A’ja Wilson has already won a pair of MVP awards, but she came up just short last year. Wilson finished third in MVP voting, coming in a few points behind Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas in an incredibly close race.
There was one voter in particular who bothered Wilson as she received a fourth-place vote. All 59 of the other voters had Wilson, Stewart and Thomas in their top 3. Wilson was the only one of the three to receive a vote of fourth-place or lower.
“Fourth place in MVP voting in a year that I had better than my MVP before is mind-blowing to me,” A’ja Wilson recently told Boardroom. “So that right there spoke volumes to me, and it’s something that I’m going to always bring up because it doesn’t make sense to me. So I’ve got to make it make sense in my mind and that means to go out there and play.”
A’ja Wilson averaged 22.8 points and 9.5 rebounds per game last season, while playing nearly 31 minutes per contest. Stewart finished with averages of 23 points and 9.3 boards, while Thomas was at 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists.
Aces coach Becky Hammon criticized voters last year for penalizing Wilson for playing less minutes than the other two contenders, because the Aces were in so many blowouts.
Still, Wilson said she understood the love for Stewart and Thomas.
“You know, when it comes to these postseason awards, you just kind of get a feel of like either you’ve got it or you don’t. You just kind of get a feel for it. … I never really got the feeling until I got Defensive Player of the Year. That’s when I got the feeling like, ‘Nah, I didn’t get it this year,’” Wilson said of the MVP. “Something within me was like, ‘I didn’t get it.’ So my mind was already prepped for me not to get it. And I was cool with it.
“The other candidates, I get it, 100 percent. I’m not going to take anything away from them. Very respectful. My dogs. Yes.”
But what Wilson didn’t agree with was getting a fourth-place vote.
“When it came out, like the numbers, first, second, third, fourth. And I saw that one [vote] at fourth, mm. Just a switch went off in my mind, and I was like ‘Bet, let’s get it.’ And then from there on, it was kind of like, ‘Cool, say less. Anything else y’all need me to do, bet, I’m going to be professional about it. But once we get between these 94 feet, it’s a wrap. I don’t see nothing but the goal and my teammates,'” Wilson explained.
“It was a bittersweet moment, something where I was like, ‘Bet, alright, let’s rock with it.’ So I’m thankful for it because I got Finals MVP and we won us another one. But it was definitely a moment where I was like, ‘Oh, OK. Cool. Politics.’”
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