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Michael Voepel, ESPN Senior AuthorSep 22, 2024, 08:30 AM ET
- Michael Voepel is a senior author who covers the WNBA, girls’s school basketball and different school sports activities. Voepel started masking girls’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
The seeds for A’ja Wilson‘s dynamic 2024 WNBA season have been planted earlier than final season was even over. In a good three-player race for MVP a 12 months in the past, the Las Vegas Aces star completed third — and was sad about it.
It was nothing towards the winner, the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart, or the runner-up, the Connecticut Solar’s Alyssa Thomas, who obtained probably the most first-place votes. Wilson admires each Stewart and Thomas, who have been her U.S. Olympic gold medal teammates this summer season.
However after having an excellent higher 2023 season than in 2022 — when Wilson received her second MVP — not getting the glory final 12 months bothered her.
Wilson turned the frustration into one thing constructive. First, she was the 2023 WNBA Finals MVP, main the Aces to their second consecutive championship. Then she spent the offseason getting ready to be the very best she has ever been.
Wilson has executed that in a record-breaking 2024 that earned her unanimous MVP honors.
The place will Wilson’s 2024 stand amongst all MVP seasons in WNBA historical past? We have ranked the highest 10 for the reason that league launched in 1997 — and it comes with an apparent reality: All MVP seasons are nice, and the competitors is at all times intense.
Of the 27 earlier MVPs, 11 have received WNBA titles of their MVP seasons. Two others made the WNBA Finals however did not win the championship. Just one participant — the Seattle Storm’s Lauren Jackson in 2003 — was named MVP in a season by which her crew did not make the playoffs.
It is tough to not weigh crew outcomes — particularly championships — into any rating of MVPs. Successful a title makes an MVP season even higher. However whether or not or not Wilson helps lead the Aces to a three-peat this 12 months, her 2024 season has been probably the most dominant individually that we’ve seen within the WNBA.
Wilson is the primary participant to achieve 1,000 factors in a season. She is averaging 27.0 factors per sport and is assured to complete with the best season scoring common in league historical past, no matter her efficiency within the Aces’ closing two regular-season video games. She can be averaging profession highs in rebounding (12.0), blocks (2.6) and steals (1.8).
Wilson is taking pictures 51.9% from the sector. Her participant effectivity ranking (PER) is 35.2, and her win shares 10.7, each the very best in WNBA historical past.
“Since I have been part of this league, which is 1999, I do not know if we have seen a season like she’s having now,” Aces coach and former WNBA participant Becky Hammon mentioned. “She’s only a stunning participant to look at.
“She’s been doing this for 2 years in a row now: simply loopy environment friendly. All the things I’ve ever requested her to do, she simply goes and does it. And makes it look simple. It’s not simple. It is a particular, generational expertise.”
Wilson mentioned she desires to get probably the most out of each exercise, observe and sport.
“It is an understanding of when and easy methods to be grasping,” she mentioned. “I am not good. I do know I nonetheless have quite a lot of issues to work on.”
Wilson, who turned 28 in August, will be a part of Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Jackson because the league’s solely three-time WNBA MVPs.
“She’s come again higher yearly,” Hammon mentioned. “Final 12 months, her effectivity was off the charts. After which this 12 months, we have had extra struggles as a crew, and she or he’s put us on her again. She has the flexibility to take over a sport at each ends. That is a uncommon feat.
“She’s a super-humble human being. … She’s at all times about her teammates, and she or he’s at all times about profitable.”
1. A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces, 2024
Stats: 27.0 PPG, 12.0 RPG, 2.6 BPG, 2.3 APG
Win shares: 10.7 | Participant effectivity ranking (PER): 35.2
The Aces have had some ups and downs this season, however Wilson’s trajectory has been nothing however up. The middle is on a 50-game streak of scoring in double figures, courting again to final season. She is within the operating to win her third Defensive Participant of the 12 months award, too. Wilson additionally has been very sturdy; she missed one sport this season, the primary time that has occurred since 2019. She’s additionally enjoying a career-high 34.4 minutes.
