A’ja Wilson Is Just The Second WNBA Player In History To Unanimously Win MVP

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A’ja Wilson named the 2024 WNBA Most Valuable Player on Sunday. With this incredible feat, Wilson became the second player in history to win the award unanimously after Cynthia Cooper-Dyke of the Houston Comets received the title in 1997.

“I cannot thank you all enough. I hope you guys understand how much you mean to me,” Wilson said shortly after the announcement. “I hope you guys know that this trophy is nothing without y’all. We’ve been through the ringer — and we gon’ continue to go through the ringer — but one thing y’all don’t ever have to worry about is A’ja going anywhere.”

Napheesa Collier from the Minnesota Lynx came in second place in the MVP voting, while New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart finished third overall.

This season, Wilson set a WNBA record by scoring 26.9 points per game in a single season, according to The Athletic. She became the first player to reach the 1,000-point mark by totaling 1,021 points. Wilson was also named the Kia WNBA Western Conference Player of the Month four times this season, as well as the WNBA Western Conference Player of the Week six times.

“I don’t want it to ever get lost on how good (A’ja) is,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said in September, per The New York Times. “She just does it all. She’s in the middle of a run that sometimes I want to shake her and say, ‘Do you know how good you are?’ But then I don’t want to shake her because I don’t want to wake her up. She can just stay in whatever zone she’s in.”

 

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This is Wilson’s third MVP title, after earning it in both 2020 and 2022. She is one of few to be a three-time MVP recipient, alongside Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson. In 2023, Wilson came in third in the votes and received a fourth-place vote, which she says she used as fuel.

“Whoever you are out there that voted me fourth (for MVP), thank you. Thank you so much,” Wilson said during the Aces’ championship rally last fall. “I wanna say I appreciate you, ’cause that just means that I got a lot more work to do.”

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