As the WNBA regular season winds down, the top players in the league are battling it out for the most coveted individual awards in women's basketball.
The race for the Defensive Player of the Year appears to be a tightly contested one, with Angel Reese , A'ja Wilson, and Gabby Williams among the top candidates. However, one analyst has now come up with a left-field pick for the award.
The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant joined two-time WNBA All-Star Chiney Ogwumike for Tuesday's edition of "Chiney Today," where the two shared their picks for the awards season.
Merchant claimed that her vote for the Defensive Player of the Year would go to Sonia Citron . She cited the Washington Mystics guard's ability to defend against the best players of the opposition teams as the reason for her pick.
Ogwumike was left visibly stunned by Merchant's take, and WNBA fans shared their surprise as well. One user called the pick 'absurd' and urged that Merchant not be allowed to vote in the WNBA awards race.
"An absurd pick with even more absurd reasoning. her voting rights need to be revoked," they wrote on X .
More fans joined in the conversation and called for Merchant to not be included in the voting panel for the WNBA awards. "Her voting record is probably enough to get her vote revoked I'm ngl," they claimed .
Another user shared their outrage at the pick and called for changes to the voting panel. "Brother pack up the league at this point- cause Soni for DPOY???? This is why I said we need a MEDIA pool of QUALIFIED sports writers that get to vote on this end of the season awards," the user wrote .
More WNBA fans shared their criticism of Merchant's DPOY pick, claiming that players' legacies and money are on the line with these awards. "In all seriousness the WNBA has to take a serious look at [expletive] like this. I get it's one voter out of 70+ but there's legacies and money on the line To leave it up to people like this is wild," they wrote .
Another explained why the next WNBA commissioner will have their task cut out. "So defensive stats against non all stars doesn't count? New commissioner going to have to reevaluate the media in this space," they wrote .
Despite criticism of the take, Citron is enjoying a strong season with the Mystics, averaging 16.8 points, 3.8 rebounds, 4.4 assists, and 1.2 steals per game. The 6-foot-1 guard also forced her way into the Team USA roster for the FIBA World Cup.
This article originally appeared on Pro Football Network .
