NEWCASTLE (Paul Nilsen's Women's Basketball Worldwide) - There is nothing quite like season awards to get tongues wagging and the strength of everybody's opinion ramped up.

The WNBA awards this year seem to have thrown up quite a debate about the merits of Jewell Loyd being handed the prestigious moniker of WNBA Rookie of the Year for 2015.

Not that those who don't have two feet planted in the Loyd camp believe she shouldn't have been one of the frontrunners. Far from it, there is just a vociferous campaign for Kiah Stokes who has been superb at New York Liberty and who many believe was rightfully denied her place on this particular throne.

If you pardon the pun, both players are jewels in the WNBA crown and fine young players in their own right, who seem destined for stellar and productive careers for many years to come.

Many fans inevitably look through the prism of their respective clubs which can colour their leanings towards one player or another, while many neutral observers have been avidly comparing why this was a relatively contentious duel.

At the heart of this debate has been how awards seemingly favour those whose statistics are in the foreground and whose wider value is sometimes unfairly blurred into the background of consideration.

Certainly when media vote for the awards, I know that only too often they look to the statistics first and have a telescopic approach - namely one eye shut to other attributes. There is a strong correlation between the highest scoring WNBA rookie usually walking away with the gong in question.

This dimension gets turned up a notch when the two leading candidates are very different types of players - one very much a scorer in Loyd and the other perhaps more of a defensive kingpin. Some feel that goes against Stokes because it is too easy to be wooed by the statistics of Loyd and that Stokes has been doubly punished by playing on a winning team whose mojo is their defensive capabilities - of which she is an integral part.

Of course generally around the world, you also wonder about people loving the underdog - and in some ways, with Stokes not even being a top 10 draft pick - she could arguably be placed into that drawer. Hence sometimes we champion such causes more vociferously.

To be honest, I think that Loyd has had a great season and deserves the award - if only just.

Stokes can take immense pleasure and pride from the fact that world stars have also just missed out on this accolade. Unless I am mistaken - the likes of Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson, no less! She also forced such a close vote despite not being someone racking up massive digits in the box stats which is testament to the high regard in which she is held.

And, perhaps Stokes can get used to it. Because what really matters to a player like her is that her team-mates, coaches and those who watch her on a regular basis value what she does and what she brings. They know only too well that while scorers do get the headlines and inevitably always will, it is so often off the back of players very much in the mould of Stokes.

Paul Nilsen

FIBA

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