Las Vegas Aces superstar A'ja Wilson won her third straight WNBA MVP award on Thursday, a feat Nikola Jokić probably should've accomplished in the NBA. After winning it in 2020-21 and 2021-22, though, he finished behind Joel Embiid in 2022-23. Yeah, winning NBA Finals MVP that year was better than Jokić getting the regular-season award, but still.
The 2022-23 MVP conversation turned into something that barely felt like basketball.
If you didn't know better, you wouldn't have known that Jokić averaged 24.5 points (on a career-high 63.2% shooting from the field), 11.8 rebounds, and 9.8 assists per game, which was the highest assist-per-game average for a center in league history (he's since topped that, averaging 10.7 assists per game last season). You'd also think he didn't even bother running to the other end to play defense, given Embiid's dominance in that area.
Having a historic season doesn't guarantee an MVP award, but with Jokić already winning it in back-to-back years, people didn't take the time to appreciate his greatness because it had become old news; they were ready for someone new to take his place. That's voter fatigue.
A'ja Wilson won her third straight WNBA MVP
Voter fatigue didn't stop Wilson from winning her third straight WNBA MVP award, her fifth total (she also won in 2020 and 2022). No other WNBA player has won more than three, which shows what kind of player Wilson is. We're probably past the point of there being a word that actually depicts what she's done. She's that good (times a million).
Wilson received 65 first-place votes, and Lynx rookie Olivia Miles, the runner-up, finished with six. It wasn't close, and it shouldn't have been.
She averaged 26.2 points per game, leading the WNBA, along with 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.9 blocks, shooting 52.7% from the field and 40.4% from three. Wilson did it all while posting a 32.9 usage rate, the highest of her career. Las Vegas asked more of her than ever in her ninth season, and she delivered in a way that only she can.
A'ja Wilson did what not even Nikola Jokic could
Fever star guard Kelsey Mitchell finished third behind Wilson and Miles, but she received only two first-place votes. Between Wilson, Miles, and Mitchell, it wasn't much of a race, though the rookie surprised everyone by forcing her way into the conversation.
There was a tighter race between Embiid, Jokić, and Giannis Antetokounmpo in 2022-23, but in the end, the Sixers center got 73 first-place votes, more than four times Jokić's 15. Antetokounmpo, who was still with the Bucks, got 12 votes. No other player in the league received any votes.
Embiid crushed that season—averaging 33.1 points, 10.2 rebounds, 4.2 assists, 1.7 steals, and 1.0 blocks per game—so people had someone else to turn to besides Jokić. Though the two weren't competing head-to-head, it became a game of whose stat line was better.
And, to be clear, Embiid deserved the attention. He was fantastic. After coming up short to Jokić the year before, he returned the favor.
As we all know, Jokić responded by winning his third MVP in four years (and another could still be on the way), but he didn't join Larry Bird, Bill Russell, and Wilt Chamberlain by doing so in back-to-back-to-back seasons.
Nuggets fans can't look at what Wilson just did and think back fondly on Jokić doing the same. Not even he is in that stratosphere, but you know, he had a pretty good case.
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