Caitlin Clark not in top 3 of ex-WNBA All-Star’s MVP ballot for 2024 season

Rookie Caitlin Clark is not in the top 3 of Rebecca Lobo’s WNBA MVP ballot. — Photos from Indiana Fever and Rebecca Lobo X pages)

Former WNBA All-Star Rebecca Lobo recognized the impressive season that Caitlin Clark has had. The Indiana Fever rookie sensation, however, failed to land in the top 3 in the MVP race of the now-basketball analyst.

Lobo, who was a UConn star and played six seasons in the WNBA, took to X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday to share her 2024 WNBA MVP ballot as the regular season winds up. She had A’ja Wilson of the two-time defending champions Las Vegas Aces on top of the heap, followed by Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx and Breanna Stewart of the New York Liberty.

Caitlin Clark wound up at No. 4 in Lobo’s list with Nneka Ogwumike of the Seattle Storm narrowly edging Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun for the No. 5 spot.

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Check out Lobo’s WNBA MVP ballot post below:

Lobo did not elaborate on how she came up with her list but there was no denying that apart from the numbers, team success played a factor in her choices. The three players ahead of Caitlin Clark in the list are part of teams in the top 4 in the standings ahead of the Fever, who are in sixth place.

Just the same, Clark has had one of the best rookie seasons in WNBA history, playing in all of their 40 regular season games and helping her team to a 20-20 record while averaging 19.2 points, 8.4 assists (league-high), 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals. She shot 41.7% from the field, 34.3% from deep and 90.5% from the free throw line.

More importantly, Clark and the Fever are heading back to the playoffs for the first time since 2016.

Sue Bird believes Caitlin Clark is WNBA rookie of the year

While Caitlin Clark’s placing in the WNBA MVP race is up for debate, for basketball legend Sue Bird, the Indiana Fever guard is no doubt the league’s rookie of the year.

The four-time WNBA champion shared her thoughts on the matter in the fifth episode of her ‘A Touch More’ podcast, which was uploaded on Sept. 5, highlighting, by and large, the consistency that Clark has shown throughout the season, particularly after the All-Star and Olympic break.

Bird said:

“I personally, ever since All-Star break, have felt that Caitlin was the rookie of the year. She has since just continued to prove that.”

Check out what she had to say below, beginning at 2:24:

Selected first overall in this year’s WNBA rookie draft, Caitlin Clark balled all throughout the regular season, finishing with averages of 19.2 points, 8.4 assists (league-high), 5.7 rebounds and 1.3 steals while shooting 41.7% from the field, 34.3% from three and 90.5% from the free throw line. This was apart from setting new rookie records in points made, assists and three-points made.

She was a key moving piece for the Fever (20-20) as they fought from a 1-8 start to the season to making the playoffs for the first time in eight years.

For the season, Clark was in a competitive race for Rookie of The Year with Chicago Sky double-double machine Angel Reese.