We matched every MVP named by the league with their team's regular-season record and playoff run, rebuilt game by game from the league's own results. The MVP's team reached the WNBA Finals 14 times, 47 percent. Wilson was named the 2026 MVP on October 8.
How often the WNBA MVP wins the title
Beyond the 12 titles, the MVP's team lost in the Finals twice, in the semifinals nine times (the conference finals, from 1999 to 2015) and in the first round six times. It missed the playoffs once: Lauren Jackson's 2003 Seattle Storm finished 18-16, level with the Minnesota Lynx, and lost the tiebreaker for the West's fourth and last playoff place.
The rate has changed from one era to the next. From 1997 to 2015 the MVP's team won 6 of 19 titles, and only 2 of 14 from 2002 to 2015: the 2009 Phoenix Mercury with Diana Taurasi and the 2010 Storm with Jackson. Since 2016, when the league began seeding its eight playoff teams 1 to 8 regardless of conference, the MVP's team has won 6 of 11, including four in a row from 2016 to 2019. It was the No. 1 seed six times in that span and won four of those titles.
When the MVP's team fell short, it was often the champion that stopped it. In 9 of the 17 seasons in which it made the playoffs without winning the title, it was knocked out by the team that went on to win, most recently by the Golden State Valkyries, who swept Wilson's Aces in the 2026 semifinals.
WNBA MVP team record: how often the MVP played for the best team
Most MVPs did not play for the league's best team. The MVP's team had the best record, alone or tied, in 12 of the 30 seasons, and won the title in 9 of them, 75 percent. In the other 18 seasons it won 3 titles, 17 percent: the 2000 Houston Comets and the 2016 Los Angeles Sparks, both second in the league, and the 2025 Aces, tied for second with the Atlanta Dream.
MVPs came from the team ranked second in the league 10 times, third three times and fourth once, and four times from a team that finished fifth or lower: the Storm in 2003 and 2007, the Comets in 2005 and the Sparks in 2008. Jackson's 2007 Storm went 17-17, seventh of 13 teams, the only MVP team without a winning record, and lost in the first round to the eventual champion, Phoenix.
The team with the best record has won more often. Alone or tied, it took 18 of the same 30 titles, a pattern our guide to the WNBA playoff format breaks down by seed and by era. The MVP's team took 12.
WNBA MVP history: every winner and how their team finished
Every MVP, with their team's regular-season record and rank, and how the season ended:
| Season | MVP | Team | Record | League rank | Playoff result |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1997 | Cynthia Cooper | Houston Comets | 18-10 | 1st | Won title |
| 1998 | Cynthia Cooper | Houston Comets | 27-3 | 1st | Won title |
| 1999 | Yolanda Griffith | Sacramento Monarchs | 19-13 | 3rd | Lost first round to Los Angeles Sparks, 0-1 |
| 2000 | Sheryl Swoopes | Houston Comets | 27-5 | 2nd | Won title |
| 2001 | Lisa Leslie | Los Angeles Sparks | 28-4 | 1st | Won title |
| 2002 | Sheryl Swoopes | Houston Comets | 24-8 | 2nd | Lost first round to Utah Starzz, 1-2 |
| 2003 | Lauren Jackson | Seattle Storm | 18-16 | 5th (tied) | Missed playoffs |
| 2004 | Lisa Leslie | Los Angeles Sparks | 25-9 | 1st | Lost first round to Sacramento Monarchs, 1-2 |
| 2005 | Sheryl Swoopes | Houston Comets | 19-15 | 5th | Lost conference finals to Sacramento Monarchs, 0-2 |
| 2006 | Lisa Leslie | Los Angeles Sparks | 25-9 | 2nd | Lost conference finals to Sacramento Monarchs, 0-2 |
