The best season of Nikola Jokic’s career wasn’t enough to earn a fourth Most Valuable Player award.

Oklahoma City’s Shai Gilgeous-Alexander will be announced as the 2024-25 NBA MVP, according to an ESPN report Wednesday.

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Gilgeous-Alexander led the league with 32.7 points per game and was the best player on the league’s best team, as Oklahoma City went 68-14 in the regular season. The 26-year-old also averaged 6.4 assists, 5 rebounds, 1.7 steals and a block in the regular season. 

He received 71 of the 100 first-place votes. Jokic received the other 29.

Oklahoma City’s star finished with 913 total points to Jokic’s 787. Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo (470), Boston’s Jayson Tatum (311) and Cleveland’s Donovan Mitchell (74) rounded out the top five.

Denver’s superstar became the first player in NBA history to finish in the top three in points (29.6), rebounds (12.7), assists (10.2) and steals (1.8) per game. He became the third player to average a triple-double, joining Russell Westbrook and Oscar Robertson.

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Jokic had the sixth instance of a player finishing a season averaging a triple-double — at least 10 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds per game.

Only one of those seasons has led to an MVP win.

Robertson averaged a triple-double in 1961-62; he didn’t win MVP that year. Westbrook did it four times and won the MVP award only once in that span. And now, Jokic finished second after a season statistically like none other.

Jokic said multiple times this season was his best to date. He set new career-highs in points per game, 3-point percentage (41.7%), assists and steals per game. He played in 70 of 82 regular-season games.

Jokic also became just the third player in NBA history with a top-two finish in five or more consecutive seasons, joining Bill Russell and Larry Bird.

Jokic won the award in 2021, 2023 and 2024, plus was second in 2022 and again this year.

Russell and Bird, a pair of Boston Celtics greats, each were first or second in the balloting in six consecutive seasons.

Russell won in 1958, 1961, 1962 and 1963, while finishing second in 1959 and 1960. Bird was second in 1981, 1982 and 1983 before winning in 1984, 1985 and 1986.

Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (1971-74) and Tim Duncan (2001-04) are the other players with four straight top-two finishes. Michael Jordan and LeBron James each had two different streaks of three consecutive top-two finishes in the voting — but never got past that.

The award was formally announced before Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals between the Knicks and Pacers on Wednesday night. Gilgeous-Alexander will likely be presented the award before Game 2 of the Western Conference finals on Thursday.

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The 26-year-old led the Thunder past the Nuggets by averaging 29.7 points, 6.6 assists, 6.4 rebounds and 1.6 steals across the seven games of the second-round series. He started the conference finals with 31 points, nine assists and five rebounds in the Thunder’s win Tuesday against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

The Associated Press contributed to this report