A'ja Wilson takes a fifth WNBA MVP, with 65 of 74 first-place votes

A'ja Wilson won a fifth WNBA Most Valuable Player award on Thursday, the first player to take the prize three years running. She received 65 of the 74 first-place votes and nine second-place votes. Minnesota's Olivia Miles finished second. The Las Vegas Aces scheduled a pregame ceremony for Friday, before Game 3 of their semifinal against the Golden State Valkyries.

The ballot behind her was not close at the top and was crowded underneath. Miles, a Lynx rookie guard, had 442 points and six first-place votes. Indiana's Kelsey Mitchell was third with 287 points and two first-place votes. Caitlin Clark, also of the Fever, was fourth with 212 points and one first-place vote. New York's Breanna Stewart was fifth with 171 points. Sixty-five firsts is a different result from a split ballot. Nine voters put someone else first. The rest of the sheet went to a rookie, two Fever guards, and Stewart.

Wilson's season line is the part of the award that can be checked without the votes. She became the first WNBA player to average at least 25 points while shooting at least 50 percent from the field and 40 percent from three. Her scoring average was 26.2 points, the second-highest in league history, behind her own 26.9 two seasons ago. A high average on those shooting marks means the points were not bought with a large number of missed shots. The three-point figure is the newer piece. Wilson's earlier MVP seasons were built inside. This one includes a perimeter share at 40 percent.

The timing of the announcement sits inside the playoffs, not after them. Atlanta leads New York 2-0 in the other semifinal. Las Vegas is at home on Friday in Game 3 against Golden State. ESPN reported that Wilson had declined a pregame ceremony in one account and that the Aces would hold one on Friday in another. The vote total does not depend on that staging. The award is already hers. The series is not over.

A fifth MVP passes every previous career mark in the league. A three-peat passes the consecutive mark. Those are counting records. The useful comparison on this ballot is Miles. A rookie finishing second, with six first-place votes, is the case voters made for someone other than Wilson. It was not large enough to change the result. It is large enough to show the sheet was not unanimous, and it names the player who took the votes Wilson did not.

Clark's fourth-place finish, one first-place vote and 212 points, will be read against her box scores. The ballot is a vote of players, media and the league's panel, not a pure points table. Mitchell finishing ahead of Clark on the same team is a split inside Indiana, not a league-wide ranking of their seasons. Stewart's fifth place, 171 points, keeps a former MVP on the sheet without a first-place vote in the published count.

Friday's game is the next Aces fact. Wilson's 26.2 points, the 50 and 40 shooting marks, and 65 first-place votes are the award. The series against the Valkyries is still a best-of series with a game in Las Vegas on Friday night.