South Carolina women's basketball: Two former Gamecocks named WNBA MVP finalists
Former Gamecocks A’ja Wilson and Allisha Gray are two of the five MVP finalists, the WNBA announced on Friday.
Other finalists include Napheesa Collier, Kelsey Mitchell, and Alyssa Thomas.
Wilson, who was the unanimous MVP last season, is the favorite to win her historic fourth MVP. She has already been named the AP Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year.
Gray is coming off the best season of her career and led injury-plagued Atlanta to a tie for the second-best record in the WNBA. She was named first-team All-WNBA by the AP, but is considered a long shot to win MVP.
An All-Star starter for the first time, Gray averaged 18.4 points, 5.3 rebounds, 3.5 assists, and 1.1 steals, all career highs. She also set Atlanta’s single-season scoring record on the way to a franchise record for wins in a season.
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).
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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.
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.
If Wilson wins MVP, she will become the first four-time MVP in WNBA history. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie, and Lauren Jackson are the other three-time winners.
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.