Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson, Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart headline All-WNBA First Team
Reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces and the Seattle Storm’s Breanna Stewart were unanimously selected to the 2022 All-WNBA First Team, the league announced Thursday ahead of Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.
It was the third consecutive All-WNBA nod for Wilson, who will seek to deliver the Aces a franchise-first championship with a win Thursday over the Connecticut Sun, and the fifth overall for Stewart.
The Chicago Sky’s Candace Parker, the Aces’ Kelsey Plum and the Phoenix Mercury’s Skylar Diggins-Smith rounded out the first team.
Amid a career year in which Plum also earned her first All-Star bid and won All-Star Game MVP, Plum’s All-WNBA selection is the first of her career. Parker and Diggins-Smith compiled their 10th and sixth All-WNBA honors, respectively. Plum drew 50 of 56 possible first-team votes (and five second-team votes), while Diggins-Smith recorded 21 first-team votes (26 second-team) and Parker collected 24 first-team votes (21 second-team).
The Sun’s Alyssa Thomas and New York Liberty’s Sabrina Ionescu also received the first All-WNBA selections of their careers as members of the second team, joining the Los Angeles Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike (fifth selection), the Sun’s Jonquel Jones (fourth) and — in her final season prior to retirement — Sylvia Fowles of the Minnesota Lynx (eighth selection).
Thomas was the only second-team player to earn at least 20 first-team votes and still end up on the second team. Stewart, Plum, Thomas and Parker finished Nos. 2-5 in MVP voting behind Wilson.
Wilson also took home the 2022 Defensive Player of the Year award this summer, making her the fifth player to win league MVP and DPOY in the same season.
Voting for the All-WNBA teams was conducted in a position-less format for the first time in league history; just three of the 10 players to make either team were listed as guards. Each member of the first team will receive $10,300; and each player to make the second team will receive $5,150.