Wilson’s earlier MVP seasons have been 2020 (when the Aces fell within the WNBA Finals to Seattle) and 2022 (when the Aces beat Connecticut for the WNBA title). Though she did not win the 2023 MVP award, she averaged 22.8 factors and 9.5 rebounds final 12 months — her finest WNBA numbers till this season.
2. Cynthia Cooper, Houston Comets, 1997
Stats: 22.2 PPG, 4.0 RPG, 4.7 APG, 2.1 SPG
Win shares: 9.4 | PER: 32.2
Cooper was MVP the primary two WNBA seasons, in 1997 and 1998, when the Comets received the primary two of what could be 4 league championships in a row. Both 1997 or 1998 might be labeled because the guard’s best season; statistically they’re almost similar. We opted for 1997 partly as a result of it was the WNBA’s inaugural season, and Cooper offered the league its first celebrity — although she was already 34.
Cooper had performed for greater than a decade abroad and confirmed U.S. followers what that they had missed all these years: probably the greatest guards in hoops historical past. Whereas it will have been nice for the WNBA to have launched earlier so we may have watched how Cooper grew to become such a deadly professional scorer, no less than the league arrived in time for her to nonetheless be a high-impact participant.
3. Nneka Ogwumike, Los Angeles Sparks, 2016
Stats: 19.7 PPG, 9.1 RPG, 3.1 APG, 1.3 SPG
Win shares: 9.6 | PER: 31.3
Effectivity was the secret within the 2016 MVP race between previous No. 1 picks Ogwumike and Tina Charles (then with New York), and the sting went to the Sparks star. At 66.5%, Ogwumike has the very best discipline objective proportion of any WNBA MVP season. It was becoming that the ahead made the ultimate basket of the 2016 season: the putback received the league title for the Sparks in Sport 5 of the WNBA Finals, 77-76 over Minnesota. Ogwumike had gotten an offensive rebound on teammate Chelsea Grey’s miss, had her shot blocked by Lynx middle Sylvia Fowles, obtained the ball again, after which hit the sport winner.
It may be powerful to win an MVP award when you have got a teammate who can be of MVP caliber, which was the case for Ogwumike. Fellow Sparks publish participant Candace Parker had been MVP in 2008 and 2013. Then in a 2016 season when each have been controversially left off the U.S. Olympic crew, Ogwumike was season MVP and Parker was WNBA Finals MVP as they celebrated a title.
4. Elena Delle Donne, Washington Mystics, 2019
Stats: 19.5 PPG, 8.2 RPG, 2.2 APG, 1.3 BPG
Win shares: 7.7 | PER: 31.8
Delle Donne was additionally MVP in 2015, when she had career-high averages in scoring (23.4) and rebounding (8.4) whereas nonetheless with the Chicago Sky. However 2019 was her signature season: Delle Donne grew to become the one WNBA participant to complete taking pictures 50/40/90: 51.5% from the sector total (220 of 447), 43.0% from behind the arc (52 of 121) and 97.4% from the free throw line (114 of 117).
When offered her MVP award throughout the playoffs, Delle Donne was all enterprise, her focus solely on main the Mystics to their first WNBA title. She did it regardless of struggling debilitating again ache within the WNBA Finals as a consequence of three ruptured discs. The ahead/guard has performed in simply three WNBA seasons since, totaling 55 video games together with the playoffs. Delle Donne is not enjoying this season. She turned 35 earlier this month, and we do not know whether or not we’ll see her on courtroom once more. However nobody who watched her in 2019 will overlook it.
5. Lauren Jackson, Seattle Storm, 2007
Stats: 23.8 PPG, 9.7 RPG, 1.3 APG, 2.0 BPG
Win shares: 9.5 | PER: 35.0
Jackson additionally received the MVP award in a season when the Storm received the WNBA championship (2010) and in a season once they did not make the playoffs (2003). And she or he had probably the most first-place votes for MVP in 2005 however completed two factors behind Sheryl Swoopes (327-325).
