LAS VEGAS (KSNV) — Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson shared some laughs about her now-iconic Game 3-winning bucket in this year’s WNBA Finals.
The four-time MVP appeared Thursday on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon,” where the host asked her about the game-ending play against the Phoenix Mercury.
“It danced a little bit on the rim,” Fallon said after playing a clip of Wilson knocking down the jumper to go ahead 90-88 with less than a second left.
“It did. It was not pretty, but it went in,” Wilson said with a laugh.
Fallon asked if she knew the ball would come to her in that final play, to which Wilson said head coach Becky Hammon just drew a line on her board during a timeout.
“And she’s like, ‘All right, go do it,'” Wilson said. “And I was just like, ‘Do what? Where’s the rest of the play to help us win?’
“She’s like, ‘Go ahead.’ And I was just like, ‘Okay.’ And she said, ‘Just make sure there’s no time on the clock for them to go score.’ I said, ‘All right, thanks. I’ll check that off when I’m trying to score a basketball.'”
Wilson described her headspace with that play, having to recognize the clock as she sized up Phoenix’s defense.
“So in my mind, I was like, if I can just see the rim, if I can just see orange, we’re in a pretty good space to win,” she told Fallon. “Just a pretty good one.”
While on the show, Wilson also talked about her childhood experience playing basketball, including her father serving as her coach, and how she designed her signature sneaker, the Nike A’One.