Former LSU Lady Tiger and Minnesota Lynx center Sylvia Fowles was selected as the WNBA Most Valuable Player on Thursday.
“I said I was not going to tear up, but it is just a proud moment for me,” Fowles said when accepting the award at a WNBA press conference. “All my hard work over the past ten years has finally paid off.”
Fowles was chosen as MVP by a select panel of 40 sportswriters and national broadcaster. Fowles received 35 first place votes and five second place votes, winning in a landslide. The award comes with a $15,000 bonus.
Fowles is the first LSU player to win MVP, but fellow Lady Tigers Seimone Augustus and Temeka Johnson were selected as WNBA Rookie of the Year in 2005 and 2006. Fowles has previously won WNBA Defensive Player of the Year in 2011, 2013, and 2016. She was also selected as the WNBA Finals MVP in 2015.
Fowles posted career-highs in three statistical categories with a 65.5 field goal percentage, 123 total offensive rebounds, and 52 total assists. This season, Fowles finished fifth in the WNBA in scoring with 18.9 points per game, second in rebounding 10.4 rebounds and tied for second in blocked shots 1.97 blocks per game.
Her 65.5 field goal percentage led the WNBA, and is the fifth time that she has led the WNBA in field goal percentage. No other player has led the league more than twice.
“We’ve seen tears, we’ve seen blood, we’ve seen everything,” Augustus said in an interview with the Minnesota Star-Tribune. “And all she does is come back stronger. That says a lot.”
At LSU, Fowles ended her career in 2008 as the school’s all-time leader in rebounds, blocks, field goals made, and field goals attempted. She was selected SEC Player of the Year and National Defensive Player of the Year in 2008, and was mentioned on the AP All-American team in each season at LSU before making first team in her final season.
Her jersey will be retired in the Pete Maravich Assembly Center during the 2017-2018 season. She will be just the 12th LSU athlete or coach to get their number retired by the university and just the second in women’s basketball.
“That is still surreal,” Fowles said in an interview on SportsCenter after accepting MVP. “I think once I get there and see the jersey hanging up, that is when it will become reality. It just shows that all my hard work is paying off. I feel blessed to have my jersey retired next to Seimone’s.”
Internationally, Fowles has represented the US National team since 2007. She played on the 2008, 2012, and 2016 Olympic teams which all won gold.
Off the court, Fowles has been involved in several charity organizations. The Sylvia Fowles Family Fund helps youth and families in Baton Rouge and Fowles’ hometown of Miami. She is also a spokesperson for CURE: Citizens United for Research in Epilepsy.
Along with many well-wishers from across the WNBA, Fowles received congratulations from many former teammates and players.
Johnson tweeted that the decision to award Fowles MVP was well deserved and that she was super proud.
“No one is more deserving of the award,” Fowles’ former AAU team, the Miami Suns, posted to Instagram, “Fowles is an MVP in life and on the court.”
The biggest praise for Fowles came from her former coach and Texas A&M assistant coach Bob Starkey, who was an assistant at LSU from 1998-2011 and interim coach during the 2007 Final Four.
“Her heart is even bigger than her game,” Starkey said, “that is pretty big.”
