Becky Hammon Calls Out ESPN For A'ja Wilson and Sabrina Ionescu Snub
Despite not playing their four best players, the Las Vegas won their final game of the season against the Dallas Wings on Thursday, 98-84.
This cements the Aces as the No. 4 seed in the WNBA playoffs, and they will be facing the Seattle Storm in the first round on Sunday.
Yet, Aces head coach Becky Hammon was more keen to talk about ESPN disrespecting A'ja Wilson after the game than her team's performance.
At one point in her postgame press conference, Hammon halted questions being asked her way and said to an ESPN reporter, "I have a question for you... I know you work with ESPN... A'ja Wilson — they got the MVP stuff right — the Defensive Player of the Year? If you have to, as a journalist or a reporter, have to go down a rabbit hole to find somebody else to be in the conversation, you already have the answer to all your questions," per X user @NekiasNBA.
Hammon is referring to a September 17 ESPN article that listed their final individual award rankings for the WNBA.
While ESPN gave Wilson the MVP award, they gave Defensive Player of the Year to Lynx forward Napheesa Collier. Yet, when explaining their rationale, they offered Wilson a lot of praise and their argument for Collier ended up being based on her ability to guard multiple defenders.
Hammon went on saying that New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu deserves All-WNBA First-Team honors, which ESPN didn't give her.
"Some of that stuff just doesn't make sense," Hammon added of ESPN's rankings. "So I'm just wondering, as a reporter... I don't read [the rankings], my assistants told me. I was like 'You just put me in a bad mood.'"
aaaand here we go https://t.co/49Pb1axR3I pic.twitter.com/HocR1zUU3r
— Nekias (Nuh-KY-us) Duncan (@NekiasNBA) September 20, 2024
Much respect for Hammon giving this ESPN reporter a piece of her mind not only on Wilson's behalf, but also for Ionescu.
GRANT YOUNG
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.