Women's National Basketball Association award
TheWomen's National Basketball Association's Rookie of the Year Award is an annualWomen's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the1998 WNBA season , to the toprookie of the regular season. The winner is selected by a panel of sportswriters throughout the United States, each of whom casts a vote for first, second and third place selections. Each first-place vote is worth five points; each second-place vote is worth three points; and each third-place vote is worth one point. The player(s) with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.
The 2003 award winnerCheryl Ford and 2011 award winnerMaya Moore are the only players to win both the WNBA Rookie of the Year award and a WNBA championship in the same season.
The 2008 award winner wasCandace Parker who became the first player to win the award after garnering all possible votes and also the first player to win theWNBA Most Valuable Player Award in the same season. In theNBA , onlyWilt Chamberlain andWes Unseld have won the Most Valuable Player Award and Rookie of the Year Award in the same season.
The 2020 award winner,Crystal Dangerfield , is the first who was not chosen in the first round of the draft; she was chosen in the second round in2020 as the 16th overall pick.
As of 2019, eight Rookie of the Year recipients have gone on to become a member of a WNBA championship team.
Awards Teams Years 5 Minnesota Lynx 2000 ,2006 ,2011 ,2019 ,2020 3 Indiana Fever 2002 ,2023 ,2024 Dallas Wings /Tulsa Shock /Detroit Shock 2003 (as Detroit)2017 ,2025 (as Dallas)2 Washington Mystics 1999 ,2005 Chicago Sky 2007 ,2013 Los Angeles Sparks 2008 ,2012 Atlanta Dream 2009 ,2022 Connecticut Sun /Orlando Miracle 2010 ,2014 (as Connecticut)Seattle Storm 2015 ,2016 1 Charlotte Sting 1998 Portland Fire 2001 Phoenix Mercury 2004 Las Vegas Aces /San Antonio Stars /San Antonio Silver Stars /Utah Starzz 2018 (as Las Vegas)New York Liberty 2021 0 Cleveland Rockers N/A Houston Comets Miami Sol Sacramento Monarchs
^ "Forward was Rookie of the Year in 1998" .ESPN . March 1, 2005. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Holdsclaw Wins Rookie Award" .CBS News . August 28, 1999. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Lennox dominates Rookie voting" .ESPN . Associated Press. August 17, 2000. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Stiles Named 2001 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . August 16, 2001. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Indiana's Catchings Wins 2002 Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . August 16, 2002. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Detroit's Ford Named Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . August 31, 2003. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Phoenix's Diana Taurasi Named 2004 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . September 27, 2004. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Washington's Temeka Johnson Named 2005 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . September 14, 2005. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Seimone Augustus Named 2006 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Chicago's Armintie Price Named 2007 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . September 8, 2007. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "Los Angeles Sparks' Candace Parker Named Hanns-G 'Go Beyond' Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . October 3, 2008. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "McCoughtry is WNBA's top rookie" .ESPN . Associated Press. October 2, 2009. RetrievedOctober 22, 2024 .^ "The Connecticut Sun's Tina Charles Named 2010 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . August 30, 2010. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Minnesota Lynx Forward Maya Moore Named 2011 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . September 16, 2011. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Los Angeles Sparks Forward Nneka Ogwumike Named 2012 WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . October 8, 2012. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Nneka Ogwumike, Glory Johnson Headline 2012 All-Rookie Team" . WNBA. Retrieved7 Oct 2012 .^ "Sky's Delle Donne named WNBA's Rookie of Year" .The San Diego Union-Tribune . September 20, 2013. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Chiney Ogwumike is rookie of year" .ESPN . Associated Press. August 28, 2014. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Seattle Storm's Jewell Loyd named WNBA Rookie of the Year" .Sports Illustrated . September 24, 2015. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Breanna Stewart Named 2016 WNBA Rookie of the Year Presented By Samsung" .WNBA . September 29, 2016. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Dallas' Allisha Gray Named 2017 WNBA Rookie Of The Year" .WNBA . September 19, 2017. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ Voepel, Michael (September 9, 2018)."A'ja Wilson unanimous choice for WNBA Rookie of the Year" .ESPN . RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ Voepel, Michael (September 16, 2019)."Lynx's Collier named WNBA Rookie of the Year" .ESPN . RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "Crystal Dangerfield Named WNBA Rookie Of The Year" .WNBA . September 17, 2020. RetrievedSeptember 27, 2024 .^ "New York Liberty's Michaela Onyenwere Named 2021 Kia WNBA Rookie Of The Year" .wnba.com . WNBA. October 5, 2021. RetrievedOctober 6, 2021 .^ "Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard Named 2022 Kia Rookie of the Year" .wnba.com (Press release). WNBA. August 25, 2022. RetrievedAugust 25, 2022 .^ "Indiana Fever's Aliyah Boston Named 2023 Kia WNBA Rookie of the Year" .WNBA . October 2, 2023.^ Voepel, Michael (October 3, 2024)."Caitlin Clark wins WNBA Rookie of the Year honors" .ESPN .^ Voepel, Michael (September 16, 2025)."Paige Bueckers nearly unanimous winner of WNBA Rookie of the Year" .ESPN . RetrievedSeptember 16, 2025 .
Teams
Annual events Statistics Other Arenas Attendance Awards Coaches Defunct teams Expansion draft history LiveAccess MVP NBA Media (ABC ,ESPN ,CBS ,Prime Video ,Current broadcasters ,All-Star Game broadcasters ,Finals broadcasters ) Players (Current rosters ,Foreign players )Rookie of the Year Teams (All-Decade Team ,Top 15 Team ,Top 20 Team ,Top 25 Team ) WNBA Players Association