However 2007 stands out as a result of Jackson had the best PER in league historical past till Wilson this 12 months, and the middle/ahead received the Defensive Participant of the 12 months award together with MVP. The Storm went 17-17, and misplaced within the Western Convention semifinals to the eventual WNBA champion Phoenix Mercury. Nevertheless, individually Jackson — then 26 — was on the prime of her sport and the very best within the league.
6. Sheryl Swoopes, Houston Comets, 2000
Stats: 20.7 PPG, 6.3 RPG, 3.8 APG, 2.8 SPG
Win shares: 9.8 | PER: 32.0
Swoopes received three MVP awards (2000, 2002, 2005), however this MVP 12 months was the one one by which she additionally received the WNBA championship, the final of the Comets’ 4. The 2000 season additionally marked her profession excessive in scoring common and discipline objective proportion (50.6%). Swoopes was by no means the WNBA Finals MVP; Cooper received all 4 of these for the Comets. However there was no query that by 2000, at age 29, Swoopes had develop into Houston’s finest participant.
Swoopes was Defensive Participant of the 12 months twice when the ahead/guard was additionally MVP: this season and in 2002. Total, 2000 was an ideal 12 months for Swoopes, who received her second Olympic gold medal alongside together with her fourth WNBA title that 12 months.
7. Sylvia Fowles Minnesota Lynx, 2017
Stats: 18.9 PPG, 10.4 RPG, 1.5 APG, 2.0 BPG
Win shares: 9.2 | PER: 30.8
Fowles was drafted by Chicago and performed her first seven seasons there, reaching the 2014 WNBA Finals. However the middle wished to go to Minnesota and held out the primary a part of the 2015 season, awaiting a commerce. She obtained it and helped the Lynx win the championship that 12 months. However as huge as her contributions have been in 2015, when she was WNBA Finals MVP, they have been even in greater in 2017.
Fowles had her second-highest profession scoring common in 2017 and the very best discipline objective proportion of her 15 WNBA seasons (65.5%). Her numbers within the 2017 playoffs have been additionally monumental, as she averaged 18.6 factors and 13.1 rebounds and was Finals MVP for a second time.
8. Lisa Leslie, Los Angeles Sparks, 2001
Stats: 19.5 PPG, 9.6 RPG, 2.4 APG, 2.3 BPG
Win shares: 7.0 | PER: 27.7
Probably the most statistically spectacular of Leslie’s three MVP seasons may need been 2006, when the middle averaged 20.0 PPG and shot 51.1% from the sector, each profession highs. However 2001 was her most profitable MVP season, when she led the Sparks to the primary of two consecutive championships and received the primary of two consecutive WNBA Finals MVP awards.
With Leslie main the way in which, the Sparks have been 28-4 in 2001, the one crew within the league that season that had single-digit losses.
9. Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm, 2018
Stats: 21.8 PPG, 8.4 RPG, 2.5 APG, 1.4 BPG
Win shares: 7.7 | PER: 28.9
Stewart had her highest profession scoring common (23.0 PPG) in profitable final 12 months’s MVP honor with the Liberty. However the ahead did not win a championship, which she did in 2018 with the Storm. Stewart, then in her third WNBA season, had her finest total discipline objective proportion (52.9%) in 2018, too, and her highest proportion from behind the arc (41.5%).
Stewart averaged 24.6 factors within the 2018 playoffs and was WNBA Finals MVP, an award she additionally received in 2020 when the Storm received the championship.
10. Maya Moore, Minnesota Lynx, 2014
Stats: 23.9 PPG, 8.1 RPG, 3.6 APG, 1.9 SPG
Win shares: 8.3 | PER: 29.4
Moore received 4 championships in a comparatively temporary however good eight-season profession within the WNBA with the Lynx. However the 12 months she was MVP — when the ahead had her profession highs in scoring and rebounding — the Lynx misplaced within the Western Convention finals to eventual champion Phoenix.
Thus for Moore, the 2014 season might be not her most memorable. However for sheer on-court particular person excellence, it was prime notch. Earlier than Wilson this 12 months (at the moment 27.0 PPG), Moore’s 23.9 scoring common is the best for anybody in a WNBA MVP season.
