The Kim Perrot Sportsmanship Award is an annual Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) award given since the league's inaugural 1997 season, to the player who most "exemplifies the ideals of sportsmanship on the court—ethical behavior, fair play and integrity." This is the same criterion used by the analogous NBA Sportsmanship Award, given by the NBA since its 1995–96 season.
Every year, each of the WNBA teams nominates one of its players to compete for this award. From these nominees, a panel of sportswriters and broadcasters vote for first and second place winners. First-place selections receive two votes, while second-place selections receive one. The player with the highest point total, regardless of the number of first-place votes, wins the award.
Since the 2000 WNBA season, the award is named for the late Kim Perrot, who helped guide the Houston Comets to their first two WNBA championships before she died in August, 1999, after suffering from cancer for seven months.
Nneka Ogwumike has won the award the most times, with four selections.
Winners Denotes player who is still active in the WNBA Inducted into the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame Inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of FamePlayer (X)Denotes the number of times the player has wonTeam (X)Denotes the number of times a player from this team has won
Season Player Position Nationality Team 1997 Zheng Haixia Center Los Angeles Sparks 1998 Suzie McConnell Serio Guard Cleveland Rockers 1999 Dawn Staley Guard Charlotte Sting 2000 Suzie McConnell Serio (2) Guard Cleveland Rockers (2) 2001 Sue Wicks Forward New York Liberty 2002 Jennifer Gillom Forward / Center Phoenix Mercury 2003 Edna Campbell Guard Sacramento Monarchs 2004 Teresa Edwards Guard Minnesota Lynx 2005 Taj McWilliams-Franklin Forward / Center Connecticut Sun 2006 Dawn Staley (2) Guard Houston Comets 2007 Tully Bevilaqua Guard Indiana Fever 2008 Vickie Johnson Guard / Forward San Antonio Silver Stars 2009 Kara Lawson Guard Sacramento Monarchs (2) 2010 Tamika Catchings Forward Indiana Fever (2) 2011 Sue Bird Guard Seattle Storm Ruth Riley Center San Antonio Silver Stars (2) 2012 Kara Lawson (2) Guard Connecticut Sun (2)2013 Swin Cash Forward Chicago Sky Tamika Catchings (2) Forward Indiana Fever (3) 2014 Becky Hammon Guard San Antonio Stars (3) 2015 DeLisha Milton-Jones Forward Atlanta Dream 2016 Tamika Catchings (3) Forward Indiana Fever (4) 2017 Sue Bird (2) Guard Seattle Storm (2) 2018 Sue Bird (3) Guard Seattle Storm (3) 2019 Nneka Ogwumike Forward Los Angeles Sparks (2) 2020 Nneka Ogwumike (2) Forward Los Angeles Sparks (3) 2021 Nneka Ogwumike (3) Forward Los Angeles Sparks (4) 2022 Sylvia Fowles Center Minnesota Lynx (2) 2023 Elizabeth Williams Center Chicago Sky (2) 2024 Dearica Hamby Forward Los Angeles Sparks (5) 2025 Nneka Ogwumike (4) Forward Seattle Storm (4) Notes Denotes a player who is a United States citizen but is naturalized and represents a different country internationally.
Multi-time winners AwardsPlayerTeam(s)Years4Nneka OgwumikeLos Angeles Sparks (3) / Seattle Storm (1)2019, 2020, 2021, 20253Sue BirdSeattle Storm2011, 2017, 2018Tamika CatchingsIndiana Fever2010, 2013, 20162Dawn StaleyCharlotte Sting (1) / Houston Comets (1)1999, 2006Kara LawsonSacramento Monarchs (1) / Connecticut Sun (1)2009, 2012Suzie McConnell SerioCleveland Rockers1998, 2000 See also
List of sports awards honoring women
References