When OG Anunoby soared into the lane and tipped in a prayer, he also might have tipped the NBA Finals MVP race.
Anunoby, a 500-to-1 bet before the playoffs, is now a 2-to-1 (+200) contender on BetMGM after his Game 4 tip-in put the Knicks one win away from a title.
His odds were as long as 150-1 just a week ago, when the Knicks held a 2-0 series lead, and their understated forward was merely an important contributor.
Since his heroics in Game 4, bettors have become enamored with the Knicks’ Swiss Army Knife. With 17 percent of tickets and nearly 8 percent of the market’s money on Anunoby, BetMGM considers him the sportsbook’s biggest liability to win the Finals MVP.
Most years, the Finals MVP is an easy, unanimous vote: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander in 2025, Nikola Jokic in 2023, Stephen Curry in 2022, Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2021 and LeBron James in 2020.
But this year’s race could come down to the clincher – and voters’ preferences.
Jalen Brunson entered the playoffs with 28-1 odds to win the award. The dynamic Knicks guard, averaging 29.5 points and responsible for plenty of other dramatic moments, is still the favorite at -110 odds. But it might be difficult to overlook the efficiency of Anunoby, who’s averaging 23.8 points on 58 percent shooting. Anunoby is taking 12.5 shots per game compared with Brunson’s 26.5.
If voters value defense, Anunoby will have the edge. He is the Knicks’ best, most versatile defender, and he has been tasked with guarding Stephon Castle, De’Aaron Fox and even occasionally Victor Wembanyama. His block of Fox’s late layup attempt set up his iconic play.
Should New York close this out, it’s hard to imagine a moment more defining than Anunoby’s (though these are the Knicks, so Brunson might say “Hold my $20 domestic beer.”).
Brunson is, of course, the engine and the captain, and Anunoby’s success can be somewhat attributed to the attention his point guard draws. But recent history suggests voters don’t always favor the franchise player over the player who popped.
In 2024, Jaylen Brown edged Celtics teammate Jayson Tatum, 7-4, despite Tatum being the team’s best player all year, initiating the offense in the Finals and accumulating more points, rebounds and assists throughout the series.
Curry was beaten out for the award during each of his first three titles with Golden State. In 2015, Andre Iguodala got seven votes, James got four with the losing Cavaliers, and Curry was shut out. (In 2017, Kevin Durant unanimously won; in another Warriors walkover of the Cavs in 2018, Durant beat Curry, 7-4.)
Who else is in the running this year?
The alien in the room is that the Spurs could come back to win this series, in which case Wembanyama would be the answer. His Finals MVP odds (+390 on FanDuel) and the Spurs’ odds of winning the series (+385) are about equal.
There was a viable, if unlikely, path for him to win Finals MVP as a loser, as James challenged to do in 2015 and Jerry West actually did in 1969. Imagine a series in which Wemby averaged 40 points, 15 rebounds and five blocks, got scant help and barely fell short against a Knicks team that featured a different hero every night.
Though Wembanyama (27.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, 3.3 blocks) is the best player in this series, that’s not quite what’s happening. Wembanyama’s costly turnover in Game 2 and his shooting swoon in the second half of Game 4 put to rest the idea he could steal the award in a loss.
As for the other contenders, Wemby’s counterpart, Karl-Anthony Towns, starred in two Knicks wins to begin the series and became a trendy pick, with +150 odds that were just behind Brunson. But a pair of tepid performances has his odds as long as 65-1 at FanDuel (he began the series at roughly 20-1).