| 2007 | Lauren Jackson | Seattle Storm | 17-17 | 7th | Lost first round to Phoenix Mercury, 0-2 |
| 2008 | Candace Parker | Los Angeles Sparks | 20-14 | 5th | Lost conference finals to San Antonio Silver Stars, 1-2 |
| 2009 | Diana Taurasi | Phoenix Mercury | 23-11 | 1st | Won title |
| 2010 | Lauren Jackson | Seattle Storm | 28-6 | 1st | Won title |
| 2011 | Tamika Catchings | Indiana Fever | 21-13 | 2nd (tied) | Lost conference finals to Atlanta Dream, 1-2 |
| 2012 | Tina Charles | Connecticut Sun | 25-9 | 2nd | Lost conference finals to Indiana Fever, 1-2 |
| 2013 | Candace Parker | Los Angeles Sparks | 24-10 | 2nd (tied) | Lost first round to Phoenix Mercury, 1-2 |
| 2014 | Maya Moore | Minnesota Lynx | 25-9 | 2nd | Lost conference finals to Phoenix Mercury, 1-2 |
| 2015 | Elena Delle Donne | Chicago Sky | 21-13 | 3rd | Lost first round to Indiana Fever, 1-2 |
| 2016 | Nneka Ogwumike | Los Angeles Sparks | 26-8 | 2nd | Won title |
| 2017 | Sylvia Fowles | Minnesota Lynx | 27-7 | 1st | Won title |
| 2018 | Breanna Stewart | Seattle Storm | 26-8 | 1st | Won title |
| 2019 | Elena Delle Donne | Washington Mystics | 26-8 | 1st | Won title |
| 2020 | A'ja Wilson | Las Vegas Aces | 18-4 | 1st (tied) | Lost Finals to Seattle Storm, 0-3 |
| 2021 | Jonquel Jones | Connecticut Sun | 26-6 | 1st | Lost semifinals to Chicago Sky, 1-3 |
| 2022 | A'ja Wilson | Las Vegas Aces | 26-10 | 1st (tied) | Won title |
| 2023 | Breanna Stewart | New York Liberty | 32-8 | 2nd | Lost Finals to Las Vegas Aces, 1-3 |
| 2024 | A'ja Wilson | Las Vegas Aces | 27-13 | 4th | Lost semifinals to New York Liberty, 1-3 |
| 2025 | A'ja Wilson | Las Vegas Aces | 30-14 | 2nd (tied) | Won title |
| 2026 | A'ja Wilson | Las Vegas Aces | 31-13 | 3rd | Lost semifinals to Golden State Valkyries, 0-3 |
MVP, title and Finals MVP in the same season
Ten players have won the MVP and the title in the same season, and two did it twice: Cynthia Cooper with Houston in 1997 and 1998, and Wilson in 2022 and 2025. Eight times the MVP was also named Finals MVP:
- Cynthia Cooper, Houston Comets, 1997 and 1998
- Lisa Leslie, Los Angeles Sparks, 2001
- Diana Taurasi, Phoenix Mercury, 2009
- Lauren Jackson, Seattle Storm, 2010
- Sylvia Fowles, Minnesota Lynx, 2017
- Breanna Stewart, Seattle Storm, 2018
- A'ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces, 2025
In the other four title seasons, a teammate of the MVP took the Finals award: Cooper in 2000 (Sheryl Swoopes was MVP), Candace Parker in 2016 (Nneka Ogwumike), Emma Meesseman in 2019 (Elena Delle Donne) and Chelsea Gray in 2022 (Wilson).
Repeat WNBA MVPs and MVPs by team
Sixteen players have won the award, and the eight who won it more than once account for 22 of the 30. Wilson's fourth broke a tie with Lisa Leslie, Swoopes and Jackson at three, and her fifth, in 2026, extended the record. She won in 2024, 2025 and 2026, the only three in a row, and Cooper (1997 and 1998) is the only other player to win it in consecutive seasons. Cooper, Parker, Delle Donne and Stewart won two each; Delle Donne, with the Chicago Sky and the Washington Mystics, and Stewart, with the Storm and the Liberty, are the only players to win it with two teams.
Repeat MVPs have not always meant titles. Leslie, Swoopes and Jackson each won the title in one of their three MVP seasons, and Parker's Sparks did not reach the Finals in either of hers, 2008 and 2013. Parker's first came as a rookie: she is the only player named MVP and Rookie of the Year in the same season.
