For NBA Tuesday today, we move past the Houston Comets dynasty finally into a whole new world of opportunity for the rest of the WNBA franchises. And like the NBA which was funding this adventure, this league also needed its teams in big TV markets to do well, so it should be no surprise to see which team ascended the throne. Alas, we will let you read ahead to find out for yourself. Don’t say you weren’t warned!

2001 WNBA MVP: Lisa Leslie, C, Los Angeles (original); Yolanda Griffith, C/F, Sacramento (revised)

The Los Angeles Sparks posted a 28-4 record, so, naturally, their best player won the MVP vote: center Lisa Leslie (27.7 PER, 7.0 WS). The issue is that Sacramento Monarchs center/forward Yolanda Griffith—the two-time defending MVP in our eyes—led the league in both categories (28.4 PER, 8.4 WS), while playing for a team that was much less talented, finishing eight games behind the Sparks in the Western Conference.

Clearly, Leslie had better teammates, which automatically makes Griffith more valuable. The Monarchs would have made the postseason, probably, with an average player in place of their frontcourt star, but with her, they got the No. 2 seed in the West instead of the No. 4 seed. Meanwhile, with a gap between the Sparks and Monarchs greater than Leslie’s WS mark, it’s clear L.A. would have been fine without its star. Case closed.

2001 WNBA ROTY: Jackie Stiles, G, Portland Fire (original); Lauren Jackson, F/C, Seattle (revised)

Twenty-plus years before Caitlin Clark, there was another college scoring phenom, Jackie Stiles. She set all sorts of scoring records, and then she rode that momentum to the WNBA ROTY vote win here. Injuries shortened her WNBA career, but we digress: did she deserve this trophy? Not really. Stiles (2.8 WS) finished second in straight-up value, behind Seattle Storm F/C Lauren Jackson (4.2). Why did the mediots screw up?

You know how: hyperbole. Both teams finished at the bottom of the Western Conference, so maybe neither of them deserve the award. The fact is that none of the top five rookies, based on Win Shares, helped their team make the postseason when they would not have, otherwise. Thus, Jackson will win this nod based on the top WS mark for a first-year player. At 20 years old, too, the Australian was actually pretty amazing.

2001 WNBA DPOY: Debbie Black, G, Miami (original); Griffith (revised)

Three players topped 2.5 DWS this year, including DPOY vote winner Debbie Black (2.6), a guard for the Miami Sol. The other two players were Griffith (2.7) and Sol F Elena Baranova (2.6). You know what happened next, right? Griffith wins her third straight DPOY nod from us, despite only winning the vote in 1999. Talk about an underrated player … Griffith never got the press toiling away in Sacramento, did she?

2001 WNBA FINALS MVP: Leslie (original, confirmed)

The Sparks won the title with this playoff run: a first-round sweep over the four-time champions from Houston, a Western Conference Finals sneak by Sacramento in three games, and a Finals sweep of the Charlotte Sting. Los Angeles went 6-1 in the postseason to cap its dream season, so who gets our nod for the playoff MVP? Well, Leslie posted .322 WS/48 in the postseason, which was a lot better than her closest peer.

She posted 22.3 ppg, 12.3 rpg, 4.4 bpg, 3.0 apg, and 1.7 along the way—which is an awesomely well-rounded effort. Leslie definitely deserves this award, even if we took the MVP award away from her. As we have said many times, these processes have a way of evening themselves out in the long run. Mark it down.