A'ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart have combined to win three of the past five WNBA MVP awards. So it's no surprise they open at Nos.
1 and 2 in ESPN's 2023 preseason ranking of the top 25 players in the WNBA. Last season, the Las Vegas Aces' Wilson and Stewart — who spent her first six seasons with the Seattle Storm and now is with the New York Liberty — got all but two first-place votes in the MVP race, with Wilson winning the final points tally 478-446.
They are now just a point apart in our preseason voting, with Stewart, the 2018 MVP, getting two first-place votes and Wilson, who also was league MVP in 2020, the other.
It's a toss-up between these two forwards, who also anchor the squads regarded as superteams this WNBA season. Wilson, 26, and Stewart, 28, are among four 20-somethings in our top 10.