It’s more revisionist history on NBA Tuesday as we continue with our WNBA equity miniseries. As you will see below, a truly dominant rookie for the Indiana Fever deserved to win a lot of praise at the time—but was overlooked for marketing reasons when it came to picking the top dog in the league. We really can’t expect the WNBA to be any better than the NBA when it comes to contrived publicity, but we had high(er) hopes.

2002 WNBA MVP: Sheryl Swoopes, F/G, Houston (original); Tamika Catchings, F, Indiana Fever (revised)

After missing the 2001 season with an injury, Houston Comets star Sheryl Swoopes (7.1 Win Shares) won the MVP vote—when perhaps she should just have won a Comeback Player of the Year nod instead. She finished a distant second to rookie forward Tamika Catchings (9.2) of the Indiana Fever—who clinched the last playoff spot in the Eastern Conference via tiebreak. Swoopes’ team finished 8 games higher.

We get sentimental votes, but in looking at the Top 10 for Win Shares, there’s another Comets player on that list—and no other Fever player. Catchings also topped the league in PER (30.9), while Swoopes finished third. This vote was just terrible, and it also shows us something about how overrated Caitlin Clark is today with her 3.0 WS mark in 40 games; Catchings posted 9.2 WS in just 32 games. Let that sink in for a moment.

2002 WNBA ROTY: Catchings (original, confirmed)

We’re going to use this space to confirm Catchings’ dominance as a rookie, in comparison to Clark’s ineffectiveness: both the 2024 Fever and the 2002 Fever finished with .500 records, and Catchings’ PER (30.9) was also vastly superior to Clark’s PER (18.8). A reminder again that Clark finished third on her own team in Win Shares and second on her team in PER. Why does everyone think Clark is something special?

2002 WNBA DPOY: Swoopes (original); Lisa Leslie, C, Los Angeles (revised)

This award, which went to Swoopes and her 3.8 DWS mark, comes down to two players, the other one being Los Angeles Sparks center Lisa Leslie (3.3 DWS). L.A. finished one game ahead of Houston in the standings, so we’re inclined to confirm Swoopes’ award for being the better defender on a team that “needed it” more. But the Comets had two other players in the DWS Top 5, while the Sparks had the No. 7 DWS player.

That means Leslie should get this nod, since she had less defensive support around her—and L.A. did finish one game ahead in the standings. That’s just the way the cookies crumble, folks. We always loved Swoopes for a variety of reasons, but the sabermetrics just haven’t been in her favor for all these award vote wins.

2002 WNBA FINALS MVP: Leslie (original, confirmed)

The Los Angeles Sparks went 6-0 in the playoffs to win their second straight league title, and Leslie once again will take the honors here, after topping her team in both postseason Win Shares (1.7) and PER (24.0). She posted 19.3 ppg, 7.8 rpg, and 2.8 bpg in the process. It must have thrilled the NBA to get titles to both L.A. teams in the same year, as well, for two consecutive years. The WNBA has been “guided” well, eh?