Imago
Image Credits: Imago
Imago
Image Credits: Imago
A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, heavily regarded as the best player of the 2023 WNBA season, unexpectedly found herself finishing last in the MVP run this year. Despite the fact that she had an outstanding season, leading the league in several statistics and leading her team to an astounding 34-6 record, one voter placed her in the fourth slot on their MVP ballot. Given that Wilson, Thomas and Stewart were widely believed to be the top three candidates, fans were not just interested in the lone vote for fourth place but also perplexed and angered by it.
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Meanwhile, days after losing the MVP title to her WNBA Finals foe, Breanna Stewart, A?ja Wilson?s ?villain’ origin story gets endorsed by her 34-year-old Aces teammate.
A unilateral fourth-place vote sends fans into a frenzy
The 2023 WNBA MVP race ended up being one of the tightest in history, with Breanna Stewart winning and A’ja Wilson finishing just 13 points behind Alyssa Thomas. Following the lone vote that placed Wilson in the fourth spot, voter transparency demands turned social media, especially X, into a battlefield.
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Fans and experts alike set out on a mission to find the enigmatically placed fourth voter; some even demanded that their voting rights be revoked. Even ESPN’s Andraya Carter conducted the hunt on air before Wilson’s Aces and the Dallas Wings battled it out.
Andraya Carter stated, ?If you voted @_ajawilson22 4th in MVP voting, make yourself known? stand on it, ten toes down.?
You betta say that @Andraya_Carter !! Whoever voted A’ja 4th: Show yourself !!! pic.twitter.com/xWJDul1G7i
— Chris Williamson (@CWilliamson44) September 26, 2023
Wilson publicly acknowledged her dismay in coming in third for MVP, but she made the decision to not linger on it for too long, describing that it “hurts like hell.” She also chose to ignore the fourth-place vote. Her former college coach, Dawn Staley of South Carolina, however, responded to this strange vote on on X, stating that the voter’s “hate is real & on display.”
Congrats to Stewie for @WNBA POY?helluva season! Alyssa congrats to you for just being your normal beast mode self! A you know I ?? you. Your life and career are favored and divinely ordered so your harvest time is coming. To the 4th place voter your hate is real & on display.
? dawnstaley (@dawnstaley) September 26, 2023
Meanhile, days following A’ja Wilson’s MVP snub, Sydney Colson endorses Wilson’s ‘villain’ origin story.
Sydney Colson endorses A’ja Wilson’s ‘villain’ origin story
While Wilson accepted the MVP snub with grace, Sydney Colson, a colleague and fellow Aces player took a different tack. Colson acknowledged what she referred to as A’ja Wilson’s ‘Villain origin story’ during a recent episode of Queens of the Court.
Colson expressed her hope that Wilson would find fuel to persevere through this unexpected setback. “We’ll be witnessing like A’ja’s Villain origin story,” said the 34-year-old Aces teammate.
She continued, “A’ja’s already a phenomenal player, so I had a feeling before I was having …I think a lot of us had a feeling when she got Defensive Player of the Year, that it was gonna be some funny business going on. It was same thing that happened last year, but she ended up … you know obviously still getting …still winning MVP.”?
“We’ll be witnessing A’ja’s villain origin story.”
🚨ICYMI: The Queens of comedy stopped by Queens of the Court this week! @SydJColson + @tplai55 🚨
We talked The Syd + TP show, Finals preview, and more.
Listen: https://t.co/sBHERfJNnv pic.twitter.com/1gF8MoM8Xc
— Jordan Robinson (@HeyJordanR) October 6, 2023
Colson continued, “But we all just had a feeling, and I was like I didn’t want it to happen to her, but I was like if it does happen, it’s gonna be that gear she needs to tap into to really like… She already has lotta dog in her. But it’s ’bout to be like great dane.”
“She had like a smaller size dog, she ’bout to have like a great dane,” she concluded.
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As Wilson and the Aces continue their run to the WNBA title, fans will be eagerly watching to see how this “Villain origin story” unfolds. Do you think the Aces will bag the title this year? Let us know in the comments below!
Written by
Edited by
Aayush Kapoor