A’ja Wilson and Alanna Smith split the 2025 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, a first-ever tie that reshapes the league’s defensive hierarchy.
Voters delivered a landmark verdict and split the hardware between two dominant stoppers. Each player drew 29 of the 72 media votes, and the league acknowledged history. The duo will each collect $5,150 and a commemorative trophy, but the real prize sits in the record book: the first shared Defensive Player of the Year honor the WNBA has ever seen.
Wilson keeps stacking chapters in an already towering legacy. The Las Vegas Aces star claimed her third DPOY in four seasons, adding 2025 to a run that includes 2022 and 2023. She now ties Sheryl Swoopes for the third-most awards in the category. Ahead of her, Tamika Catchings still sets the bar with five, and Sylvia Fowles follows with four. The company tells the story. Wilson belongs at the heart of the league’s all-time defensive elite.
Her two-way dominance fueled the case. Wilson led the league in points (23.4) and blocks, a rare blend of firepower and rim deterrence that headlined another assertive campaign. She met scorers at the summit. She erased possessions. She controlled tempo by controlling space. When a star leads the scoring chart and the shot-denial column, the trophy tends to follow.
Smith matched that standard with relentless timing and versatility for Minnesota. She swallowed angles, switched with purpose, and closed windows before opponents recognized them. The award marks her first DPOY, and it plants her squarely among the league’s defensive pillars. Smith also becomes the third Lynx player to capture the honor, joining Sylvia Fowles and teammate Napheesa Collier. That lineage reflects a franchise that values and sustains defense at the highest level.
The Lynx also etched a milestone that speaks to organizational depth. Minnesota stands as the first WNBA franchise to produce two different Defensive Player of the Year winners in consecutive seasons. Different names, same identity. The legacy of Fowles carries forward, and Smith’s rise signals fresh muscle inside a proven system.
The ballot told a tight, competitive story beyond the tie at the top. Seattle’s Gabby Williams finished second with nine votes after a season of pressure-packed stops on the perimeter. Phoenix’s Alyssa Thomas placed third with three votes, bringing bruising physicality and nonstop reads to every possession. Collier landed fourth with two votes, extending Minnesota’s defensive footprint across the floor. The spread underscored a season where elite defenders kept pushing each other.
Two winners don’t muddy the picture; they clarify it. This season demanded multiple answers for multiple problems, and Wilson and Smith delivered them. One guards the paint with star gravity and timing. The other erases space with mobility and smarts. Coaches now game-plan for two definitive standards, not one, and opponents must choose which brand of resistance they want to challenge.
For Wilson, legacy talk only grows louder. She now sits tied with Swoopes as she chases Fowles and the all-time mark held by Catchings. The path remains steep, but Wilson’s pace suggests she will keep knocking on that door. Every possession she disrupts brings the conversation closer.
For Smith and the Lynx, the accolade reinforces a blueprint that wins in any arena. Minnesota leans into connected defense, and Smith’s honor validates that structure. Different years, different faces, same edge. The league’s first shared DPOY didn’t split the narrative. It doubled it, and it amplified the message that defense still defines champions.