{"id":336962,"date":"2025-12-10T14:32:09","date_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:32:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336962\/"},"modified":"2025-12-10T14:32:09","modified_gmt":"2025-12-10T14:32:09","slug":"wnba-star-aja-wilson-named-time-magazine-athlete-of-the-year-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/336962\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA star A\u2019ja Wilson named Time magazine athlete of the year \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u2019ja Wilson, the star center for the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA, was selected as Time magazine\u2019s<\/a> 2025 athlete of the year.<\/p>\n

Wilson, 29, who was the Aces\u2019 No. 1 draft pick (and first overall) in the 2018 WNBA draft out of South Carolina, put together a strong season with dominating statistics during 2025.<\/p>\n

The four-time MVP (2020, 2022, 2024 and 2025) and three-time WNBA champion was also named The Associated Press\u2019 Female Athlete of the Year on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The 6-foot-4 star became the first player<\/a> in either the WNBA or NBA to win a championship, Finals MVP, league MVP and defensive player of the year honors in the same season. She was also the WNBA\u2019s leading scorer and became the fastest player in league history to score at least 5,000 career points.<\/p>\n

Wilson is also one of only four players — and the only one in the WNBA — to win four MVP trophies before turning 30. The others are Hall of Famers Bill Russell and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and current Lakers standout LeBron James.<\/p>\n

The Aces got off to a slow start last season, but a 16-game winning streak ultimately propelled the team to victory in the league\u2019s first best-of-seven final round. Las Vegas swept Phoenix to claim the franchise\u2019s third WNBA title.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe things (Wilson has) done on the court have never been done. To me, she\u2019s in a category all her own,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said<\/a>. \u201cPeople always ask who\u2019s on your Mount Rushmore? I\u2019m saying she\u2019s on Everest \u2014 there\u2019s nobody up there with her.\u201d<\/p>\n

Wilson averaged 23.4 points and 2.3 blocks per game to lead the league.<\/p>\n

In college, she led South Carolina to its first women\u2019s national championship in 2017 as she was named the Final Four\u2019s most outstanding player.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s a culture shifter,\u201d actress Gabrielle Union told Time<\/a>. \u201cShe forces the world to take notice without scandal or gimmicks, just excellence without trying to be perfect.\u201d <\/p>\n

James told the magazine that Wilson made an impression on his 11-year-old daughter.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized her greatest impact isn\u2019t what I see, it\u2019s what Zhuri sees,\u201d James said<\/a>. \u201cA\u2019ja Wilson is the definition of female Black excellence, and I am so grateful she is giving my daughter the kind of inspiration I got from Michael Jordan and Ken Griffey Jr.\u201d<\/p>\n

Through it all, Wilson has not been fazed by any criticism thrown her way. She embraces it.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe way they talk about us, the way they talk about me, I\u2019m ready for that, I\u2019m ready for the noise,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cIt\u2019s always going to be something. If we sit here and try to please everybody, we\u2019re going to go insane. <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m just going to continue to prove why I\u2019m one of the greatest and why my team is part of a dynamic dynasty.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a9 2025 Cox Media Group<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson, the star center for the Las Vegas Aces of the WNBA, was selected as Time magazine\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":336963,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[4662,147902,49,48,147904,3460,52454,82,93771,630,147903],"class_list":["post-336962","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-aja-wilson","tag-athlete-of-the-year","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-four-time-mvp","tag-las-vegas-aces","tag-pro-basketball","tag-sports","tag-time-magazine","tag-wnba","tag-womens-pro-basketball"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336962","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=336962"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/336962\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/336963"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=336962"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=336962"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=336962"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}