{"id":318483,"date":"2025-11-28T11:19:08","date_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:19:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/318483\/"},"modified":"2025-11-28T11:19:08","modified_gmt":"2025-11-28T11:19:08","slug":"aja-wilson-wants-fans-to-stop-ignoring-what-makes-womens-basketball-special","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/318483\/","title":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson wants fans to stop ignoring what makes women\u2019s basketball special"},"content":{"rendered":"

A\u2019ja Wilson has been busy since winning her third championship with the Aces, appearing on several podcasts and shows. Her latest stop was on Hot Ones<\/a>. As Wilson struggled with spicy wings, she talked about her buzzer-beater in Game 3 of the finals, playing for Dawn Staley in college, and the narrative around dunking in the WNBA.\u00a0<\/p>\n

As women\u2019s basketball continues to gain popularity, certain people increasingly compare it to the men\u2019s game. One narrative that constantly comes up in these conversations is that WNBA players are less athletic and that the game is less interesting because there are significantly fewer dunks than in the men\u2019s game. Some people have even suggested that the WNBA should lower its rims to make the game more interesting. A\u2019ja Wilson is not a fan\u2014and not just because lowering the rim would completely change players\u2019 shots<\/a>. Focusing so much on what WNBA players don\u2019t do completely ignores all the things they do so well.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cDunking is cool,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut maybe it\u2019s just not a part of our game, and I wish people could really understand that and really cherish the other things we bring to the game that may be just as flashy as dunking. I play with an amazing point guard in Chelsea Gray, and her passes are some passes that I\u2019ve never even seen before on any stage. It could be the equivalent of the flashiness of dunking. So, I wish people could get away from that, stop talking about lowering the rims\u2026and just kind of focus on the craft that we have in our league right now.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dunks are special but WNBA players can do a lot more<\/p>\n

On July 30, 2002, Lisa Leslie became the first player to dunk in a WNBA game. She got a long pass on a fastbreak and scored on a one-handed dunk. Since then, several WNBA players have followed in her footsteps.\u00a0<\/p>\n

In 2008, Candace Parker dunked in back-to-back games\u2014first on a fastbreak in a game against the Indiana Fever and once against the Seattle Storm. The third player to dunk in a game was Michelle Snow who threw down a reverse dunk in the 2006 All-Star Game. Brittney Griner wasted no time dunking in her first WNBA game and is still the only player to have dunked more than twice in a game.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Jonquel Jones, Liz Cambage, Sylvia Fowles, and Awak Kuier have also dunked in a WNBA game or All-Star game. Cambage also became the first woman to dunk during the Olympics in 2012.<\/p>\n

Griner and Jones are the only active players on that list, but Kuier looks ready to return to the WNBA next season and other players could join the list. Dominique Malonga, for example, has already showcased her ability to dunk<\/a>\u2014just not in a game. Laeticia Amihere has also dunked in warmups before.\u00a0<\/p>\n

There are plenty of WNBA players who can dunk, but it\u2019s not a crucial part of their game. Whenever it happens, it\u2019s incredibly special, but WNBA players also do tons of other special things in games. Chelsea Gray\u2019s passes are one example. Long threes from Caitlin Clark or Sabrina Ionescu or Wilson\u2019s empathic blocks also belong on that list, among many other things.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A\u2019ja Wilson has been busy since winning her third championship with the Aces, appearing on several podcasts and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":318484,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":{"0":"post-318483","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-sports","9":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=318483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/318483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/318484"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=318483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=318483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=318483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}