With the Las Vegas Aces torching the Minnesota Lynx, A’ja Wilson has emerged as the frontrunner in the WNBA MVP debate. Last night’s match was always going to have a significant bearing on the eventual decision, especially since both Wilson and Napheesa Collier have gone toe-to-toe in terms of performances.
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In last night’s performance, Wilson scored 31 points by shooting 11 of 15, achieving an 80% from the field. Not only that, she also limited the damage Collier is capable of by stopping her to just 12 points from 5 of 13 from the field. In fact, Wilson’s first bucket of the night saw Collier off her foot and embracing the court, which does no favors for her MVP candidature.
Naturally, WNBA legend Sue Bird weighed in on the MVP debate on her podcast earlier today, where she praised Wilson for her numbers, a 13-match win streak, and how she has led her team to 2nd on the table. “It’s hard to deny that,” Bird admitted.
That said, she does have a bit of sympathy for Collier. “With Phee, there’s the whole injury, miss 10 games, that voters have to figure out how they are going to weigh,” she said.
There’s also a conversation to be had about Wilson’s performance before the last 6 weeks of the league, where her MVP candidature wasn’t even a point of discussion. Bird asserted that she continues to go back and forth on this.
“The WNBA season is short enough for you to take into account the whole season. But I think what happens at times, and I don’t mean this specific to this year, truly. It happens to be playing out this way, but I have seen it time and time again,” Bird continued.
“A player starts out hot, and the conversation around them starts brewing. And then a player, kind of like a late bloomer … it never reaches the hype that the player who had a hot start got. It’s just really hard to break through. This might be one of the few times, if A’ja wins MVP, where I have seen someone break through late,” she noted.
Of course, there’s a very good chance that if Collier hadn’t gotten injured and missed out on all those games in the middle of the season, Wilson might have never had a chance to catch up, at least in matters of being a top MVP contender.
What her absence also does is allow this perception to form that the Lynx are just this unstoppable unit, with or without her, which simply is not the case. Bird believes it will all come down to where their respective teams are ahead of the playoffs.
“If the season ends and Las Vegas only finishes, like 4th, I am like, ‘Okay, Phee. Best player, best team. I know she’s missed games but it’s hard to discount how great the links are right now. But if Vegas finishes 2nd, it’s kind of like, ‘best player, 2nd best team,'” she explained.
“If Phee rests because the Lynx are so far ahead, does that change the MVP conversation, if Vegas is still playing and A’ja puts up … It’s going to come down to the wire,” Bird argued.
Well, it certainly will be interesting to watch which way the votes go. But as of right now, Wilson seems to be on a roll, and it doesn’t look like the fates are going to stop smiling on her anytime soon.
