Shai Gilgeous-Alexander won his first MVP trophy in a close vote over Nikola Jokic, but the real story for Golden State Warriors fans is that Steph Curry finished 9th.

Two of the 100 MVP voters thought Curry was the fifth-most valuable player in the NBA during the 2024-25 season, a position perhaps not backed up by his regular-season statistics but validated by his performance in the playoffs — and his team’s performance without him. Curry averaged 24.5 points, 6 assists and 4.4 rebounds while leading the league in three-pointers per game (4.4) and nearly matching his career-high with a league-leading free throw percentage of 93.3%.

Advanced stats loved Curry. According to Cleaning the Glass, With Curry on the floor, the Warriors scored 13.1 points more per 100 possessions. He finished fifth in Value Over Replacement Player and sixth in Box Score Plus/Minus, an opponent-adjusted measure.

No one but SGA and Jokic got first- or second-place votes, while Giannis Antetokounmpo collected 88% of the third-place votes, Jayson Tatum got 11%, and one maverick voter chose Donovan Mitchell. LeBron James got a fourth-place vote, Cade Cunningham got one, and Anthony Edwards got two, but the wildest ballot belonged to whoever ranked James Harden first. Is there a Houston strip club owner who gets an MVP vote?

Obviously, no other Warriors appeared in the voting. His nickname isn’t “Regular Season Jimmy,” after all.

Compelling arguments can be made for both Gilgeous-Alexander and Jokic as the 2024-25 MVP, but we want to know which of these candidates was helped most by playing the Golden State Warriors this season.

Shai Gilgeous-Alexander: 3 games, 37 points, 5.7 rebounds, 4.3 assists. He shot 47.3% from the field and turned the ball over 10 times in his three games, but killed the Warriors at the foul line. SGA shot a stunning 45 free throws against the Dubs, making 36, which accounted for nearly a third of his points. There was no other team who sent SGA to the line more often each game, but there was also only one other team who had a winning record against the Oklahoma City Thunder: The Dallas Mavericks, who were 3-1, while the Warriors went 2-1.

Nikola Jokic: The Joker only played two games against the Warriors this season, missing one where Aaron Gordon led Denver to victory even with Jokic and Jamal Murray sitting out. But when he played, Jokic averaged 35.5 points, 11 rebounds, and 7.5 assists. He shot 27-for-41 (66%) and 7-for-11 on three-pointers.

He led a big 4th-quarter comeback in December, a game Steve Kerr likely refers to as “TimeoutGate” thanks to Christian Braun seeming to call for a timeout the Nuggets didn’t have late in the game. In April, Jokic shot 13-for-17, but the Warriors trounced the Nuggets when he sat and broke their nine-game losing streak.

Jokic probably benefited slightly more from playing the Dubs, but in terms of hypothetical bragging, Gilgeous-Alexander’s win validates the Warriors’ season more. They went 1-2 against the MVP! And if Curry doesn’t injure his hamstring, obviously they’d beat the Minnesota Timberwolves, take down the Thunder in the conference finals, and then win the title in Madison Square Garden as Curry does the Night Night in Spike Lee’s face.

After all, it’s very difficult to stop the NBA’s ninth-most valuable player. Unless you’re his 37-year-old hamstring.