South Carolina women's basketball: A'ja Wilson wins historic fourth MVP

A’ja Wilson has claimed her historic fourth WNBA MVP award, the league announced on Sunday.

Wilson finished with 657 total points to beat Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, who had 534 points. Wilson finished first or second on every ballot and got 51 of a possible 72 first-place votes. Collier had 18.

Alysaa Thomas (three first-place votes) finished third, and Wilson’s college roommate Allisha Gray finished fourth. Aliyah Boston finished sixth.

In her ninth season, Wilson is the first player in WNBA history to win four MVP awards. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, and Lauren Jackson are the other three-time winners.

Wilson also becomes the first player to win consecutive MVP awards since Cynthia Cooper repeated in 1997 and 1998, the WNBA’s first two seasons. Last season, Wilson was the first unanimous MVP since Cooper in 1997.

Wilson finished first in scoring (23.4) and blocks (2.3) average, second in rebounding average(10.2), and third in steals (1.6) average. She also averaged a career-high 3.1 assists and led the league in efficiency rating, and now has three of the top five seasons of all time (each of the past three seasons).

Wilson is the only player in WNBA history to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, three assists, two blocks, and one steal for an entire season.

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Wilson was two points short of tying Jewel Loyd (2023 – 939) for the second-highest scoring season in WNBA history. She finished with 407 total rebounds, the third most ever. In August, Wilson recorded the first 30-point, 20-rebound game in WNBA history, and her 13 30-point games this season are also a league record.

Wilson was also named the AP Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year, and earlier this week was named WNBA co-Defensive Player of the Year for the third time.

Collier was the MVP favorite for most of the season, but everything changed on August 2. Collier suffered an ankle injury that cost her the next 10 games (she missed a total of 11 of 44 games, 25% of the season).

While Collier was out, Wilson took her game to another level. She led Las Vegas on a 16-game winning streak, the second-longest in league history. During the winning streak, Wilson averaged 26.1 points and 12.0 rebounds.

Extending beyond the WNBA, Wilson joins a select company with four or more MVPs.

In the NBA, three players have won four or more MVP awards: Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (six), Jordan and Bill Russell (five), and Wilt Chamberlain and LeBron James (four). Barry Bonds (seven) is the only baseball player with more than three. Only Peyton Manning (five) and Aaron Rodgers (four) have done it in the NFL.

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