WNBA Awards: Aces Guard Kelsey Plum Wins Sixth Player of the Year

Aces guard Kelsey Plum was named the WNBA's Sixth Player of the Year on Thursday. 

Plum received 41 votes from a national panel of 49 sportswriters and broadcasters.

Her teammate and two-time Sixth Woman of the Year winner Dearica Hamby finished as the runner-up with five votes. Wings guard Marina Mabrey received two votes to finish third.

Plum starred in her first season back after missing the 2020 campaign to rehab an Achilles tear, scoring coring a career-high 14.8 points per game off Las Vegas’s bench. Eight times this season she scored 20 or more points.  

After helping to lead USA Basketball's three-on-three team to an Olympic gold medal, she returned stateside and flourished. By the end of the regular season, Plum was playing her best basketball of the year, averaging 21.7 points, 3.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. For her efforts, she was named the Western Conference Player of the Month.

In Tuesday's Game 1 win over the Mercury, she continued her run of strong play by scoring 25 points in 26 minutes.

Aces general manager Dan Padover was named the league's Executive of the Year for the second consecutive season on Thursday. The voting was comprised of one basketball executive from each WNBA team

Earlier this week, Sun forward Jonquel Jones took home the league's MVP award, while teammate Brionna Jones won the Most Improved Player award and coach Curt Miller was named the Coach of the Year. Minnesota's Sylvia Fowles was named the league's Defensive Player of the Year on Sunday.

The Aces are the No. 2 seed in this year's playoffs and host the Mercury in Game 2 of their series on Thursday night.