By team, the Los Angeles Sparks have had the most MVP seasons, six, but won the title in only two of them, 2001 and 2016. The Comets and the Aces had five each, with three titles for the Comets and two for the Aces, and the Storm had four, with two titles. Two of the 12 teams with an MVP no longer play: Houston's last season was 2008, and the Sacramento Monarchs, Yolanda Griffith's team in 1999, played their last in 2009. Of the 15 teams in the league in 2026, five have never had an MVP: the Dream, the Dallas Wings, the Golden State Valkyries, the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo.
2026 WNBA MVP and the playoffs: Wilson's fifth, Golden State's title
The league named Wilson its 2026 MVP on October 8, with 65 of the 74 votes, a record fifth award, after naming Minnesota's Olivia Miles Rookie of the Year and Cheryl Reeve Coach of the Year on September 28. Last year the league announced its end-of-season awards during the playoffs and named Wilson MVP on September 21, the day the semifinals began.
Her team did not get past the semifinals. How the 2026 playoffs went:
- First round: No. 8 New York Liberty beat No. 1 Minnesota Lynx 2-0, 91-75 and 87-71, the first series a No. 8 seed has won against a No. 1, although Minnesota had the league's best record, 33-11. No. 2 Golden State beat No. 7 Dallas 2-1, No. 3 Las Vegas beat No. 6 Indiana 2-1 and No. 4 Atlanta swept No. 5 Washington.
- Semifinals: Golden State swept Las Vegas 3-0, 71-60, 83-81 and 87-77, and Atlanta swept New York 3-0.
- Finals: Golden State, the No. 2 seed at 32-12, beat the No. 4 Atlanta Dream 4-3 on October 31, 68-63 in Game 7, for the first title in its second season. Gabby Williams, with 30 points in Game 7, was Finals MVP.
Wilson's Aces, 31-13 and the No. 3 seed, lost to the eventual champion for the second time in three years, after the Liberty in 2024. The Liberty's own two former MVPs, Stewart and Jonquel Jones, who won the award in 2021 with the Connecticut Sun, were swept by Atlanta. Our 2026 WNBA playoff bracket has every series, the 2026 WNBA schedule has every regular-season result, and the WNBA simulator shows the final standings.
WNBA MVP: frequently asked questions
Who has won the most WNBA MVP awards? A'ja Wilson, with five, all with the Las Vegas Aces: 2020, 2022, 2024, 2025 and 2026. Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Lauren Jackson won three each.
How often does the WNBA MVP win the championship? The MVP's team won the title in 12 of the 30 seasons from 1997 to 2026, 40 percent, and in 6 of the last 11.
Has a WNBA MVP's team ever missed the playoffs? Once, in 2003, when Lauren Jackson's Seattle Storm went 18-16 and lost a tiebreaker for the last playoff place in the Western Conference.
Who won the 2025 WNBA MVP? A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, her fourth. The Aces then swept the Phoenix Mercury 4-0 in the Finals, and Wilson was Finals MVP as well.
Who won the 2026 WNBA MVP? A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, her fifth and third in a row, announced on October 8, during the playoffs. The Aces lost the semifinals 3-0 to Golden State, which beat the Atlanta Dream 4-3 in the Finals.
How this was built: the list of MVPs is the league's own, from WNBA.com's award history and its 2025 announcement, and Finals MVPs from the league's Finals MVP list and its record of the 2025 Finals. Each MVP's team record, rank in the league and playoff result come from every regular-season and playoff game from 1997 to October 31, 2026, on the league's stats site, stats.wnba.com, except the 2026 playoff games after September 29, which come from ESPN's scoreboard. Series and rounds are rebuilt game by game, the records match the official standings, and the champions were checked against Wikipedia's list of WNBA Finals and its page on the 2026 Finals. The 2026 MVP and Finals MVP are from ESPN's awards feed and Wikipedia's page on the 2026 season. League rank is by winning percentage, with ties sharing a place; the semifinals were the conference finals from 1999 to 2015.