{"id":925959,"date":"2026-10-09T01:30:11","date_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:30:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925959\/"},"modified":"2026-10-09T01:30:11","modified_gmt":"2026-10-09T01:30:11","slug":"aja-wilson-wins-her-third-straight-wnba-mvp-and-record-fifth-overall","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/925959\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson wins her third straight WNBA MVP and record fifth overall"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Las Vegas Aces centre A’ja Wilson (22) reacts after scoring and drawing a foul during the second half of Game 2 of her team’s WNBA semi-final series against the Golden State Valkyries on Wednesday in San Francisco.Jeff Chiu\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

A\u2019ja Wilson fine-tunes her shooting touch following every practice. That little bit of extra work has defined her greatness since being drafted first overall in 2018.<\/p>\n

On Thursday, she received a voice message from former U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris congratulating her on redefining greatness leaguewide after she was named WNBA MVP for a third straight year and for the fifth time overall.<\/p>\n

\u201cObviously, that is an honour,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cA woman of our history, and I\u2019m so appreciative to be able to share that moment with her through the phone call and the message of her delivering that I won my fifth MVP.\u201d<\/p>\n

In addition to becoming the first player to three-peat, Wilson won the award in 2020 and 2022.<\/p>\n

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, Aces owner Mark Davis and team president Nikki Fargas accompanied Wilson\u2019s mother, Eva, who presented her daughter with the trophy.<\/p>\n

\u201cEach one of these has not been taken lightly,\u201d Wilson said, flanked by all five of her MVP trophies. \u201cIn my heart, they\u2019ve always been so special. But this one here, I cried a little bit harder. This one here is just a little bit different, and whatever that may look like, or whatever that may feel, my fifth one, I think, is one that\u2019s just … when you dream as a young girl, your dream [is] so big and you write your goals out, and you just never imagine that you were able to just check them off.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd when you\u2019re able to check them off \u2013 small wins, big wins \u2013 it truly means a lot. And so I think that\u2019s why I cried a little bit harder on this one, because 15-year-old A\u2019ja wasn\u2019t sitting up here dreaming about being a five-time MVP. She wasn\u2019t dreaming about being a three-time champion. She was dreaming about surviving this world.\u201d<\/p>\n

The 30-year-old Wilson once again led the league in scoring (26.2) while shooting nearly 53 per cent from the field. She averaged 9.4 rebounds, a career-best 3.2 assists and 1.9 blocks.<\/p>\n

Wilson has the defending champion Aces back in the WNBA semi-finals for the eighth consecutive season, although Las Vegas is down 2-0 in the best-of-five series against Golden State. Game 3 is Friday.<\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A’ja Wilson #22 of the Las Vegas Aces places a tiara over her 2026 WNBA MVP trophy as she arrives at a news conference after receiving the award, her third consecutive and fifth career trophy, at Michelob ULTRA Arena on Thursday in Las Vegas.Ethan Miller\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is great, I love it, not going to take for granted, shine her up, let\u2019s do it,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut tomorrow, when it comes to hoisting it in front of the fans, I love the fans … but I doubt I will be doing that. I\u2019ll be warming up with my team. … Everyone in this room knows the competitor that I am. Everyone knows what my main focus is, and that is to get a game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson received 65 first-place votes and nine second-place votes for a total of 713 points from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Minnesota\u2019s Olivia Miles received six first-place votes and 40 second-place votes (442 points), while Indiana guards Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark followed with 287 and 212 points, respectively.<\/p>\n

No WNBA player besides Wilson has more than three MVPs, with Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson each having a trio. On the NBA side, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had six and Michael Jordan and Bill Russell each had five.<\/p>\n

\u201cA\u2019ja Wilson is one of one,\u201d Fargas said. \u201cShe\u2019s now standing in a category that no other WNBA player in the history of the league has accomplished. She\u2019s in the conversations with the Michael Jordans and the Wayne Gretzkys of the world \u2013 where she belongs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Las Vegas Aces centre A’ja Wilson (22) reacts after scoring and drawing a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":925960,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,82,865,61,900,892,886,630,883,913],"class_list":["post-925959","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-wnba","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=925959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/925959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/925960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=925959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=925959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=925959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}