Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson made history by earning her fourth WNBA Most Valuable Player award on Sunday.<\/p>\n
The seven-time All-Star beat out the Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier, Phoenix Mercury’s Alyssa Thomas, Indiana Fever’s Kelsey Mitchell and Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray.<\/p>\n
With four MVPs, Wilson moves ahead of Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson for the most in WNBA history.<\/p>\n
This year’s MVP was a little similar to the battle for the award in 2023.<\/p>\n
Like the eventual winner, Breanna Stewart, two years ago, Collier was the consensus favorite heading into the All-Star break. She was averaging 23.2 points, 7.6 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.8 steals and 1.6 blocks. More than that, the Lynx were 20-4 and had the league’s best net rating (plus-12.4), per WNBA.com<\/a>.<\/p>\n An Aug. 2 encounter between the Lynx and Aces only reinforced the general MVP narrative. Minnesota blew out Las Vegas by 53 points, and Wilson was limited to 10 points on 4-of-11 shooting.<\/p>\n If the season had ended there, then Collier would’ve been the runaway pick.<\/p>\n However, two developments dovetailed to make this a compelling conversation again and one with perhaps a different answer.<\/p>\n An ankle sprain sidelined Collier for three weeks in August, leaving her unable to boost her MVP resume during a critical juncture of the campaign. She has also missed 11 games, which amounts to a quarter of the regular season. That’s a significant portion and below the threshold for the NBA’s 65-game minimum for individual awards and accolades.<\/p>\n The Aces, meanwhile, responded to their embarrassment at the hands of the Lynx by winning 16 straight games. During that run, Wilson averaged<\/a> 26.1 points, 12 rebounds, 1.6 steals and 2.3 blocks. Las Vegas went from sitting on the playoff bubble to claiming the No. 2 seed in the postseason.<\/p>\n There was basically a clear first-half MVP (Collier) and an equally obvious second-half MVP (Wilson).<\/p>\n Aces head coach Becky Hammon made an emphatic argument on behalf of her star ahead of a 92-61 win over the Chicago Sky on Sept. 9.<\/p>\n “This is not who’s the best on their team or anything like that. This is who’s the best in the league. This is the league MVP,” she said, per Callie Fin<\/a> of the Las Vegas Review-Journal. “So please stop all that silliness talking about who’s more impactful on their team. By the way, (Wilson) wins that argument, too. We were 1-3 without her. She impacts both sides of the game.<\/p>\n “Nobody cares about your feelings and your opinions. Math doesn’t lie. The numbers are the numbers. I’m sorry if you don’t like it. And whether she’s winning her 12th MVP \u2014 which she very well could in her career \u2014 or her first, you don’t crown someone at the beginning of the year and then walk it back so that it fits your narrative.”<\/p>\n That somewhat contradicts Hammon’s rationale for arguing why Wilson got short shrift from MVP voters in 2023. She pointed to how<\/a> the 6’4″ center “was the most dominant player on the most dominant team on the most dominant offense the league has ever seen with the No. 1 defense.”<\/p>\n The Lynx are first in offensive rating<\/a> and defensive rating<\/a> \u2014 albeit not to historic levels \u2014 and Collier is unquestionably their best player.<\/p>\n And while the on-off splits tell one very distinct story, that’s not a reliable metric in an MVP context.<\/p>\n The Aces have a plus-10.8 net rating with Wilson and a minus-15.0 net rating when she’s on the bench, per WNBA.com<\/a>. Those figures<\/a> are plus-16.5 and minus-4.3, respectively for the Lynx depending on whether Collier is playing.<\/p>\n