A’ja Wilson, Caitlin Clark, Breanna Stewart, Olivia Miles, and Kelsey Mitchell: these are the players who have dominated MVP conversations throughout the 2026 WNBA season. For Sue Bird, her pick had always been Olivia Miles. The logic was straightforward: Miles is the best player on the best team in the league, so she earns the nod by default.
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However, Bird’s latest comments on Friday’s episode of her Bird’s Eye View podcast suggest her stance is no longer quite so clear-cut. While she continues to praise Miles and acknowledge the historic nature of her rookie season, Bird admitted that a slight dip in form has made it increasingly difficult to look past A’ja Wilson’s remarkable and relentless consistency.
“I have gone on record saying that I thought Olivia Miles was not just in the running but was leading in terms of MVP. I thought being the best player on the best team, to me, is the MVP, right? But I can also acknowledge that there’s been a little bit of a falloff.”
“Just enough where it’s hard to ignore A’ja Wilson’s consistency in her numbers,” Bird said on her podcast. “Arguments for Kelsey Mitchell for sure, right behind them. Arguments for Stewie, for Caitlin, right behind. They’re all up there.
“But I think A’ja has started to run away with it. So, if I had to pick, I’d probably pick A’ja Wilson right now,” she added.
Olivia Miles has produced a standout rookie season, averaging 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6.0 assists, 1.3 steals, and 0.6 blocks per game while shooting 49.2 percent from the floor. A’ja Wilson, who is contending for her third consecutive MVP award, has been relentlessly dominant.
She has averaged 26.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.9 blocks per game on 52.7 percent shooting, while leading the league in scoring from wire to wire.
On the other hand, Caitlin Clark has orchestrated the league’s best offence for the Indiana Fever, averaging 22.3 points, 4.0 rebounds, a league-leading 8.3 assists, 1.1 steals, and 0.5 blocks per game, shooting 44.5 percent from the floor. However, Clark’s impact even within the Fever can’t be counted in a vacuum.
Running alongside her all season has been Kelsey Mitchell, putting together a historically significant scoring campaign, averaging 24.7 points per game on 50.9 percent shooting while breaking the WNBA single-season scoring record.
Breanna Stewart has also anchored the New York Liberty with 20.8 points, 8.3 rebounds, 3.3 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.3 blocks per game on 47.4 percent shooting. Although it won’t have an effect in the WNBA, earning the FIBA Women’s World Cup MVP award has been another highlight for Stewart this year.
With the performances that all five players have put together all season, they’ve all definitely made strong cases for winning the MVP. For Sue Bird, however, A’ja Wilson’s case appears to be the strongest.
Olivia Miles, on the other hand, might have to settle for the Rookie of the Year, where she is already a frontrunner. If she does, however, end up winning the MVP, she will become only the second player after Candace Parker to win both ROTY and MVP in the same season.
Moreover, with all of these players; Wilson, Miles, Clark, Mitchell and, Stewart, now heading into the playoffs, they’ll all also be making their cases for the WNBA Finals MVP award. Notably, the Caitlin Clark- and Mitchell-led Indiana Fever will square off against A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces in the first round, meaning two prominent MVP candidates will go head-to-head immediately.
On the other hand, Olivia Miles will lead the Minnesota Lynx against Breanna Stewart and the New York Liberty in their own playoff series. Beyond the MVP and Finals MVP awards, all five players will be looking to push forward and lead their teams to a WNBA championship. That, after all, is the ultimate goal.