It’s officially the last day of the regular season. The WNBA will wrap up 2024 with one team winning it all, but at the same time, individual players will get their due recognition as well. And if popular opinion is anything to go by, the two names that have deserved it most are A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark. However, while ESPN’s Elle Duncan has come to the rookie’s defense time and again, will the 2x MVP outshine her?

There has been no other like the Las Vegas Aces center this year. Just three days ago, Wilson recorded 1000 points in the season, no other W player has ever achieved that feat. Just this stat alone makes her worthy of the MVP award for many, but there was a time when Clark was being considered for it too. And yet, ESPN’s Monica McNutt lays it all out in favor of the LV Aces superstar.

Talking on the ‘Good Game With Sarah Spain’ podcast, McNutt reveals how she read Wilson’s book, ‘Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You’ this summer. “Everything she said to her teammates after the 1000 points could be the next chapters of those books. She has been so true to who she is and authentically herself…to lead by example, to seek out her teammates,” McNutt tells Spain and Duncan.

“We mentioned earlier some of the gaudy stats…but she talks in her book about her mental breakdown post the bubble experience when they came up short as runner-ups. I do think that to be in a space where a multi-time MVP is also a fire human? It should be celebrated and enjoyed,” the ESPN analyst asserts.

McNutt is clear that these two qualities – being a good human and a sportsperson – aren’t mutually exclusive. But the fact that Wilson possesses both says much in her favor. That is not to say that Clark is lacking, the analyst makes sure to clarify. The Fever guard has been bent on breaking every rookie record to ever exist in the league this year and has only heated up after the Olympics break.

On “The Elle Duncan Show” in July, the host picked her favorite, “I would still maybe slightly give the edge to Caitlin….Because she’s going up against that aspect [of being a guard rather than position player] of it, I’ll still probably give the nod to Caitlin Clark for Rookie of the Year, but I think it’s going to be a great race.”

While this is not a singular instance of Duncan supporting the Indiana player, McNutt’s statement certainly makes Wilson out to be the better choice for MVP, which Clark herself has endorsed. And while Duncan is all in for Caitlin Clark, where MVP is concerned in the current W scenario, no one holds a candle to A’ja Wilson.

Elle Duncan on the “egregious” idea that Caitlin Clark could be the MVP over A’ja Wilson

To accomplish the things she has both on and off the court, it doesn’t take much to guess why most of the W community supports Caitlin Clark for ROTY. And for the same reason, 2x MVP A’ja Wilson for another one of those titles. And while Elle Duncan may be team CC all the way, even she can’t deny the Aces star’s power.

“Does she belong in the (MVP) conversation? For our purposes, absolutely. It’s fun,” Duncan said at the beginning of September on her show. “But the idea that in the 11th hour we would try to act like A’ja Wilson did not wrap this thing up and continues to wrap it up and separate herself from the pack is egregious.”

At this point, many are not wondering whether Wilson will win it at all. But whether she will win it unanimously or not. And for all of Caitlin Clark’s achievements, maybe she needs a few more years to catch up to Wilson to even join the MVP race just yet!