Wilson was also honored as the AP Defensive Player of the Year for the third time in four seasons.<\/p>\n
\u201cConsidering Coach [Dawn] Staley was so hard on me about my defense in college, I\u2019m glad I can have some success at the pro level multiple times,\u201d Wilson told the AP.<\/p>\n
The WNBA will announce its postseason awards over the course of the playoffs, which begin Sunday. Wilson is a huge favorite to win the WNBA MVP for the second straight season. <\/p>\n
The AP voting is done by a 14-member national media panel that votes on the power poll each week. It\u2019s the 10th year of the awards.<\/p>\n
Wilson once again led the league in scoring (23.4) as well as blocked shots (2.3).<\/p>\n
Paige Bueckers was honored as the AP Rookie of the Year. The Dallas Wings\u2019 No. 1 pick averaged 19.2 points and 5.4 assists in her first season. She also had a 44-point effort \u2014 the highest scoring game of anyone in the WNBA this season. The former UConn star finished with the third-most points ever by a rookie and second-most assists.<\/p>\n
\u201cI am very grateful for everyone who voted and saw me fit for Rookie of the Year,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cI have always felt like individual awards are a way to acknowledge the team around you and that is exactly what this award means to me. My teammates, coaches, support staff, and everyone from top to bottom in the entire Dallas Wings organization played a huge part in this.\u201d<\/p>\n
Bueckers was joined on the AP All-Rookie team by Washington\u2019s Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen, Connecticut\u2019s Leila Lacan, Golden State\u2019s Janelle Salaun, and Seattle\u2019s Dominique Malonga.<\/p>\n
\u201cShoutout to this amazing rookie class,\u201d Bueckers said. \u201cThere were a lot of unique journeys and a whole lot of hooping so we definitely put on for the class.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson, Collier, and Thomas headlined the AP All-WNBA first team. The trio were unanimous picks. They were joined by Atlanta\u2019s Allisha Gray and Indiana\u2019s Kelsey Mitchell.<\/p>\n
New York\u2019s Sabrina Ionescu, Bueckers, Seattle\u2019s Nneka Ogwumike, Los Angeles\u2019 Kelsey Plum, and Las Vegas\u2019 Jackie Young were on the second team.<\/p>\n
Other winners included:<\/p>\n
\u22c5 Coach of the Year: Natalie Nakase. She led Golden State to a playoff berth in the expansion team\u2019s inaugural season. It\u2019s the first time that a first-year team made the postseason.<\/p>\n
\u22c5 Comeback Player of the Year: Shakira Austin. The Washington Mystics forward missed most of last season with a hip injury and subsequent ankle sprain. Austin averaged 12.7 points and 6.4 rebounds this season.<\/p>\n
\u22c5 Most Improved Player: Veronica Burton. The Golden State Valkyries guard from Newton made the most of her opportunity with the expansion franchise. Burton averaged career highs in points (11.9), assists (6.0), rebounds (4.4), and minutes (29.4).<\/p>\n
\u22c5 Sixth Woman of the Year: Naz Hillmon. The Atlanta Dream forward had a career season, averaging 8.6 points and 6.2 rebounds to help the Dream secure the third seed in the postseason. She came off the bench in 27 of the team\u2019s 44 games and has played in 151 consecutive contests overall.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Wilson was also honored as the AP Defensive Player of the Year for the third time in four…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":285213,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-285212","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\/285212","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=285212"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/285212\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/285213"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=285212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=285212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=285212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}