How A’ja Wilson’s fifth WNBA MVP vote was assembled

A fifth award, with a third straight season

A’ja Wilson won the 2026 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player award after a season in which she led the league in scoring and blocked shots. The honor was her fifth overall and third consecutive, according to the WNBA release. That combination makes the announcement a record story, but the vote totals offer a clearer picture of how the panel reached its choice.

The WNBA’s 74 sportswriters and broadcasters each submitted a top-five ballot. Wilson appeared first on 65 ballots and second on the other nine. She received no third-, fourth- or fifth-place votes. Those placements add up to a unanimous top-two finish, even though the result was not a unanimous first-place vote. That distinction matters when comparing the award to a unanimous winner.

Wilson’s earlier MVP seasons were 2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025. The WNBA says the 2026 honor makes her the first player in the league’s 30-year history to win three straight. Cynthia Cooper, who won in 1997 and 1998, is the only other back-to-back winner. Five awards and three consecutive awards describe separate records: one counts her career total, while the other measures a streak.

The ballot gave more weight to the top choice

The WNBA awarded 10 points for a first-place vote, seven for second, five for third, three for fourth and one for fifth. Wilson’s 65 first-place votes produced 650 points. Her nine second-place votes added 63. Together they equal the official 713-point total.

This scale rewards placing a player near the top of many voters’ ballots, while giving the first-place choice three more points than second place. A voter who put Wilson first rather than second changed the total by three points. The award is therefore a summary of ranked opinions, not a count of only first-place votes.

Wilson’s lead was visible in both votes and points

Olivia Miles finished second with 442 points. She received six first-place votes, 40 second-place votes and 15 third-place votes, according to the official table. The 271-point gap between Wilson and Miles came from a difference in both first-place support and the positions voters assigned on the rest of their ballots.

Kelsey Mitchell placed third with 287 points and two first-place votes. Caitlin Clark was fourth with 212 points, including one first-place vote, while Breanna Stewart finished fifth with 171. The ballot shows that voters recognized several strong seasons even while Wilson finished well ahead. It does not reveal what each writer valued when choosing between individual players.

Her season line covered more than scoring

Wilson averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds and 3.2 assists in 41 games, while playing 32 minutes per game. She also averaged 1.9 blocks and 1.4 steals. The WNBA reported that she led the league in scoring for a third consecutive season and in blocks for a fifth consecutive season.

The shooting line gives another view of her workload: 52.7 percent from the field, 40.4 percent from three and 86.4 percent from the free-throw line. Her 38 made threes and 94 attempts were career highs, as were her 279 made free throws and 323 attempts. These measures come from different parts of the game. The award vote compresses them into one decision.

The league also listed a 30.4 efficiency rating, the highest in the WNBA. That sits alongside two distinct leaderboard results: her 26.2 points per game led scoring, and her 1.9 blocks per game led that category. The three figures describe scoring volume per appearance, rim protection and the league’s efficiency measure. They make the season line broader than a single scoring title.

The records have specific definitions

Wilson scored 1,073 total points, second in the league behind Mitchell’s 1,086, while her 26.2 scoring average led the WNBA. Total points and points per game are different measures: total points depend on games played, while an average divides production by appearances. Both appear in the official release, and each supports a different comparison.

The league also reported 13 games with at least 30 points, tying Wilson’s own single-season record, and 33 games with at least 20 points. She recorded 19 double-doubles of at least 20 points and 10 rebounds. These are cumulative thresholds, not a claim that every game looked the same. The exact definition belongs beside each record.

Her 26.2-point average was the second-highest in league history, behind her own 26.9 in 2024, while her 22.1 career scoring average was the highest in WNBA history. The release also noted that she owns four of the league’s seven highest single-season point totals. Those are different comparisons: one measures a single season’s rate, another combines every season, and the last tracks cumulative scoring in an individual campaign.

The season also included a 45-point game against Connecticut on May 15. The WNBA says that made Wilson the first player to record multiple 45-point games in her career. She finished with 50 career games of at least 30 points, second in league history behind Diana Taurasi’s 54. In 2026, her 13 games at 30 points tied her own single-season mark, while her 33 games at 20 points ranked third for one season.

Las Vegas had a strong season around her

The Aces finished 31-13 and earned the No. 3 seed in the 2026 playoffs. That record gives team context for the award, but the MVP ballot was assigned to individual players. It does not measure which player contributed the most wins or how a different roster would have changed the standings.

Wilson received all four Western Conference Player of the Month awards and a league-high five Player of the Week honors. Those repeat selections tell us how often she was recognized during the season. They are not separate votes in the MVP ballot and should not be added to the 713 points.

The career record changed during the same season. Wilson began 2026 ranked 21st on the WNBA’s all-time scoring list and finished 11th with 6,792 points, according to the league. The same release placed her 12 points from passing Sue Bird for 10th. That movement reflects accumulated scoring across her ninth season, separate from the MVP ballot’s ranking of players for 2026 alone.

The vote records opinion, not a universal formula

A weighted ballot can show the level of agreement in the panel and how far the leading candidate finished ahead of others. It cannot show that every voter used the same criteria. The WNBA release gives the point scale and each candidate’s tally; it does not publish the full reasoning behind every ballot.

Wilson’s fifth award reflects her place in this season’s voting and the season totals the league reported. It does not turn a multi-part job into a single measurable value. Readers can use the published ballot to compare the voters’ ranking with scoring, rebounding, defense and team record, while keeping those measures separate.