A’ja Wilson did not win the 2023 WNBA MVP award. Her coach, Becky Hammon, has made it a point to remind everyone of that fact. After the Las Vegas Aces’ dominant 104-76 win over the New York Liberty in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, Hammon delivered her strongest remarks yet.
“This lady’s been ridiculous, and she’s heard it all,” Hammon said. “Third in MVP voting? OK. Rest on that. It’s a joke. She’s been off-the-charts efficient.
“If I would’ve played her as many minutes [as Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas] she would’ve averaged 28 and 13,” Hammon continued. “And that’s all anybody in here would’ve been talking about. But she got screwed because her coach didn’t play her in fourth quarters.”
Wilson finished third in the narrowest three-way MVP race the league has ever seen, receiving 17 first-place votes and 433 total points, compared to 20 first-place votes and 446 total points for Stewart and 23 first-place votes and 439 total points for Thomas. As a result, she was denied her third MVP, which would have put her in a tie for the most all-time, and made her just the second player to earn the honor in back-to-back seasons.
Though she did win her second straight Defensive Player of the Year…
