A'ja Wilson Makes WNBA History With Fifth MVP Award

The WNBA named A'ja Wilson the winner of its 2026 Most Valuable Player award on Thursday, one day after the Las Vegas Aces lost 83-81 to the Golden State Valkyries and fell behind 2-0 in the semifinals.

It is the third straight MVP award for Wilson and the fifth of her career. She also won it in 2020, 2022, 2024, and 2025.

Cynthia Cooper of the Houston Comets won the first two MVP awards in 1997 and 1998. When Wilson repeated in 2025, the league said she became the second back-to-back winner. That award was also her fourth, which made her the only player to win it more than three times.

Lisa Leslie, Lauren Jackson, and Sheryl Swoopes each won three.

Three NBA players have won at least five MVP awards. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six, and Michael Jordan and Bill Russell won five apiece.

Wilson is the fourth player across the WNBA and NBA to reach five MVP awards.

She received 65 first-place votes and nine second-place votes from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters, finishing with 713 points. Minnesota Lynx rookie Olivia Miles, the unanimous Rookie of the Year, was second with 442 points and six first-place votes.

Behind Miles came Indiana Fever guards Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark, with 287 and 212 points, respectively, and New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart, a two-time MVP, with 171.

Wilson averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 1.9 blocks in 41 games. The league said the scoring and blocks averages each led the WNBA for a third straight season, and that she was the only player to rank in the top five in scoring, rebounding, and blocks.

She swept the Western Conference Player of the Month awards, something no other player has done in more than one season, and her 17 career monthly awards are a league record.

The five weekly awards she picked up this year gave her 33 for her career, tying the WNBA record. This was also her eighth All-Star selection.

Along with a trophy designed by Tiffany & Co., the award carries a $60,000 prize.

The Aces finished 31-13, entered the postseason as the third seed, and beat the sixth-seeded Fever in three games in the first round.

Golden State took Game 1 of the semifinals 71-60 on Sunday at Chase Center, outrebounding the Aces 52-25.

Wilson scored 24 points and had four rebounds against Kiah Stokes, who was matched up with her for most of the afternoon and finished with 14 rebounds of her own. Jewell Loyd left that game with a left leg injury and did not play Wednesday.

Golden State led Game 2 by as many as 17 points before Las Vegas outscored it 26-17 in the fourth quarter. Wilson scored 24 again, going 9-of-16 from the field with seven rebounds. Chelsea Gray added 19 points for Las Vegas, and Tiffany Hayes led Golden State with 21.

Game 3 is Friday at 9:30 p.m. ET in Las Vegas. If the Aces win, Game 4 would be played Sunday at 1 p.m. ET, also in Las Vegas.