Best Player in the WNBA Named Ahead of 2026 Season, and It's Not Caitlin Clark
The WNBA's 30th season tips off Friday night with a new level of excitement.
The Las Vegas Aces are chasing their fourth championship in five years. The Indiana Fever enter another high-pressure season built around Caitlin Clark and legitimate title expectations. And the Dallas Wings have emerged as one of the league's trendiest breakout picks after reloading around young talent, notably drafting Paige Bueckers’ UConn teammate Azzi Fudd No. 1 overall.
The league has also expanded to 15 teams, with the Toronto Tempo hosting the Washington Mystics on Friday and the Portland Fire welcoming the Chicago Sky on Saturday.
And hanging over all of it is the same looming reality that the road to a WNBA title still appears to run directly through Las Vegas.
That reality became even louder Friday when ESPN analysts Kareem Copeland, Alexa Philippou, and Michael Voepel unanimously declared A’ja Wilson the league's clear-cut best player entering 2026.
Copeland made a strong case for Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas, and Philippou presented the argument for New York’s Breanna Stewart, but all three acknowledged that Wilson is still the best player in women’s basketball.
Clark, arguably the face of the league, was not mentioned at all.
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The conversation around the WNBA has increasingly centered on the “Caitlin Clark Effect.”
Clark moves ratings, social engagement, ticket sales, and sports debate cycles in a way few athletes in North America currently can.
The WNBA has already reached new heights since Clark arrived, capped recently by a new CBA that has sent player salaries soaring.
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Yet even with Clark’s impact, and the Fever being viewed as a potential title contender in 2026, league insiders are still pointing at Wilson as the player everyone else is chasing.
Wilson's 2025 season expanded her legacy even further. She averaged 23.4 points, 10.2 rebounds, 3.1 assists, 2.3 blocks, and 1.6 steals while leading the Aces to another championship run.
She became the first player in league history to record a 30-point, 20-rebound game and later became the first player ever with multiple seasons featuring at least ten 30-point games.
Wilson captured her fourth MVP award in 2025, becoming the first player in WNBA history to do it. She also won Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP while helping Las Vegas secure its third title in four years.
At this point, she’s entering the “Greatest of All Time” conversation, and she’s still just 29 years old and firmly in her prime.
Clark undeniably accelerated the league's visibility and mainstream relevance. She has become a gravitational force for casual fans. Yet Wilson remains the standard inside the sport itself.
Coaches, executives, media voters, and players continue to judge greatness through the lens of total impact, and Wilson's dominance on both ends still separates her from the field.
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This story was originally published May 8, 2026 at 1:25 PM.