Aja Wilson Wins Fifth WNBA MVP as Clark Gets One First Place Vote

Aja Wilson secured her fifth WNBA Most Valuable Player award after the league announced its voting results Thursday, October 8, 2026, while Caitlin Clark received just one first-place vote despite a record-setting offensive season with the Indiana Fever. The results placed Wilson first and highlighted a substantial gap between Clark's statistical achievements and her standing among the voters.

According to the WNBA, Wilson received 65 of 74 first-place votes from a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters. Minnesota rookie Olivia Miles finished second, Indiana teammate Kelsey Mitchell placed third, and Clark finished fourth.

Clark appeared on 55 ballots and received one first-place vote, six second-place votes, 20 third-place votes, 16 fourth-place votes, and 12 fifth-place votes. She accumulated 212 points, compared with 442 for Miles and 287 for Mitchell, while 19 voters left her off their ballots entirely.

Wilson had a strong statistical case for the award, averaging 26.2 points and 9.4 rebounds per game. She led the league in points and blocks per game and helped the Las Vegas Aces win 31 games, according to the season statistics cited in the report.

Clark, meanwhile, averaged 22.3 points and 8.3 assists per game. The WNBA's end-of-season review credited her with creating an average of 41.2 points per game through her scoring, free throws, and assists, the highest figure in league history.

Her season also included five games with at least 30 points and 10 assists, a feat that every other player in WNBA history had achieved four times combined. On July 17, Clark scored 45 points and recorded 10 assists against Seattle, producing the league's first 40-point, 10-assist game.

Across 40 appearances, Clark recorded 13 games with at least 20 points and 10 assists. She finished the season with 891 points and 333 assists, becoming the first WNBA player to reach 800 points and 300 assists in a single season.

Her production coincided with a record-setting offensive season for Indiana. The Fever averaged 96 points per game, while Mitchell finished with a league-record 1,086 points.

Mitchell averaged 16.4 points per game during her six Indiana seasons before Clark joined the team. In the three seasons since Indiana drafted Clark, Mitchell averaged 21.4 points, including a career-high 24.7 points during the season covered by the report.

Miles averaged 19.8 points and six assists while helping Minnesota finish with the league's best record. Minnesota had also finished with the league's best record in 2025, before Miles entered the WNBA.

The voting results have renewed scrutiny of how media members assess Clark's performance and public profile. The source report cited previous commentary from sports media figures about Clark's on-court behavior, popularity, and responses to discussions of race in the league, while acknowledging that those examples do not establish which voters excluded her from their ballots.

In May, Cari Champion said of Clark, "I don’t like you. I don’t like the way you behave on the court." In September, Champion described Clark as an "avatar for people who want to spread hate."

In July, Nancy Armour argued that Clark's reactions to officiating endangered Black and queer players and invoked Emmett Till. The report also noted that Charlotte Wilder called for "something a little more forceful" from Clark regarding the alleged treatment of Black WNBA players, while acknowledging that Clark had already spoken publicly on the issue.

The report also highlighted voting for Defensive Player of the Year, noting that Wilson received four votes while Angel Reese received 46 and won the award. The comparison raised further questions about consistency in media voting, although the two awards recognize different aspects of player performance.