{"id":251936,"date":"2025-10-26T03:56:28","date_gmt":"2025-10-26T03:56:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/251936\/"},"modified":"2025-10-26T03:56:28","modified_gmt":"2025-10-26T03:56:28","slug":"naz-hillmon-named-2025-kia-wnba-sixth-player-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/251936\/","title":{"rendered":"Naz Hillmon Named 2025 Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter wp-image-204309\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/Picture1.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"500\" height=\"187\"\/><\/p>\n<p>NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2025 \u2013 Atlanta Dream forward Naz Hillmon has been named the 2025 Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year, the WNBA announced today. She has earned the honor as the league\u2019s top reserve for the first time and become the first player to win the award with the Dream.<\/p>\n<p>Hillmon received 44 of 72 votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Minnesota Lynx guard Natisha Hiedeman (22 votes) and forward Jessica Shepard (four votes) finished in second and third place, respectively. Seattle Storm center Dominique Malonga and Phoenix Mercury guard Sami Whitcomb each received one vote.\u00a0 To be eligible for the award, a player had to play more games as a reserve than as a starter.<\/p>\n<p>In her fourth WNBA season, Hillmon averaged career highs of 8.6 points, 6.2 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 25.5 minutes in 44 games (17 starts). She helped the Dream (30-14) set a franchise record with 30 wins, doubling its total from last season. Atlanta secured the No. 3 seed in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs presented by Google after finishing as the eighth seed in 2024.<\/p>\n<p>Hillmon provided a spark off the bench throughout the season, recording eight games with at least 10 points and five rebounds as a reserve \u2013 the second-most such games in the league (Malonga, 12). The Dream went 5-0 in games when she scored 15 or more points.<\/p>\n<p>Hillmon made 53 three-pointers this season after entering 2025 with one career three-pointer. On July 30 against the Dallas Wings, she scored a career-high 21 points and connected on five three-pointers, including a tiebreaking three with 2.6 seconds remaining in the fourth quarter.<\/p>\n<p>Durability has been a hallmark of Hillmon\u2019s career since she joined the Dream as the 15th overall pick in the 2022 WNBA Draft presented by State Farm out of the University of Michigan, where she was a four-time All-Big Ten First Team selection. She has played in a franchise-record 151 consecutive regular-season games for Atlanta, including all 124 games over the last three seasons.<\/p>\n<p>In honor of being named the Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year, Hillmon will receive $5,150 and a trophy designed to commemorate her achievement.<\/p>\n<p>Below are the voting results for the 2025 Kia WNBA Sixth Player of the Year Award and the list of recipients since the award\u2019s inception in 2007.<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">2025 KIA WNBA SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR VOTING RESULTS<\/p>\n<p>Player<br \/>\nTeam<br \/>\nVotes<\/p>\n<p>Naz Hillmon<br \/>\nAtlanta Dream<br \/>\n44<\/p>\n<p>Natisha Hiedeman<br \/>\nMinnesota Lynx<br \/>\n22<\/p>\n<p>Jessica Shepard<br \/>\nMinnesota Lynx<br \/>\n4<\/p>\n<p>Dominique Malonga<br \/>\nSeattle Storm<br \/>\n1<\/p>\n<p>Sami Whitcomb<br \/>\nPhoenix Mercury<br \/>\n1<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>KIA WNBA SIXTH PLAYER OF THE YEAR AWARD WINNERS<\/p>\n<p>Year<br \/>\nPlayer<br \/>\nTeam<\/p>\n<p>2025<br \/>\nNaz Hillmon<br \/>\nAtlanta Dream<\/p>\n<p>2024<br \/>\nTiffany Hayes<br \/>\nLas Vegas Aces<\/p>\n<p>2023<br \/>\nAlysha Clark<br \/>\nLas Vegas Aces<\/p>\n<p>2022<br \/>\nBrionna Jones<br \/>\nConnecticut Sun<\/p>\n<p>2021<br \/>\nKelsey Plum<br \/>\nLas Vegas Aces<\/p>\n<p>2020<br \/>\nDearica Hamby<br \/>\nLas Vegas Aces<\/p>\n<p>2019<br \/>\nDearica Hamby<br \/>\nLas Vegas Aces<\/p>\n<p>2018<br \/>\nJonquel Jones<br \/>\nConnecticut Sun<\/p>\n<p>2017<br \/>\nSugar Rodgers<br \/>\nNew York Liberty<\/p>\n<p>2016<br \/>\nJantel Lavender<br \/>\nLos Angeles Sparks<\/p>\n<p>2015<br \/>\nAllie Quigley<br \/>\nChicago Sky<\/p>\n<p>2014<br \/>\nAllie Quigley<br \/>\nChicago Sky<\/p>\n<p>2013<br \/>\nRiquna Williams<br \/>\nTulsa Shock<\/p>\n<p>2012<br \/>\nRenee Montgomery<br \/>\nConnecticut Sun<\/p>\n<p>2011<br \/>\nDeWanna Bonner<br \/>\nPhoenix Mercury<\/p>\n<p>2010<br \/>\nDeWanna Bonner<br \/>\nPhoenix Mercury<\/p>\n<p>2009<br \/>\nDeWanna Bonner<br \/>\nPhoenix Mercury<\/p>\n<p>2008<br \/>\nCandice Wiggins<br \/>\nMinnesota Lynx<\/p>\n<p>2007<br \/>\nPlenette Pierson<br \/>\nDetroit Shock<\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>About Kia America<\/p>\n<p>Headquartered in Irvine, California, Kia America continues to top automotive quality surveys. Kia is recognized as one of the TIME World\u2019s Most Sustainable Companies of 2024. Kia serves as the \u201cOfficial Automotive Partner\u201d of the WNBA and NBA and offers a range of gasoline, hybrid, plug-in hybrid, and electric vehicles sold through a network of nearly 800 dealers in the U.S., including several cars and SUVs proudly assembled in America*.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For media information, including photography, visit <a href=\"http:\/\/www.kiamedia.com\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.kiamedia.com<\/a>. To receive custom email notifications for press releases the moment they are published, subscribe at\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/urldefense.com\/v3\/__http:\/www.kiamedia.com\/us\/en\/newsalert__;!!PMETyfE!LQ_AWgu_xS8m2ZdpIVOeFIM6CjzB7GXan16p-xQBBSMFDqSqBaxovepbT109Px9yCDy8QlykRUjGqeA$\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">www.kiamedia.com\/us\/en\/newsalert<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>* Select trims of the 2025 all-electric EV6 and EV9 all-electric three-row SUV, Sportage (excludes HEV and PHEV models), Sorento (excludes HEV and PHEV models), and Telluride are assembled in the United States from U.S. and globally sourced parts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NEW YORK, Sept. 20, 2025 \u2013 Atlanta Dream forward Naz Hillmon has been named the 2025 Kia WNBA&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251937,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-251936","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251936","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251936"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251936\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251937"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251936"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251936"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251936"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}