The 2025 Defensive Player of the Year race was like Sophie’s Choice for the voters. The two in the running were Minnesota Lynx’s Alanna Smith, who kept them as the best defensive team in the league despite Napheesa Collier missing 11 games, and Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson, who led the league in blocks and rebounds. In the end, the voters just couldn’t decide.

Alanna Smith and A’ja Wilson made WNBA history as co-Defensive Players of the Year in 2025, marking the first time the award has ever been shared.  Smith and Wilson each snagged 29 votes from a 72-member media panel, while Gabby Williams trailed with 9 , Alyssa Thomas earned 3, and Napheesa Collier picked up 2 . This is Smith’s first major honor, while Wilson joins legends Sheryl Swoopes, Sylvia Fowles, and Tamika Catchings as a three-time (and counting) Defensive Player of the Year. It was a literal neck-to-neck race in which each vote mattered. Amid this close battle, this Sun insider was satisfied with the result while revealing her vote.

Terrika Foster Brasby, the Connecticut Sun sideline reporter, wrote, “Let’s go!! Congrats to BOTH A’ja Wilson AND Alanna Smith for winning the 2025 WNBA Co-Defensive player of the year! Both these women wrecked shop defensively and are deserving! 👏🏾👏🏾👏🏾(My media vote went to A’ja Wilson)”

Alanna Smith was on her way to a major upset had one more vote gone her way. The Minnesota Lynx fans are fuming at the two voters who went for Napheesa Collier. Yes, Collier is the reigning Defensive Player of the Year, and her defensive rating is lower than Smith’s (96 as opposed to 99.5). Smith is leading the team in blocks and was the anchor of the team in the quarter season Collier missed. So if they had gone Smith’s way, it would have favoured the Lynx fans, but Wilson is a worthy winner as well. 

The Aces were notably not the best defensive team, finishing eighth in the league with a defensive rating of 101.9. However, Wilson was the lone worker doing something the team should collectively do. The Aces had a defensive rating of 98.8 with Wilson on the floor. That will rank second in the league. Without Wilson, they slide down to 10th in the league with a defensive rating of 105.3. No one in the league makes such an impact on any part of the floor except for Wilson. Smith anchors the league’s stingiest defense, while Wilson wears the crown as the league’s most dominant individual stopper. Both are elite in their own right. For Wilson, this is just one stop in her way to the absolute top. 

A’ja Wilson Could Enter the GOAT Debate After 2025

A’ja Wilson has been skirting the Greatest Of All Time conversation with her elite game in the last few years. After winning two consecutive titles, her name was pitched in the debate, but analysts and fans thought that longevity was needed. Wilson agreed, “I would love to have my name mentioned in conversations when you’re talking about the greatest women’s basketball player ever to play,” she said, “But in my eyes, I still have a lot more I have to do to even be in that conversation.”And in 2025, she is dominating like few have.

In 2025, she led the Las Vegas Aces to the playoffs almost on her own. Like we discussed, without Wilson, the Aces’ defense is more than leaky. On the attack, she is scoring at a league-leading 23.4 points per game and is currently the MVP favourite. According to Plymarket hoops, Wilson has a 74% chance to snag the MVP, toppling Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier for the second consecutive time. 

This will be her 4th WNBA MVP, which will make her the only one to achieve that number.  She will also become the third player to win the Defensive Player of the Year and the MVP in the same year, twice matching Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie. Wilson won both in 2022 while also winning the title. The Aces also have a shot at the title, and if they do achieve that, it will be Wilson’s third, which is still one short of legends like Sue Bird, Sheryl Swoopes, and Cynthia Cooper. Wilson is still 29 with time on her side; the 2025 campaign was the gradual next step to be spoken among the greatest.