A’ja Wilson’s Fifth WNBA MVP Explained: The Vote, the Numbers, and the Record Nobody Else Holds
By The USA HeadlineX News Desk
Updated: 2 November 2026
Confirmed, as of 2 November 2026: A’ja Wilson was named the 2026 Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player on 8 October 2026, her fifth MVP award and her third in consecutive seasons, after receiving 65 of 74 first-place votes and 713 points. The A’ja Wilson fifth MVP 2026 record explained in this article rests on the WNBA’s official voting table and season averages. Reported, and kept separate: the reaction to the announcement, including a congratulatory phone message reported by the Associated Press, and the wider debate about where five MVPs place Wilson among basketball’s greats. Those are interpretations, not part of the award itself, and this article labels them as such.
The result was not close. Wilson took 65 of 74 first-place votes, and no voter ranked her below second. The runner-up, Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles, finished 271 points behind. Wilson produced a scoring and shooting season no WNBA player had produced before, and carried Las Vegas, 31–13 and third-seeded, into the playoffs. The team did not reach the Finals. That does not weaken the individual case; the MVP award rewards the regular season, judged by a media panel, and Wilson’s regular season was the most complete in the league’s history.
A’ja Wilson fifth MVP 2026 record explained: the vote in full
The WNBA announced the award on 8 October 2026 in New York. Wilson, a centre-forward for the Las Vegas Aces, received 65 first-place votes and nine second-place votes, for 713 points, from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters across the United States. Under the voting system, a first-place vote is worth 10 points, second place seven, third place five, fourth place three, and fifth place one. Wilson’s total is therefore the maximum possible minus the nine ballots on which she was placed second instead of first. No other player came close to that level of consensus.
The full top five, from the WNBA’s official voting table, was as follows. Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx finished second with 442 points, from six first-place votes, 40 second-place votes, 15 third-place votes, eight fourth-place votes and three fifth-place votes. Kelsey Mitchell of the Indiana Fever finished third with 287 points, including two first-place votes. Caitlin Clark, Mitchell’s Fever teammate, finished fourth with 212 points, including one first-place vote. Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty finished fifth with 171 points. Only four players received a first-place vote at all: Wilson, Miles, Mitchell and Clark.
One discrepancy in secondary reporting should be recorded. A Sports Illustrated summary of the vote gave Miles 443 points in its text, while the WNBA’s official table and the Associated Press reporting give 442. This article uses 442, the official figure, which is also consistent with Miles’s published vote breakdown. The gap between Wilson and Miles is 271 points on the official figures. Wilson’s total alone exceeded the combined totals of Miles and Clark. That is the scale of the margin, and it is why the announcement was reported as a landslide rather than a contest.
Wilson’s five MVP awards now span 2020, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026. The 2026 award made her the first player in WNBA history to win the award in three consecutive seasons. It also extended a record she already held: she had become the league’s outright record holder with her fourth award in 2025. No other WNBA player has won more than three MVP awards. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson each won three. Wilson has now won five of the last seven, in nine seasons since being drafted first overall in 2018. She turned 30 during the 2026 season.
The historic line: 26.2 points on 52.7 per cent and 40.4 per cent
The voting margin is explained by the season behind it. Wilson averaged 26.2 points per game, leading the league in scoring for a third consecutive season. She averaged 9.4 rebounds, a career-best 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals and a league-leading 1.9 blocks per game, shooting 52.7 per cent from the field and 40.4 per cent from three-point range. She played 41 of Las Vegas’s 44 regular-season games, averaging about 32 minutes per game, while dealing with a back issue that also kept her out of national-team duty at the FIBA World Cup in September.
The line that made the season historic is the combination. Wilson became the first player in WNBA history to average at least 25 points per game while shooting at least 50 per cent from the field and at least 40 per cent from three-point range in the same season, a threshold no previous season had met, attributed to ESPN’s analysis. It answers the usual objection to a high-scoring season: that the points came at the cost of efficiency. Wilson scored more than anyone else, cleared the 50 per cent frontcourt benchmark, and shot from distance at a level respectable for a guard.
Her 26.2 points per game was also reported as the second-highest scoring average in WNBA history, behind only her own record from two seasons earlier. Sources differ on the exact figure for that earlier record — 26.9 in some reporting, 26.4 in other reporting — so this article does not state the earlier figure as settled. What is not in doubt is the 2026 figure itself, 26.2, consistent across the WNBA announcement, the Associated Press and ESPN-based reporting.
