rules.
As of July 11, 2026, Kalshi has Jalen Brunson as the runaway favorite at 84c, with Victor Wembanyama the distant second and Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Nikola Jokic further back. The nominees are also listed on Polymarket. See the live board above for current prices.
It resolves on the night of the ESPYS, Wednesday, July 15, 2026. The show airs live at 8pm ET on ABC from the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, and the market settles on ESPN's official winner announcement.
The award is listed on both Kalshi and Polymarket, with each nominee trading as a separate yes-or-no contract. The board above pulls both platforms into a single view.
Jalen Brunson is the clear favorite. He won 2026 NBA Finals MVP and led the New York Knicks to their first title since 1973, the kind of championship season fan voters have historically rewarded with this award.
Watch fan-voting momentum in the final days before the July 15, 2026 show, especially whether Victor Wembanyama's Finals run pulls late support toward the runner-up over the champion. The winner is revealed live on the ESPYS broadcast.