LAS VEGAS — Aces center Aja Wilson became the second player in WNBA history to win the league’s MVP unanimously on Sunday, collecting 67 first-place votes out of 670 points from the media panel.
Houston guard Cynthia Cooper was the only consensus MVP in the WNBA’s inaugural season in 1997.
Minnesota Lynx forward Nabeesa Collier (467 points) finished second with 66 of 67 votes. New York’s Brenna Stewart (295 points) was the other runner-up and finished third overall.
Indiana Fever’s Katelyn Clark (130 points) finished fourth, while Connecticut’s Alyssa Thomas (83) rounded out the top five. Players were awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth.
Wilson previously won the MVP in 2020 and 2022. He finished third last year in one of the closest MVP races in league history, trailing eventual winner Stewart and runner-up Thomas. It lit a fire under the already super-competitive Wilson, who ran off the field early this season, letting no one catch him.
Wilson became the first WNBA player to score 1,000 points in a season, finishing with 1,021, while also setting the league record for rebounds in a season with 451.
“We always say, ‘Make your teammate better, and then you’ll be better,'” Aces coach Becky Hammon said. “A’ja is a great example of that — making everyone around her better. She’s great because she’s so authentically committed to it: bringing greatness out of others.
“It’s been fun coaching her. She’s a really, really talented person. I’m out of adjectives. She’s amazing. She’s the best player in the world, she’s one of the best people in the world.”
Wilson joins three other players to win MVP for the third time: forward Sherrill Swoopes (Houston), center Lisa Leslie (Los Angeles) and forward/center Lauren Jackson (Seattle). All are retired and in the Naismith Hall of Fame.
Wilson led the WNBA in scoring (26.9), blocks (2.6), player rating (34.9) and win shares (10.9) this season. The highest scoring average in a WNBA season was surpassed by Diana Taurasi’s 25.3 points per game in 2006.
Wilson’s rebounding (11.9 per game), block and steal (1.8) averages are also career highs. He had two games with 40-plus points and nine games with 30 or more points this season.
The 6-foot-4 Wilson scored at least 20 points in 89.5% of her games (34 of 38), a WNBA single-season record.
Wilson led the Aces to the 2022 and 2023 WNBA championships, and she was the WNBA Finals MVP last season. He was the No. 1 draft pick out of South Carolina in 2018 and was the Rookie of the Year that season. Wilson turned 28 in August and won her second Olympic gold medal last month.
Las Vegas is the No. 4 seed in the playoffs and faces No. 5 Seattle in Game 1 of their best-of-three first-round series on Sunday (10 p.m. ET, ESPN).
