A’ja Wilson has been named WNBA Most Valuable Player for a record fifth time, becoming the first player to reach that total after receiving 65 of 74 first-place votes. The Las Vegas Aces forward’s third consecutive MVP award arrives while her side trail the Golden State Valkyries 2-0 in their best-of-five semi-final, and Wilson has said she will not join a planned pre-game ceremony before Game 3 because her focus is on the must-win contest.
The BBC reported that Wilson, 30, also won the award in 2020 and 2022 before beginning her current three-year run. No other WNBA player has won more than three MVP awards, placing her alone at the top of the league’s individual honours list. Wilson was informed of the result on Thursday and a ceremony had been arranged for Friday night, but she indicated that she would instead complete her usual warm-up with her team.
That decision is rooted in recent Aces experience. According to the BBC, Las Vegas lost Game 1 of last season’s semi-final after a pre-game event to mark Wilson’s previous MVP award, and also suffered a heavy defeat after receiving championship rings in May. Wilson presented her choice as a competitive one rather than a rejection of the occasion, with the Aces needing a victory to keep this season’s play-off campaign alive.
A record built on repeated first-place support
The voting margin underlined Wilson’s standing in the latest regular season. Her 65 first-place selections represented about 88% of the 74 available votes. The NBA also reported that Wilson has collected 274 first-place MVP votes across her nine professional seasons, compared with 233 for all other players combined during that span.
That means Wilson has taken roughly 54% of all first-place votes cast over those nine seasons, a calculation from the NBA’s figures. The comparison does not measure every aspect of her career, but it shows how regularly she has been at the centre of MVP voting since entering the league.
| Wilson MVP voting measure | Figure |
|---|---|
| 2026 first-place votes | 65 of 74 |
| Share of 2026 first-place votes | About 88% |
| Career first-place votes | 274 |
| All other players’ first-place votes in Wilson’s nine seasons | 233 |
The NBA said Wilson finished seventh in MVP voting as a rookie and eighth in her second season. In the following seven campaigns, her voting positions were first, sixth, first, third, first, first and first. Her fifth award therefore follows a sustained period at or close to the front of the ballot, rather than a single-season breakthrough.
Scoring form and an urgent Aces challenge
The BBC reported that Wilson averaged 26.2 points this season, leading the WNBA in scoring for the third year in succession. It also said she scored at least 20 points in 33 games, the third-highest single-season streak in league history, and matched her own WNBA single-season record by scoring 30 or more points in 13 games.
Wilson’s latest MVP adds to a record that includes eight All-Star selections and three league titles with the Aces in the past four years, according to the BBC. The NBA reported that her career average of 22.1 points per game is the highest in WNBA history. Those accomplishments explain the scale of the individual recognition, but they do not alter the Aces’ current position against Golden State.
Las Vegas are facing elimination after losing the opening two games of the semi-final. The immediate competitive consequence is straightforward: a defeat in Game 3 would end the Aces’ season, while a win would extend the series. Wilson’s choice to bypass the public presentation before the game therefore keeps the attention on preparation for a contest with more immediate consequences than the award ceremony.
Her fifth MVP has already established a new WNBA benchmark. For Wilson and the Aces, however, the next measure of the season will be whether they can turn an individual accolade into a response on the court against the Valkyries.