{"id":159058,"date":"2025-09-21T15:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159058\/"},"modified":"2025-09-21T15:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-09-21T15:22:07","slug":"aja-wilson-named-wnba-mvp-winning-for-record-fourth-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/159058\/","title":{"rendered":"A’ja Wilson named WNBA MVP, winning for record fourth time"},"content":{"rendered":"

A’ja Wilson<\/a> has become the WNBA’s first four-time MVP after earning the top individual honor for the second straight year, the league announced Sunday.<\/p>\n

The Las Vegas Aces<\/a> star was named MVP in what had been considered a tight battle with Minnesota Lynx<\/a> forward Napheesa Collier<\/a>. Wilson ultimately received 51 first-place votes and 657 points<\/a> to finish ahead of Collier in second (18 first-place votes, 534 points)<\/p>\n

Phoenix Mercury<\/a> forward Alyssa Thomas<\/a> (3rd, 3 first-place votes, 391 points), Atlanta Dream<\/a> guard Allisha Gray<\/a> (4th, 180) and Indiana Fever<\/a> guard Kelsey Mitchell<\/a> (5th, 93) were also finalists for the award.<\/p>\n

This year’s award puts Wilson ahead of three-time MVPs Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson. In 2024, Wilson joined Cynthia Cooper of the 1997 Houston Comets as the WNBA’s only unanimous MVP selections; Cooper also is the only other back-to-back honoree, winning the award in the WNBA’s first two seasons (1997, 1998).<\/p>\n

Editor’s Picks<\/a><\/p>\n

Wilson, 29, was also named MVP in 2020 and 2022. The other four finalists had not won the MVP award.<\/p>\n

Wilson led the WNBA with averages of 23.4 points and 2.3 blocks per game for the second-seeded Aces while also contributing 10.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest. She was named the league’s Co-Defensive Player of the Year<\/a> along with the Lynx’s Alanna Smith<\/a>.<\/p>\n

“By the time it’s all said and done, she will be the greatest to ever do it,” Aces coach Becky Hammon told ESPN’s Michael Voepel. “Four [MVPs] already says she is. In a league that has continued to get much better, she keeps getting better.<\/p>\n

“You’re watching poetry in motion. You’re watching history. And she’s just 29 years old. She could win four more of these by the time she is finished.”<\/p>\n

Wilson told ESPN that this season has been a different challenge because of the Aces’ struggles until things came together in August, when they began what turned into a franchise-record 17-game winning streak.<\/p>\n

The Aces went from a 14-14 record to a 30-14 regular-season finish and the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs. Las Vegas won its first-round opener against the Seattle Storm<\/a>, saw the streak end in a Game 2 loss, then made it to the semifinals for the seventh consecutive year by winning Game 3 on Thursday behind Wilson’s 38 points, which tied her playoff record.<\/p>\n

“Just my mental aspect has gone up,” Wilson told ESPN. “I work on tons of stuff, but I think my ability to read the defense and seeing what type of game it’s going to be within the first couple of possessions [has improved]. I know as my career goes on, I’m going to see tons of different defenses, because that’s what you deal with. I love just letting my basketball mind figure it out.”<\/p>\n

Wilson and the Aces face the Indiana Fever<\/a> in the semifinals starting Sunday.<\/p>\n

Information from The Associated Press was used in this report.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A’ja Wilson has become the WNBA’s first four-time MVP after earning the top individual honor for the second…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":159059,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[574],"tags":[64,63,726,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-159058","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-basketball","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-basketball","11":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159058","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=159058"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/159058\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/159059"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=159058"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=159058"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=159058"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}