A’ja Wilson Is Already Two Steps Ahead in the WNBA MVP Race. Aces Sit Just Behind Lynx
A’ja Wilson is already pacing toward her fifth WNBA MVP. The Aces center is averaging 26.1 points per game on 52.6 percent shooting. She has a league best 2.2 blocks per game. She is averaging 9.1 rebounds. She leads the early All Star fan vote with 308,249 ballots. The MVP race might already be decided.
That is insane to type. Wilson has won four MVPs. She already holds the all time record. A fifth would put her in territory occupied by basically nobody. LeBron has four. Michael Jordan has five. Bill Russell has five. Kareem has six. The pantheon is small.
Wilson is 28 years old. She is in her prime. The Aces have an 11-4 record and are sitting one game back of the Minnesota Lynx for the best record in the league. They have won seven of their last eight games. The lone bad loss in that stretch was a 96-66 wipeout against Dallas that nobody can really explain. Two days later they bounced back to beat Phoenix and punch a ticket to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship.
The Aces have a real path to the title. The roster is deep. Jackie Young is one of the most underrated guards in the league. Chelsea Gray is an All Star caliber playmaker. Kelsey Plum brings the volume scoring. And Wilson is the centerpiece who can dominate any game any night.
The Lynx are the biggest threat. Napheesa Collier is a real MVP contender herself. She has been on a tear. Minnesota is 9-2 and playing the best basketball in the league. They will be a problem in the playoffs. The Wilson versus Collier matchups are going to define the late season WNBA schedule.
The other big story is Caitlin Clark. She is fifth in fan voting. The popularity is real. The numbers are not as gaudy as Wilson’s, but Clark drives the conversation. The Fever are also better than last year, and Clark has the kind of magnetism that pulls in casual fans.
The MVP race might come down to whether voters feel like rewarding Wilson again for being the best player on the best team, or whether they pivot to Collier for being the best player on the team in first place. That is a real debate. The case for Collier is that the Lynx might end up with the No. 1 seed. The case for Wilson is that her numbers are more impressive and she has the trophy case to prove she is the best in the league.
What is becoming undeniable is that the WNBA has its golden era. The talent at the top has never been deeper. Wilson, Collier, Clark, Bueckers, Reese, Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart. Pick a star. They are all playing at high levels. The eyeballs on the league are bigger than ever. The next TV deal is going to be massive. The expansion teams are getting traction.
Inside that world, A’ja Wilson is the queen. She has owned the league for half a decade. Until someone takes the crown off her head, she is the standard. And right now nobody is close.
If the Aces win the title and Wilson wins MVP, the conversation about her in WNBA history changes permanently. She is already one of the greatest. A fifth MVP and a fourth ring would put her on the Mount Rushmore in pencil that nobody could erase.
A longtime sports reporter, Carlos Garcia has written about some of the biggest and most notable athletic events of the last 5 years. He has been credentialed to cover MLS, NBA and MLB games all over the United States. His work has been published on Fox Sports, Bleacher Report, AOL and the Washington Post.