What Wilson did for Las Vegas
Individual awards can mislead when detached from team results, so the team record belongs here. Las Vegas finished 31–13, won its final seven games, and took the third seed. The Aces averaged more than 91 points per game, and Wilson’s scoring, rebounding and rim protection were the constants, alongside Jackie Young, who averaged 18.9 points, and the veteran core that had won championships in 2022, 2023 and 2025.
The playoffs then drew the line under the season. Las Vegas beat Indiana 2–1 in the first round, with Wilson scoring 38 points and 16 rebounds in Game 1 and 36 points and 10 rebounds in the deciding Game 3. In the semifinals, Golden State swept the Aces 3–0, closing the series with an 87–77 overtime win in Game 3 on 9 October 2026. Wilson had declined a traditional pre-game presentation ceremony for the MVP award ahead of Game 3, according to reporting. The sweep meant the MVP’s team did not reach the Finals, and Golden State went on to beat Atlanta in seven games, as covered in The USA HeadlineX’s WNBA Finals explainer. The honour was announced while the Aces were already trailing 2–0 in the semifinals, and the season ended the day after the announcement.
Wilson’s season also carried a cost. The back issue that affected her during the season caused her to miss national-team duty at the FIBA World Cup, and she was reported to have managed the problem through the year. She still played 41 games. The reporting does not support a stronger claim about the nature or severity of the back issue, and this article does not make one.
Who else has five? The company Wilson now keeps
The question that followed the announcement was immediate: who else has won five MVP awards? The honest answer depends on which sport, and which award, is meant. Within the WNBA, nobody else is close. The next group — Swoopes, Leslie and Jackson — stopped at three. Wilson has five, and she has them in a league that began play in 1997, with a voting panel that has historically spread the award around. Her five in nine seasons means she has been named the league’s most valuable player in more than half the seasons she has played.
In the NBA, the comparison is precise, because the award has the same name and a similar history. Kareem Abdul-Jabbar won six NBA MVP awards, in 1971, 1972, 1974, 1976, 1977 and 1980, the most in NBA history. Michael Jordan won five, in 1988, 1991, 1992, 1996 and 1998. Bill Russell won five, in 1958, 1961, 1962, 1963 and 1965. Wilson’s five therefore put her alongside Jordan and Russell in the count of basketball MVP awards, one behind Abdul-Jabbar. The comparison has limits, which should be stated: different leagues, histories, voter pools and eras. But as a measure of dominance over a voting panel, five is a number only three basketball players in either league had previously reached. Wilson is the fourth, and the first woman.
In football, the nearest equivalent honour, the Ballon d’Or, is a different award voted on different criteria — Lionel Messi’s record eight wins do not diminish Wilson’s WNBA record, and this article does not claim Wilson holds the most individual top honours in world sport. What she holds is the WNBA record, outright, by two clear awards, plus the first three-peat. That is enough, without borrowing numbers from other sports.
There is also a separate honour sometimes confused with the MVP award. The Associated Press named Wilson its WNBA Player of the Year for a third consecutive season and a fourth time overall. That is the AP’s own media award, distinct from the league’s Kia MVP award. It reinforces the consensus behind the league award, but it is not a sixth MVP, and the two should be counted separately.
Why the vote was not closer
Three challengers each had a case. Miles, the runner-up, was a rookie who helped Minnesota to the league’s best record. Mitchell set the single-season scoring record with 1,086 points. Clark produced the first 800-point, 300-assist season in league history. Wilson beat all three because her case combined what each offered separately: she outscored Mitchell, out-rebounded and out-blocked the field, and did it with the shooting efficiency neither Mitchell nor Clark matched. Sixty-five of 74 voters put her first, nine put her second, and nobody put her lower — unanimous top-two placement, and the strongest evidence in the vote that the award was decided on the season’s completeness, not reputation alone.
Wilson beat all three because her case combined what each offered separately. She outscored Mitchell, out-rebounded and out-blocked the field, matched the playmaking growth expected of a modern frontcourt star with a career-best assists average, and did it with shooting efficiency neither Mitchell nor Clark matched.
Frequently asked questions
When was A’ja Wilson named the 2026 WNBA MVP, and what was the vote?
