Perhaps for the first time since its inaugural season, hardcore hoopers and casual fans await the 2025 WNBA season with fervor. The awards and honors have been handed out for 2024, and the biggest winners – Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, and Napheesa Collier, to name a few – did not disappoint. Thanks to them, not only did the league experience increased TV ratings, but there was also a manifold rise in attendance rates and jersey sales and turned into the top-selling business in the entire nation! Sure, a lot of it had to do with Clark, but she does not make up a league of 144 – or 132 active players – alone.
With the WNBA now actively expanding, the three new teams entering by 2026 are going to draft existing pro players as well as college and/or overseas athletes entering the draft. But before any new blood enters or the shuffled players begin anew on new teams, who were the top performers of 2024? Opinions may differ on their ranking but the following 5 definitely dominated the charts!
Arike Ogunbowale and Unrivaled co-founders were unstoppable
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No one can forget the last stretch of the thrilling WNBA Finals as two former UConn Huskies teammates, off-court friends, and business partners fought against each other in a heated battle. One, looking to restore lost glory to her team; the other one, looking to bring hers their first championship ever.
Napheesa Collier, the Defensive Player of the Year, made a brilliant case for MVP as well, averaging 20.4 PPG, 9.7 RBG, and 1.9 SPG. In contrast, Breanna Stewart had 20.4 PPG, 8.5 RBG, and 1.7 STG.
ESPN ranked 4x All-Star Collier at No. 3 in the midseason rankings, and 5th in preseason, but she took the No. 1 spot in the Finals. The MVP-runner-up this year was also the leading scorer in the 2024 playoffs but her absolute defense makes her an all-rounder for the Minnesota Lynx.
Meanwhile, ESPN rated 6x WNBA All-Star Stewie at 2nd in the midseason rankings, 2nd in pre-season as well as before the Finals. Where Phee received 467 votes in the MVP race, Stewart was in third place with 295 points. The New York Liberty star had a slow start to the season after a disappointing 2023 playoffs but she slowly found her game in the second half of the season as her clutch play kicked in during the playoffs.
Another player who reminds us of clutch play is Arike Ogunbowale, aka the 2x All-Star Game MVP and one of the top earners of this year. To think, she was sitting with zero points at half-time and went on to set a WNBA All-Star Game record with 34 points in the next 20 minutes. Of course, she deserved her second All-Star MVP as she also helped lead Team WNBA to a 117-109 win over Team USA.
But it was not just her All-Star Weekend performance that propelled her to this list. The shooting guard has been offensive firepower for the Dallas Wings, almost single-handedly pushing the team for success in Satou Sabally’s absence before the Paris Olympics.
The mid-range guru led the league at the second spot with 22.2 ppg and the most points made (845) right after the reigning league MVP A’ja Wilson. Not just this, she led the league in fast-break points (4 ppg) and steals per game (2.1), only solidifying her name in the league.
These make for three of five. But we already know the top 2 don’t we?
The unending magic of A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark
As stated before, the rankings of these players may be individual because athletes are always considered with different aspects in mind. For some, scoring ability is as important as defense as they look at the individual player. For others, passing and stealing and blocking, not to mention rebounds, make up a great player who is a part of five people on the floor. In all these stats, or at least most of them, A’ja Wilson and Caitlin Clark led the show.
The Las Vegas Aces star as well as the 2024 WNBA MVP, Wilson became the first player to score 1000 points in the regular season this year. Her third MVP, tying her with only three legendary players in the W, Wilson averaged 26.9 PPG, 11.9 RBG, and 1.8 SPG, some of the best stats of her career.
After losing out on the MVP last year despite having a worthy season and winning a second-straight championship, not to mention the 2023 Finals MVP, the Aces forward set work in the offseason, resulting in what ESPN called one of the best MVP seasons in W history. Wilson joined Seattle Storm’s Lauren Jackson (2003) as the only MVP in league history to not play in the Finals.
Every Caitlin Clark record/milestone this season 🤯
(h/t @Curry_Muse) pic.twitter.com/Hrw4cSD0fh
— Clark Report (@CClarkReport) September 20, 2024
But where A’ja Wilson won the contest, followed by Collier and Stewart, finishing fourth was Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark. Also, the AP as well as TIME Athlete of the Year, Clark’s impact on the league in 2024 was singular.
Single-handedly increasing the Indiana Fever viewership and also affecting other teams they played on the road, averaging 1.2 million viewers on ESPN as the league’s most-watched season, Clark’s flurry of broken records proved her worth.
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Not only did she end her time at Iowa by breaking over 46 records and becoming the all-time leading NCAA scorer, men’s or women’s game notwithstanding, but she entered the pro leagues with a bang.
Even if Diana Taurasi’s warning held true and it took her some time to adjust, No. 22 was unstoppable. Not only was CC the first rookie to record a triple-double (which she has two of), but her 122 three-pointers were the second-highest in league history; she was only just a rookie. The Des Moines native truly held her moniker of Iowa’s sensation as she led both the NCAA (8.9) and the WNBA (8.4) in assists.
Ticket prices skyrocketed but so did the league’s popularity. Caitlin Clark was a large part of it but her rivalry with Angel Reese, another star rookie, also played its role.
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It’s like veteran players say – the stage was set and the Fever guard came in at just the correct time. While her inexperience in the pros might not have put her at No. 1 in the Best Player list yet, her journey is just beginning! Who knows, by this time next year, the list could look completely different.
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Is A'ja Wilson the greatest WNBA player of our time, or is there a new contender?
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