Curry or Durant?

Curry, who ranks second in the NBA in scoring and first in three-pointers made and attempted, garnered 94 of the 100 first-place votes cast in the 2021-22 debut of ESPN’s MVP poll, which ran from Dec. 3 through Dec. 6.

If Curry wins the MVP award, he would tie Wilt Chamberlain for the longest gap between awards (six years) in NBA history. Curry, who turns 34 in March, would also become the third oldest MVP in league history, behind Karl Malone in 1999 and Michael Jordan in 1998.

While Curry is firmly planted in the MVP spotlight, Los Angeles Lakers star LeBron James, another mainstay in the poll discussion, did not receive a vote for the first time in the eight polls conducted since the 2016-17 season.

To gauge where the race stands at approximately 30% of the season, ESPN asked 100 members of the media to participate in an informal poll that mimics postseason awards voting. To make the voting as realistic as possible, there were at least two voters from each of the league’s 28 markets, along with a cross-section of national and international reporters.

As with the NBA’s official end-of-season vote, voters were asked to submit a ballot of five players and the results were tabulated using the league’s scoring system: 10 points for each first-place vote, seven points for second, five points for third, three points for fourth and one point for fifth.

Curry (978 points) was followed by Brooklyn Nets small forward Kevin Durant (610 points, two first-place votes) and Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo (471 points, three first-place votes). Last year’s MVP, Denver Nuggets center Nikola Jokic (256 points), earned the other first-place vote and placed fourth overall.

Phoenix Suns point guard Chris Paul (160 points) rounded out the top five.

Others receiving votes: Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan (sixth); Miami Heat forward Jimmy Butler and Suns point guard Devin Booker tied for seventh place; Dallas Mavericks point guard Luka Doncic (ninth); Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young (10th); and LA Clippers shooting guard Paul George (11th). Philadelphia 76ers center Joel Embiid, Utah Jazz point guard Donovan Mitchell and Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine each earned one vote to tie for 12th.

Curry’s 94 first-place votes creates the highest percentage of first-place votes received in any of the opinion polls, surpassing the 91 votes James Harden received in the spring of 2018, the season in which he would win his only MVP award while with the Houston Rockets.

Curry, Durant and Antetokounmpo were named on all 100 ballots, the first time that as many as three players were unanimous selections in any iteration of the poll, and a sign of the separation between them and the rest of the group.

In fact, there is much more separation across the board at this point in the season than last year, when James, Embiid and Jokic were separated by just 164 points and combined for 94 first-place votes. Curry, on the other hand, received that many by himself, and there are 368 points separating him from second-place Durant, who is the NBA’s current scoring leader. That’s more than double the gap between first and third in last season’s first edition of the poll.

There is a clear stratification between each of the top six in the poll.

Curry leads Golden State’s return to the top of the NBA standings after the team missed the playoffs in each of the last two seasons following five consecutive trips to the NBA Finals. He averages 27.5 points and is on pace to make 445 three-pointers, which would break his single-season record of 402 set in 2016 when he became the only unanimous MVP in league history.

Durant is off to a stellar start for Brooklyn, which sits in first place in the Eastern Conference. He leads the league in scoring with 28.4 points and is shooting over 50% from the field for the ninth consecutive season. Antetokounmpo is averaging 27.0 points, 11.6 rebounds and 5.7 assists for the Bucks, who have returned to the top of the East standings after an injury-filled first month.