The WNBA announced the award on 8 October 2026. Wilson received 65 of 74 first-place votes and nine second-place votes, for 713 points. Olivia Miles finished second with 442 points.
What were A’ja Wilson’s 2026 averages?
Wilson averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.9 blocks per game, shooting 52.7 per cent from the field and 40.4 per cent from three-point range, in 41 regular-season games.
Has any other WNBA player won five MVP awards?
No. Wilson is the first and only five-time winner. Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson each won three, the next-highest total. Wilson is also the first player to win the award in three consecutive seasons.
Did the Las Vegas Aces reach the 2026 WNBA Finals?
No. Las Vegas finished 31–13 as the third seed, beat Indiana 2–1 in the first round, and was swept 3–0 by the Golden State Valkyries in the semifinals. Golden State went on to win the championship.
Related coverage: our explainer on Angel Reese’s WNBA Finals double-double record and our explainer on Caitlin Clark’s 2026 comeback season.
SOURCES
- WNBA, “A’ja Wilson Wins Fifth Kia WNBA Most Valuable Player Award” (8 Oct 2026; official voting table, 65 first-place votes, 713 points, Miles 442, Mitchell 287, Clark 212) — https://www.wnba.com/news/wilson-named-2026-most-valuable-player
- Associated Press via NBC Sports, “A’ja Wilson wins her third straight WNBA MVP and record fifth overall” (8 Oct 2026; 26.2 points, 52.7% shooting, 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.9 blocks, Swoopes/Leslie/Jackson three each) — https://www.nbcsports.com/wnba/news/aja-wilson-wins-her-third-straight-wnba-mvp-and-record-fifth-overall?chrcontext=NSBO
- Associated Press via TSN, “A’ja Wilson wins her third straight WNBA MVP and record fifth overall” (8 Oct 2026; Harris message, back issue and Team USA absence, Kareem/Jordan/Russell comparison) — https://www.tsn.ca:443/wires/cp/article/aja-wilson-wins-her-third-straight-wnba-mvp-and-record-fifth-overall/
- Essence, “A’ja Wilson Makes WNBA History With Record Fifth MVP Award” (8 Oct 2026; 25+/50%/40% first, 31–13 record, 41 of 44 games) — https://www.essence.com/entertainment/aja-wilson-wnba-history-fifth-mvp-award/
- Bleacher Report, “A’ja Wilson Reacts to Winning Historic 5th WNBA MVP Award” (8 Oct 2026; 52.7%/40.4%, 25+/50%/40% via ESPN, AP Player of the Year) — https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25508236-aja-wilson-reacts-winning-historic-5th-wnba-mvp-award-learned-news-kamala-harris
- Sports Illustrated, “WNBA MVP Voting Results Show Caitlin Clark Missing Top 3 Behind Rookie” (Oct 2026; Miles vote breakdown, 443-point text variant noted) — https://www.si.com/onsi/womens-fastbreak/news/wnba-mvp-voting-results-show-caitlin-clark-missing-top-3-behind-rookie-aja-wilson
- The Spun, “2026 WNBA MVP Voting Results: Caitlin Clark Got One First-Place Vote” (8 Oct 2026; full points: Wilson 713, Miles 442, Mitchell 287, Clark 212, Stewart 171) — https://thespun.com/wnba/2026-wnba-mvp-voting-results-caitlin-clark-got-one-first-place-vote
- The IX Basketball, “What went wrong for Las Vegas Aces in WNBA semifinals exit?” (Oct 2026; 31–13 third place, 87–77 overtime Game 3 loss, 3–0 sweep) — https://www.theixsports.com/the-ix-basketball-newsroom/wnba/las-vegas-aces/las-vegas-aces-eliminated-2026-wnba-semifinals-golden-state-valkyries/
- Sports Illustrated, “Who Has the Most MVP Awards in NBA History?” (Kareem Abdul-Jabbar six, Bill Russell and Michael Jordan five each, with years) — https://www.si.com/nba/who-has-most-mvp-awards-nba-history
- Bleacher Report, “Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, Angel Reese Win AP Awards” (27 Sept 2026; AP Player of the Year third straight, fourth overall) — https://bleacherreport.com/articles/25503447-caitlin-clark-aja-wilson-angel-reese-win-ap-awards-check-out-2026-box-score-stats-wnba-stars
