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A'ja Wilson has become the WNBA's first four-time MVP after earning the top individual honor for the second straight year, the league announced Sunday. The Las Vegas Aces star was named MVP in what had been considered a tight battle with Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier. Wilson ultimately received 51 first-place votes and 657 points to finish ahead of Collier in second (18 first-place votes, 534 points) Phoenix Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas (3rd, 3 first-place votes, 391 points), Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray (4th, 180) and Indiana Fever guard Kelsey Mitchell (5th, 93) were also finalists for the award. The league had surprised Wilson on Friday, with WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert and Wilson's boyfriend, Miami Heat star Bam Adebayo, presenting the trophy to her at the end of practice. "It hasn't been easy for us. They counted us out," an emotional Wilson said to her teammates after receiving the award. "They wrote us all off, but we showed up every single day. ... It has my name on it, but it's all of us. There is no [award] without each and every last one of you guys." This year's award puts Wilson ahead of three-time MVPs Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson. In 2024, Wilson joined Cynthia Cooper of the 1997 Houston Comets as the WNBA's only unanimous MVP selections; Cooper also is the only other back-to-back honoree, winning the award in the WNBA's first two seasons (1997, '98). "There's no Mount Rushmore," Aces coach Becky Hammon said she told Wilson. "You are the only one. You're Everest." Wilson, 29, was also named MVP in 2020 and 2022. The other four finalists had not won the MVP award. "I was a young girl that didn't even like the sport. I didn't want to play; I don't like to sweat, but now my name's in the history books forever," Wilson said Sunday. "These are the moments that I'm like, 'No, this is why you wake up every morning and do what you do.'" Collier became just the second player in WNBA history to finish a a regular season with a 50-40-90 shooting split and looked in the lead for the MVP award before an ankle injury sidelined her for three weeks. "I'm really proud of myself," Collier said after Wilson was named MVP. "You know, 50/40/90 is something that's only been done twice, so I am really proud I was able to do that." Wilson led the WNBA with averages of 23.4 points and 2.3 blocks per game for the second-seeded Aces while also contributing 10.2 rebounds and 3.1 assists per contest. She was named the league's Co-Defensive Player of the Year along with the Lynx's Alanna Smith. "By the time it's all said and done, she will be the greatest to ever do it," Hammon told ESPN's Michael Voepel. "Four [MVPs] already says she is. In a league that has continued to get much better, she keeps getting better. "You're watching poetry in motion. You're watching history. And she's just 29 years old. She could win four more of these by the time she is finished." Wilson told ESPN that this season has been a different challenge because of the Aces' struggles until things came together in August, when they began what turned into a franchise-record 17-game winning streak. "Where she took us this year from where we were -- this is the MVP skills trophy, but she has led tremendously through some really rough waters," Hammon said. The Aces went from a 14-14 record to a 30-14 regular-season finish and the No. 2 seed in the WNBA playoffs. Las Vegas won its first-round opener against the Seattle Storm, saw the streak end in a Game 2 loss, then made it to the semifinals for the seventh consecutive year by winning Game 3 on Thursday behind Wilson's 38 points, which tied her playoff record. "Just my mental aspect has gone up," Wilson told ESPN. "I work on tons of stuff, but I think my ability to read the defense and seeing what type of game it's going to be within the first couple of possessions [has improved]. I know as my career goes on, I'm going to see tons of different defenses, because that's what you deal with. I love just letting my basketball mind figure it out." Added Hammon: "The fact that she's not even 30 yet is crazy, because she still has a lot left in the tank. There's still areas that she knows she can improve in, and she will every year she comes back and is adding something different to her game." The late push by the Aces, spurred by Wilson's heroics, propelled Wilson to the top of the MVP conversation after many didn't consider her a front-runner earlier in the season. "This [MVP] was just different as a whole because my name wasn't in conversations even coming off of a unanimous season," Wilson said. "It was kind of like, 'All right, cool,' and that's mind blowing to me, and it seeped in a little bit into my mindset. ... But let me focus on getting the job done. Let me focus on how I could be a better teammate and a leader for this team, because that's what we really need." Wilson and the Aces face the Indiana Fever in the semifinals starting Sunday. They dropped Game 1, 89-73. "I had this moment on Friday, so I'm glad that I got those emotions and everything out the way. But today, it's business as usual," Wilson said before the game. "My main goal is exactly what we need to do today, is to get a win against a really good Indiana Fever team." ESPN's Alexa Philippou and The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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