Aces' A'ja Wilson: 'It Hurt Like Hell' to Lose 2023 WNBA MVP to Breanna Stewart

Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson said that not winning this year's MVP award, which went to the New York Liberty's Breanna Stewart, "hurt like hell."

"It hurt like hell, it really did," Wilson said regarding falling short in the MVP voting, per Doug Feinberg of the Associated Press. "But it's all part of the game."

Stewart barely beat out second-place Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun and Wilson, who took third. The Liberty star amassed 446 total points to Thomas' 439 and Wilson's 433.

Meredith Cash of Business Insider relayed the results.

Wilson, who won the MVP awards in 2020 and 2022, finished third despite leading the WNBA in win shares per 40 minutes (.338) and player efficiency rating (32.9), per Basketball-Reference.

The ex-South Carolina star also played all 40 games for the 34-6 Aces, who finished first in the regular season by two games over the Liberty. For the season, she dropped 22.8 points on 55.7 percent shooting, 9.5 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.4 steals per game.

It was undoubtedly a tough loss for Wilson, but she and the Aces have bigger tasks at hand with the team searching for back-to-back titles.

They just kicked off a semifinal series against the Dallas Wings with an emphatic 97-83 win, and Wilson noted that leading her team right now is the "main focus."

"It hurts across the board," Wilson said about her third-place finish in voting, "but at the end of the day, I'm not going to harp on it very long because we have a competitive team to play against in Dallas, and that's my main focus. (Coach) Becky (Hammon) called me, and I was like, 'Give me 24 hours and I'm here.'"

Game 2 of the best-of-five series tips off at 10 p.m. ET on Tuesday in Las Vegas.