NBA Tuesday moves ahead to the 2004 WNBA season, which was an odd one: only two teams won more than 18 games in the 34-game season, which means there was a lot of parity here. Overall, eight teams finished with 16-18 victories in the 13-team league. In fact, ten franchises ended up with 15-20 wins on the year, which means every little moment counted, really, even if a ridiculous eight teams made the playoffs.

2004 WNBA MVP: Lisa Leslie, C, Los Angeles (original); Yolanda Griffith, C-F, Sacramento (revised)

Center Lisa Leslie of the Los Angeles Sparks won the MVP vote (for the second time), despite finishing fourth in both PER (25.3) and WS (6.8). We’re not sure why this happened, even with the Sparks posting a 25-9 record to top the league. They finished way above the .500 fray explained above, while the best player in the league was Sacramento Monarchs center-forward Yolanda Griffith (28.8 PER, 8.0 WS), again.

In fact, Seattle Storm F-C Lauren Jackson (28.0, 7.9) and Indiana Fever F Tamika Catchings (26.3, 7.2) also finished better than Leslie did in the sabermetric-value charts. When we look at the team records, the Fever missed the postseason with a 15-19 record, so Catchings—our winner in 2002—is out. With Seattle winning 20 times and Sacramento winning just 18 times, it’s clear that Griffiths meant the most to her team’s success.

This is Griffith’s fourth MVP nod from us, although Jackson did win it last year. Sadly, in real life, Griffith only won this hardware once (1999), as the voting in the WNBA seems to be pretty bad in terms of recognizing true value instead of just rewarding popularity. Leslie has won two MVP votes so far, but she played on good teams and never had to carry a true MVP load like the other three candidates this year.

2004 WNBA ROTY: Diana Taurasi, G, Phoenix (original); Nicole Ohlde, F-C, Minnesota (revised)

Long before there was Caitlin Clark, there was Diana Taurasi—winning three NCAA titles and proving a lot more valuable than Clark (3.0 WS this year as a rookie) during her first year in the WNBA. In fact, three different rookies during this season were better than Clark was this year: Taurasi (4.7 WS), Minnesota Lynx F-C Nicole Ohlde (3.9), and Washington Mystics G-F Alana Beard (3.3) all brought better value than Clark.

So, don’t believe the hyperbole. But we digress! Phoenix missed the playoffs, despite Taurasi’s awesomeness, finishing 17-17, while the Mystics made the postseason with that same record. The Lynx posted an 18-16 record to tie with the Monarchs for the final playoff berths in the Western Conference, one game ahead of Phoenix. So, do we go with Ohlde or Beard? We’re going with Ohlde, by a sabermetric sliver.

2004 WNBA DPOY: Leslie (original, confirmed)

With 3.7 DWS, Leslie topped the league by 1.3 DWS and won her first DPOY vote. We gave her the DPOY hardware in 2002 already, but even with her team being so good, she was over 50 percent better than the next-best defensive player in the league (Griffith). In the end, we are never going to ignore that kind of edge.

2004 WNBA FINALS MVP: Betty Lennox, G, Seattle (original); Lauren Jackson, F-C, Seattle (revised)

Despite the 25 wins, the Sparks lost in the first round to the Monarchs, who then lost in the Western Conference Finals to the Storm, who then won their first WNBA title in a three-game Finals against the Connecticut Sun. Jackson was, by far, the dominant player for Seattle, posting 2.5 WS in the playoffs, more than double the next two players combined: 19.6 ppg, 7.5 rpg, 1.1 bpg, and 1.0 spg over 8 postseason games.

Somehow, Storm G Betty Lennox (1.1 WS) won the vote. That’s kind of insulting to Jackson, really.