By DOUG FEINBERG AP Basketball Writer
A’ja Wilson won the WNBA MVP on Thursday for a third straight year and record fifth time overall.
Besides her three-peat, Wilson also won the award in 2020 and 2022.
The 30-year-old Wilson once again led the league in scoring (26.2) while shooting nearly 53% from the field. She also averaged 9.4 rebounds, a career-best 3.2 assists and 1.9 blocks.
Wilson has the defending champion Aces back in the WNBA semifinals for the eighth consecutive season although Las Vegas is down 2-0 in the best-of-five series against Golden State.
Wilson received 65 first-place votes and nine second-place votes (total 713 points) from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Minnesota’s Olivia Miles received six first-place votes and 40 second-place votes (442 points), while Indiana guards Kelsey Mitchell and Caitlin Clark followed with 287 and 212 points, respectively.
No WNBA player besides Wilson has more than three MVPs, with Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson each having a trio of them. On the NBA side, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar had six and Michael Jordan and Bill Russell each had five.
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