The WNBA regular season is wrapping up, and that means that the discourse around the league has shifted. The majority of conversations around the league, understandably, now are about the postseason and the regular season awards. Earlier this week, ESPN published their thoughts on which players would win the W's highest honors. As expected, South Carolina basketball legend A'ja Wilson was the MVP choice for the "worldwide leader."
However, all three of ESPN's analysts (Kevin Pelton, Alexa Philippou, and Michael Voepel) decided that Wilson was not the logical choice for Defensive Player of the Year.
According to the trio, Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier should be the choice for the DPOY. Pelton referenced steal rate as one of the major factors for their decision to pick Collier. That did not go over well with Wilson's coach.
Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon went off on ESPN's awards article during a press conference prior to the Aces' regular season finale.
Hammon made sure to emphasize that this was nothing personal against Collier or the ESPN contributors responsible for the article (she didn't reference any of them by name), but the two-time championship-winning coach didn't pull her punches.
You can watch the entire rant below.
aaaand here we go https://t.co/49Pb1axR3I pic.twitter.com/HocR1zUU3r
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) September 20, 2024
Directly calling out ESPN, Hammon gave the outlet credit for " the MVP stuff right" but said the Napheesa Collier choice for Defensive Player of the Year over Wilson "doesn't make sense."
On the season, A'ja Wilson is the WNBA leader in blocked shots, averaging 2.6 swats per game. She also is tied for 4th in steals average. Collier is 3rd in steals per game (with 3 fewer total pilfers than Wilson and 0.1 more swipes per game) but has fewer than half the blocked shots of Wilson's.
Advanced stats favor Wilson almost universally. She is first in the league in defensive win shares, block percentage, and tied for first in FG% allowed in the restricted area (tied with Collier, for what it's worth). As mentioned previously, Collier does hold a slight edge in steal rate, something that Hammon believes to be a very poor piece of evidence to support ESPN's argument:
"If you have to, as a journalist or reporter, go down a rabbit hole to find somebody else to be in the conversation, you already have the answer to all your questions...steals ratio or something like that?!... Come on, people...almost 100 blocks in a season is unheard of...Don't be mad that came to your circus and figured out how to beat your game...I don't understand that one, other than you're just tired of giving this young woman awards."
A'ja Wilson, Becky Hammon, and the Las Vegas Aces will begin the WNBA Postseason on Sunday with a best-of-3 series against the Seattle Storm. The Aces are among the favorites to win their third WNBA Finals in a row.