Emma Meesseman Named WNBA Finals 2019 MVP

Emma Meesseman of the Washington Mystics has been named Most Valuable Player of the WNBA Finals 2019.

Meesseman scored a team-high 22 points and added three rebounds, three assists, two steals and two blocks in 27 minutes off the Mystics bench as Washington defeated Connecticut in a winner-take-all Game 5 on Thursday night.

For the series, Meesseman averaged 17.8 points, 4.6 rebounds and 1.8 assists while shooting 57.1 percent from the field and 50.0 percent from beyond the arc. She becomes the first reserve player to win Finals MVP in WNBA history; Golden State’s Andre Iguodala (2015) is the only NBA player to ever accomplish that feat.

Washington trailed by seven points when Meesseman made her first appearance of the second half with 6:22 remaining in the third quarter. She scored 15 points in the final 16 minutes of the game as the Mystics outscored the Sun 43-25 the rest of the way to finish with an 11-point win and the first title in franchise history.

This was the first WNBA Finals appearance for Meesseman, who missed all of 2018 as she fulfilled her commitments with the Belgium National Team. After the Mystics were swept by the Seattle Storm in 2018 they made a promise to run it back, and this time they would have the “missing piece” in Meesseman to help put them over the top. The rest is history.