CHICAGO — Halfway through the third quarter of the Dream’s 86-65 win over the Sky on Thursday, Chicago’s Kamilla Cardoso missed a layup. Atlanta’s Allisha Gray streaked down the court, ready for teammate Jordin Canada to get her the ball. Gray flew over Chicago’s Kia Nurse, drawing a foul and making the shot, then made her free throw.
These are the kind of plays Gray has been making all season long, putting her in the conversation for this season’s WNBA MVP award. During the Dream’s win over the Mystics on Sunday, fans at the Gateway Center in Atlanta started chanting “MVP” as Gray was at the free throw line.
“It's kind of cool that people pay attention to me and think I deserve to be in the running for it. I mean, it's nothing I ever planned, but it's cool to get the recognition,” Gray told Yahoo Sports Thursday night.
While Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier has a commanding lead in the MVP race despite her recent injury, it’s hard to deny what Gray has accomplished on the court this season. She’s averaging a career-high 18.9 points per game, ranked sixth in the WNBA. The win over Chicago was her eighth 25-plus-point game this season. Her consistency is impressive as she’s had just one game this season where she didn’t score in double digits.
“She's been great for us all year, on both sides of the ball. She's been a very efficient scorer, a very willing passer,” Dream coach Karl Smesko said. “She competes on the defensive end. She is a great rebounder for a guard, so everything that you could want in a player, she's been this year.”
Gray has long had the skill to be one of the league’s best players, but her growth in Atlanta got a boost in the offseason when the team signed Brittney Griner and Brionna Jones. Both women are multi-time All-Stars and attract plenty of attention from defenders in the paint, and know when to kick the ball out to Gray on the perimeter.
“It's amazing. They're two of the top post players in the league,” Gray said. “But not only are they great scorers, they’re also great passers. They have a high IQ when they’re doubled, they know to pass it out. They never force up bad shots. So I think that's what makes it great to play with them.”
Gray was drafted fourth overall out of South Carolina by the Dallas Wings in 2017 and earned Rookie of the Year honors. She played well in Dallas for six seasons, but her career didn’t truly take off until she was traded to Atlanta before the 2023 season. With the Dream, Gray has been an All-Star for three straight seasons.
Her arrival helped make the Dream a playoff team for the past two seasons, but they were bounced in the first round both times. This year, with a new coach in Smesko and the revamped roster, Gray’s play has helped make the Dream one of the best teams in the league. After Thursday’s win over Chicago, the Dream's 19-11 record has them in third place in the league’s standings. The top four teams earn home-court advantage in the playoffs, and the Dream own the league's easiest remaining schedule by opponent winning percentage.
Another reason Gray has found comfort in Atlanta is the friendship she developed with teammates Naz Hillmon and Rhyne Howard. They were drafted to Atlanta in 2022, with Howard winning Rookie of the Year that year. When Gray arrived in 2023, the trio pushed each other to be better, on and off the court.
“It makes it easier, because we not only have chemistry off the court, it makes it easier for the chemistry on the court," Gray said. "So it's just great to have them too, as best friends. They make my job a lot easier."
Though Howard is currently missing games with a knee injury, she has been an All-Star in three of her four seasons, and helped the U.S. 3x3 team win bronze at the 2024 Olympics. With Brittney Griner dealing with a neck injury, Hillmon has been asked to start more this season and has risen to the challenge.
But this season, it’s Gray who is turning heads, and her teammates are thrilled to see it. Hillmon said she was thinking earlier this week about how Gray is able to do so much on the court by sticking to the fundamentals, and that she definitely belongs in the MVP discussion.
“There's no fluff. There's no fake about it. She works so hard to get what she does. So I just think that she definitely should be in that [discussion]," Hillmon said. "But it's not just her scoring, like the attention that she draws so her teammates could be open. Her passing has gotten better, defensively, she's been an All-Star for our team. So I just think she does a little bit of everything that will put her in [the MVP race.]”
Gray said she knew she had this kind of season in her, and now everything has come together.
“I always knew I could," she said. "Each year, I continue to improve in a lot of statistical categories, so I always believed in myself that I could play to this level.”
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