Breanna Stewart wins WNBA MVP -- and there wasn't a wrong choice - ESPN

It was clear even before the WNBA All-Star Game in July that three players were making a strong case for the league's 2023 MVP award. Since then, analysts have said many times that the Connecticut Sun's Alyssa Thomas, the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart and the Las Vegas Aces' A'ja Wilson all were deserving of the honor.

However, when there's no «wrong» choice, there's also no «right» choice — meaning MVP voting was going to make one team/fan base happy and two others upset.

Tuesday, Stewart won her second MVP with 446 points over Thomas (439) and Wilson (433) in a vote of national media. Wilson was trying to become the fourth three-time MVP and just the second player to win the award in back-to-back years. Thomas was attempting to become the second Sun player to be named MVP.

For the second time in WNBA history, the MVP did not get the most first-place votes. Stewart had 20 to Thomas' 23, while Wilson had 17. In 2005, Sheryl Swoopes won the honor with 16 first-place votes to runner-up Lauren Jackson's 20.

The MVP, like the WNBA's other season honors, is decided before the playoffs even begin. Votes had to be sent in to the league office by Sept. 10, the last day of the regular season. So nothing players have done since then — Wilson is averaging 28.7 points on 64.3% shooting over three playoff games, while Stewart's shooting has dipped to 28.8% in three postseason games — had any impact on who won the MVP.

What does have an impact is how voters measure performance and how they define what MVP means. Which stats do they weigh heaviest? If they were splitting hairs trying to decide between three great seasons for players on the league's top three teams in the standings, how did they split them? And in the end,