Becky Hammon Takes Clear WNBA MVP Stance
About a month or so ago, Minnesota Lynx star forward Napheesa Collier was the clear frontrunner for the 2025 WNBA MVP award. This was owed to her producing the best first-half of the 2025 season than any other player, while her Lynx team also dominated in the league standings (which they still are).
However, the gap has since closed between Collier and the rest of the league's elite players. While Collier is still playing great when she's on the court, she hasn't played since August 2 while she's still recovering from an ankle injury.
That August 2 game was against the Las Vegas Aces, which the Lynx won. Since then, however, the Aces have won seven straight games and look like true WNBA championship contenders. A large part of this is because reigning WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson has gone on a fantastic stretch, which includes her scoring at least 27 points in five games of this seven-game winning streak.
Becky Hammon Speaks on 2025 WNBA MVP
This recent stretch of success has reignited the debate on whether Wilson or Collier is more deserving of the WNBA MVP award. And Aces' head coach Becky Hammon sent a strong message when she was asked about this before Las Vegas' August 17 game.
"Well, I think the media always makes their own narrative [about MVP] out of the gate. You know, [Napheesa] was winning it coming into this year. I think they made it with [Breanna Stewart] winning it in '23. And they just decide, instead of just really digging into the numbers," Hammon said, per an X post from Callie Fin of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.
"You know, the year that we had the No. 1 offense and the No. 1 defense, A'ja didn't get [MVP]. So people are going to make their own decisions. Can't get caught up too much in it, we've just got to go out and be about our business, let A'ja be A'ja," she continued.
"I think any time you have to start with the conversation starter as, 'Who is as good as A'ja Wilson?' You already have your answer," Hammon concluded.
Got Becky Hammon’s philosophy on MVP before today’s win over the Wings.
— Callie Fin (@CallieJLaw) August 18, 2025
She told me she generally views it as the player who would be the most dominant on any team.
More from her on A’ja Wilson’s MVP case specifically ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/XU1S31uylU
Hammon certainly presents a good point. Then again, she was always going to have her star player's back in this regard.
Perhaps these final several weeks of the regular season will paint a clearer picture about whether Collier or Wilson is more deserving of winning this year's MVP award.
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Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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