A'ja Wilson Wins Fifth WNBA MVP, Joins Sports' Elite

A'ja Wilson claimed her fifth career WNBA Most Valuable Player award on Thursday, extending a run that ESPN's Neil Paine writes now places the Las Vegas Aces center among the most dominant multi-year performers in major North American pro sports history, according to ESPN.

How many MVPs has A'ja Wilson won?

Wilson's fifth MVP is also her third in a row, won after she led the Aces to their eighth straight playoff appearance while averaging 26.0 points and 9.4 rebounds this season, per ESPN's report. She shot a near-career-high 62.5% True Shooting percentage and blocked at least 2.0 shots per game for the fourth consecutive season. No other player in WNBA history has won the award more than three times — a mark shared by Sheryl Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson, ESPN notes. Wilson has now personally accounted for roughly 17% of every MVP ever awarded across the WNBA's three-decade history, according to the outlet.

Where does her MVP streak rank among all-time greats?

ESPN identifies only eight players across the NBA, NFL, MLB, NHL and WNBA who have won five or more MVPs in a career, a group it calls "a who's who of all-time sports legends." The outlet's analysis of three-consecutive-MVP winners lists additional names including Larry Bird, Wilt Chamberlain, Shohei Ohtani, Bobby Orr and Brett Favre as comparable company.

What makes Wilson's four-MVPs-in-five-years mark so rare?

ESPN reports that only six players in major North American pro sports history — Wilson now among them — have won at least four MVPs within any five-year span. The outlet describes the group as "basically all serious GOAT candidates."

"It's extremely difficult to stay at the absolute pinnacle of a sport for such a sustained period, due to reasons ranging from one's own performance and health, external factors like voter fatigue, and the emergence of other, younger challengers to the throne," ESPN's Neil Paine writes.

Why is sustaining MVP-level play so difficult?

Paine points to Denver's Nikola Jokić as an example of the pattern working against a dominant player: Jokić won three NBA MVPs in four years before Oklahoma City's Shai Gilgeous-Alexander took the award the past two seasons. ESPN also notes that elevated expectations compound the challenge — once a player sets as high a bar as Wilson has, voters and observers expect the standard to hold or rise, making repeat recognition harder to sustain even for players performing at an elite level.

What statistics underline Wilson's case this season?

According to ESPN, Wilson led the WNBA in LAKER Wins Added by a full win over the No. 2 player, Veronica Burton, with an even wider margin in Win Shares — the metrics the outlet cites as evidence her 2026 MVP selection was close to a formality by season's end.

What to watch

• Whether Wilson can extend her streak to four straight MVPs next season, matching the three-peat company ESPN cites in Bird, Chamberlain, Ohtani, Orr and Favre.
• How voter fatigue and emerging challengers — the pattern ESPN says cost Jokić back-to-back MVPs — factor into future WNBA MVP races.
• Whether the Aces' postseason run can produce a championship to match Wilson's individual honors, after their eighth consecutive playoff berth.