{"id":207205,"date":"2025-10-12T09:53:16","date_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:53:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207205\/"},"modified":"2025-10-12T09:53:16","modified_gmt":"2025-10-12T09:53:16","slug":"aja-wilson-confirms-status-as-generational-great-with-historic-wnba-finals-performance","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/207205\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson confirms status as generational great with historic WNBA Finals performance"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n A\u2019ja Wilson <\/a> stood inside a circle of her Las Vegas Aces<\/a> teammates on Friday, playing a tambourine. The superstar center was orchestrating the celebrations, just as she had orchestrated the performance that preceded them and, increasingly, the Aces\u2019 dynasty itself.\n <\/p>\n

\n She contributed to practically every aspect of the Aces\u2019 third WNBA title in four years \u2013 the talisman, finisher, creator and leader all rolled into one.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cYou have your Mount Rushmore, she\u2019s alone on Everest,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said afterwards, per the Associated Press. \u201cThere\u2019s no one around.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n No one else in WNBA history has ever been named MVP, Finals MVP and Defensive Player in the same year. Even at a time when stars are proliferating across the league and when the quality of play is better than it has ever been, Wilson is still undeniably the best.\n <\/p>\n

\"A'ja<\/p>\n

\n For Hammon, \u201cthe skill set and the level\u201d her team are at \u201cis not comparable\u201d to previous dynasties in WNBA history like the Houston Comets \u2013 who won four consecutive titles in 1997-2000 \u2013 and the Minnesota Lynx \u2013who won four titles between 2011 and 2017.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI think these ladies are at the top of the game, and it is the best basketball that the W has ever seen from top to bottom,\u201d she told reporters.\n <\/p>\n

\n And within this golden age of the WNBA, there is Wilson. Even just her stats from the Finals make for extraordinary reading. She contributed 31 points and nine rebounds in Friday\u2019s Game 4, sunk the game-winner in Wednesday\u2019s Game 3, and became the first player in WNBA Finals history to record three consecutive games with 25 or more points and 10 rebounds.\n <\/p>\n

\n But her influence runs deeper than that. There was a time this season when the Aces were almost dismissed as title contenders. They started the season 12-13, a sign, perhaps, of their failing powers after they had exited the playoffs in the semifinals last year. Then came a record 53-point defeat against Minnesota at home.\n <\/p>\n

\n Wilson, according to ESPN, sent her teammates a text which read: \u201cIf you weren\u2019t embarrassed from yesterday, then don\u2019t come into this gym. You\u2019re not needed or wanted here. We need the mindset to shift, because that was embarrassing.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n She \u201ccheck(ed) on every single person,\u201d teammate NaLyssa Smith recalled to ESPN. \u201cYou would think a person that\u2019s a four-time MVP, with all these accomplishments, would really care just about moving themselves to the top. But (she) pours so much into other people.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\"A'ja<\/p>\n

\n After that, the Aces went on a 16-game winning streak, during which Wilson averaged a remarkable 26.1 points, 12 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals.\n <\/p>\n

\n Wilson is still only 29 years old and already has won four MVP awards \u2013 more than any other player \u2013 and two Finals MVP awards.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cGreatness is, like I said, just being patient, waiting on your turn, waiting on your moment,\u201d she told reporters afterward. \u201cI think that\u2019s what defines us is you\u2019ve got to be great when the lights aren\u2019t on you. You\u2019ve got to be great when nobody\u2019s in the gym with you. You\u2019ve got to be great when you may not get anything on the end.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cThat is what greatness is to me because that is consistency and that is just you doing the right things because it\u2019s right. So I think that\u2019s how I would redefine it, and I think that\u2019s what you saw in this group. We had times where it was tested, battle tested, but like our plants, we just needed to grow with a little bit more sunshine, a little bit more water.\u201d\n <\/p>\n

\n As for whether the Aces can continue building their dynasty, that is still unclear. The future of this team is uncertain, as much is across the WNBA right now with the league\u2019s collective bargaining agreement expiring at the end of October. And, because of that, most players timed their contracts to expire at the end of this season too, meaning that there will be 123 free agents this offseason, according to Spotrac<\/a>.\n <\/p>\n

\n For the Aces, much depends on whether stars like Wilson, Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray will recommit to the franchise.\n <\/p>\n

\n But, for the moment, the Aces are focusing on what they have already built, the celebrations, and the tambourine.\n <\/p>\n

\n \u201cI know everybody\u2019s laughing that (the tambourine is) funny, and it is funny and it\u2019s cute and it\u2019s pink, but this is a symbol of just the joyfulness we have right now, and I\u2019m grateful to be with this bunch,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cThat ain\u2019t the alcohol talking.\u201d\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson stood inside a circle of her Las Vegas Aces teammates on Friday, playing a tambourine. The…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":207206,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-207205","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207205","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=207205"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207205\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/207206"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=207205"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=207205"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=207205"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}