The Atlanta Dream’s franchise-record 30-win season has helped vault general manager Dan Padover to new heights as the league’s first three-time winner of the WNBA Basketball Executive of the Year.
Padover also won the award, which the league announced on Tuesday, when he was with the Las Vegas Aces in 2020 and 2021. He started his fourth season in Atlanta tied for the most honors with two-time winner Cheryl Reeve, who won in 2019 and 2024 with the Minnesota Lynx.
The award was voted on by a panel of the general managers of the WNBA’s 13 active teams and the expansion Toronto Tempo, who begin play in 2026. The GMs could not vote for themselves.
Padover was named on the most ballots with 12, including eight first-place votes. Ohemaa Nyanin of the expansion Golden State Valkyries (10 ballots), Nick U’ren of the Phoenix Mercury (nine) and Jamila Wideman of the Washington Mystics (three) finished second through fourth in the voting.
The Dream tied for the second-best regular-season record (30-14), doubling their win total from a season ago, and were seeded third in the WNBA playoffs. Atlanta fell to the Indiana Fever 2-1 in their best-of-three first-round series.
Atlanta’s Karl Smesko set the league mark for wins by a first-year WNBA head coach. The team improved in several other categories, including offensive rating (12th to second, 108.2), defensive rating (sixth to second, 98.9) and assists per game (12th to third, 21.4).
Padover’s makeover of the team included adding nine-time All-Star Brittney Griner and four-time All-Star Brionna Jones to a lineup already featuring three-time All-Stars Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray. Jones led the team in rebounds (7.3 per game), Griner in blocks (1.2), Howard in steals (1.5) and Gray in scoring (18.4) on her way to fourth place in the league’s MVP voting.
–Field Level Media
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