The WNBA began announcing its award winners earlier this week, with A’ja Wilson winning her third MVP award after a dominant, record-breaking season in Las Vegas and DiJonai Carrington taking home Most Improved Player after a terrific season in Connecticut.
That left two major awards still left to be announced, as Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year honors were yet to be officially handed out. However, on Friday, we learned who would win those two awards early after the WNBPA spoiled the ROY and DPOY announcements in a statement condemning USA Today writer Christine Brennan over her questioning of Carrington after accidentally poking Caitlin Clark in the eye in Game 1 of their first round series. In that statement, the WNBPA opened by saying the focus this week was supposed to be “celebrating and amplifying A’ja, Caitlin, DiJonai, and Napheesa for their hard work and truly exceptional performances all season long.” That list of names seemed to indicate that Clark had won Rookie of the Year (as anticipated), while Napheesa Collier was the DPOY.
Sure enough, Shams Charania confirmed those two were the winners of those awards shortly after. The tight window of the Best-of-3 first round series makes the awards announcements a bit tricky for the WNBA, as the Fever were bounced in two games by the Sun meaning Clark didn’t have an opportunity to accept the award at home in front of the Indiana crowd. Collier, one would expect, will be presented with the DPOY trophy at the start of the second round on Sunday in Minnesota, as Wilson was before Game 1 of the Aces first round series against the Storm and Carrington was before Game 2 against the Fever. By having to announce awards across two series, you open the door for the winners to get leaked, but it coming from the players association probably wasn’t what anyone expected.