Our NBA Tuesday miniseries analyzing the past seasons of the WNBA continues today with a glance at the league’s third season, when the Houston Comets matched the Chicago Bulls for 1990s dominance with a three-peat championship run of their own. But how would this affect the top awards for the WNBA? Well, that’s why we’re here: to examine and finalize those votes and make sure posterity knows what was what!

1999 WNBA MVP: Yolanda Griffith, F/C, Sacramento (original, confirmed)

When the ABL folded in Fall 1998, mostly due to the NBA’s financial backing of the WNBA which the ABL didn’t have, its stars all ended up in the surviving league—including Sacramento Monarchs front court star Yolanda Griffith (PER 31.9, 8.1 WS). She won the MVP vote, but it could have easily gone to Houston Comets guard Cynthia Cooper (9.2 WS, 29.5 PER) as well. This becomes a debate for us, finally, in this space.

However, the deciding factor comes in the form of Comets wing Sheryl Swoopes (28.9 PER, 8.1 WS), one of the more dynamic players ever. She was third in both sabermetric categories, so Cooper had a lot more support than Griffith did, as no other Monarchs player was in the Top 10 for either statistical measurement. As a result, the Comets won 26 games, while Sacramento won just 19 games. Clearly, Griffith had more value.

Her traditional numbers: 18.8 ppg, 11.3 rpg, 2.5 spg, and 1.9 bpg. Without her, the Monarchs probably would not have made the postseason, which featured six teams this season (see below). Three teams tied for the final two playoff berths with 15-win seasons, so Sacramento was close to that dark abyss—much more so than the Comets were with Cooper and Swoopes doing a lot of damage. We confirm this vote, obviously.

1999 WNBA ROTY: Chamique Holdsclaw, F, Washington (original); Nykesha Sales, G/F, Orlando (revised)

There was a two-horse race, sabermetrically, for the ROTY hardware, won by Washington Mystics forward Chamique Holdsclaw (3.1 WS). However, Orlando Miracle wing Nykesha Sales (3.8 WS) also deserves a lot of consideration, despite finishing way behind Holdsclaw in the vote. This was one of the first indications that WNBA voters were clueless, just going with a “popular name” when filling out the ballot. Sound familiar?

Not only did Sales earn more sabermetric value, but her team also finished three games ahead of Holdsclaw’s team in the standings, missing out on the postseason due to a tiebreaker. Finally, the Mystics were not an expansion team like the Miracle, either; that says something there, too. Yet Holdsclaw had been everyone’s overrated college-ball media darling from her time at Tennessee with the Lady Volunteers, so …

1999 WNBA DPOY: Griffith (original, confirmed)

Griffith won the DOPY vote, and her listed numbers above tell a lot of the story; her 2.8 Defensive Win Shares were second in the league, however, trailing Swoopes’ 3.1 DWS mark. No one else posted above 2.2 DWS for the season, so what were Swoopes’ counting stats? Well, she put up 4.8 defensive boards per game, plus 2.4 spg and 1.4 bpg. Griffith brought 6.5 defensive boards to the table, as might be expected for her role.

And that’s what makes Swoopes so intriguing: she was a wing player, but she was very athletic. Her steals and blocks just about matched those of Griffith, who was stealing a lot of balls for a front court player. It’s hard to separate the two here, really. But looking at the team rosters can help, keeping in mind that Houston finished 7 wins ahead of Sacramento in the Western Conference standings. That always matters.

The Monarchs had four players post between 1.1 and 1.9 DWS, so that’s a starting lineup full of positive defenders. Yet the Comets had five pplayers manage between 1.1 and 2.0 DWS, so while Swoopes was individually better than Griffith in terms of value, her team was also significantly better on defense—and all around. This brings us back to the thought that without Griffith, maybe Sacramento misses the playoffs.

1999 WNBA FINALS MVP: Cynthia Cooper, G, Houston (original, confirmed)

The league added a one-game, wild-card round for each conference, followed by the same best-of-three semifinals and finals as it had the prior season. The Comets won their third straight title, after sweeping the Los Angeles Sparks in the semis and beating the New York Liberty in three games. It’s hard to choose anyone but Cooper here, for the the third time in a row: 20.3 ppg, 6.8 apg, 4.3 rpg, 1.5 spg, and even 1.0 bpg.

She topped the team in postseason scoring, passing, and minutes played. She was a legendary workhorse, still, at age 36. We should all remember her as the ultimate symbol of women’s professional basketball, winning this award three times in a row.