The Basics
Position: Forward
Current Team: Las Vegas Aces | #5
Draft: 2018 | South Carolina | 1st round (1st overall)
Key Accolades: Rookie of the Year (2018), All-Star (2018, 2019), M'VP (2020), All-WNBA (2020), All-Defensive Team (2020)
The Pets: Ace and Deuce
The Down Low
A'ja is just an all-around delight. I don't think it's any player's responsibility to be a role model, but A'ja is kind of a natural. Talented, outspoken, charming, and genuine, she's the face of the WNBA that it deserves.
A'ja stepped into the league and immediately was an All-Star. After finishing her third year, A'ja has raked in almost as many honors as she was eligible for: ROY, All-Star, All-WNBA, and M'VP. On the court, A'ja is near unguardable in the post and is also a fantastic defender and rebounder.
Off the court, or, more accurately, whenever she's not directly playing, you will catch her dancing. In one of my favorite Aces moments, here's her cutting it up with her teammates during a huddle:
Oh you want more? Below is a brief (comparatively) selection of A'ja dancing:
When she is neither on the court nor dancing, A'ja hosts the most delightful WNBA podcast, Tea with A & Phee, with bestie Napheesa Collier. She also has a very cute friendship with teammate Dearica Hamby.
Notable Quotables
Please go read her article "Dear Black Women" from the Players' Tribune. The whole piece is really incredible, and I liked in particular her words on mental health and vulnerability:
At the end of the day, there are different paths to greatness. And I feel like we don’t hear that message enough, especially as Black women.
You can be vulnerable and still be the MVP.
You can be vulnerable and still be the CEO.
You can be vulnerable and still be in the White House.
She also talked about what it meant to be immortalized in a statue by her alma mater, South Carolina:
That young Black woman immortalized in bronze, in the year 2021?
Her own grandmother wasn’t allowed to step on that same campus when she was her age.
Her own father wasn’t allowed to play basketball for that same university when he was her age.
And she herself walked to middle school on streets named after slave owners, past houses that proudly flew the Confederate flag.
When I saw my statue, that’s the wave that came crashing over me. Those were the memories that came flooding back. Not my games, not my buckets, not my career. No, no, no. My history. I cried happy tears, for the first time in a long time.
Highlight Reel
Know Your Meme
In this perfect moment from the NBA's Celebrity All-Star game, A'ja reminded men that they would get their shit rocked (and shot blocked) if they tried to play in a WNBA game:
Merch
A'ja Wilson Shop | A'ja Wilson Collection (BreakingT) | Burnt Wax Candle Company (Coming Soon)
More on A'ja
- Dear Black Women (The Players' Tribune)
- A'ja Wilson: Sculpting a Legacy (Shawn Medow, Queen Ballers Club)
- Social Justice Council: A'ja Wilson (WNBA)
"I Will Never Stop My Fight”: A’ja Wilson on The Breonna Taylor Decision and Being a Black Woman in America (Dani Bar-Lavi and Zachary Diamond, Venus Sports)