So why her, why now? Why is Wilson being honored as The Sporting News Female Athlete of the Year?<\/p>\n
MORE: Shai Gilgeous-Alexander is SN’s 2025 male Athlete of the Year<\/a><\/p>\n A’ja Wilson wins SN’s Female Athlete of the Year<\/p>\n Certainly we could be considered late to the show.<\/p>\n Wilson\u2019s MVP award in 2025 was her fourth in eight WNBA seasons, and this was the third time she was named Defensive Player of the Year. The Ace\u2019s WNBA Finals appearance was Wilson\u2019s fourth trip to that stage, and the championship was her third. This was the second time she earned the Finals MVP trophy. She led the league in scoring for the second year in a row and in blocks for the fifth consecutive season.<\/p>\n She has deserved all the honors received for this dominance, and obviously there were many. This past season was vastly different for Wilson and the Aces, however. Perhaps because of the decision of Kelsey Plum to force her way out of Vegas and the complication coach Becky Hammon and her staff faced in replacing such a prominent player, perhaps because of the apathy mixed with arrogance that frequently infects professional athletic teams that have claimed one or more championships, the Aces were not queens of the league for a very large portion of the season.<\/p>\n Would it be mean to suggest they kind of stunk? OK, so we won\u2019t. On Aug. 2, however, the Aces lost to the Minnesota Lynx<\/a> by 53 points. They did not score 20 points in any of the four quarters. Every player who appeared, all 10, rang up at least a minus-18 in the box score. Four were minus-30 or worse.<\/p>\n When those torturous 40 minutes were complete, the Aces owned a record of 14-14. In every season since Wilson\u2019s rookie year, they\u2019d only once resided at the .500 mark for even a dozen games. To rescue the season, the team needed everything Wilson could deliver as often as she could manage.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was a struggle. It was tough. We always had faith in each other, and obviously A\u2019ja is our leader. She never lost faith. She was honest with us,\u201d veteran center Kiah Stokes told The Sporting News. \u201cEvery postgame, every bad loss that we had, she was the first one to be like, \u2018Y\u2019all, that\u2019s on me. I\u2019ve got to come out better. I\u2019ve got to play harder.\u2019<\/p>\n \u201cYou don\u2019t have to do that as a superstar. But she does because she puts so much into this game. I will say, probably one of the most honest things she said was after we had that terrible loss to Minnesota, she was like basically, \u2018Get it together. We need everyone.\u2019 She\u2019d been taking up for us all year, and she realized this is a team sport. She cannot do this by herself. It was really a challenge to us that we\u2019ve got to get on board or get off the ship. It just motivated everyone to step it up and go to the next level.\u201d<\/p>\n This came in the locker room following that Minnesota game.<\/p>\n \u201cIt was very direct. It wasn\u2019t harsh. It wasn\u2019t dramatic. It was just, \u2018Hey, reality check, guys. We can\u2019t just keep winning one, losing one, winning one, losing one to think we\u2019re going to make it to the playoffs. The championship wasn\u2019t even being talked about,\u201d Stokes told SN. \u201cWe respect her, we trust her word, value what she says because she\u2019s that important to us. But, really, her delivery is key. She\u2019s not going to do the most to make you feel bad about yourself. It was like, \u2018We need everyone, whether you\u2019re playing or not \u2026 It\u2019s time.\u201d<\/p>\n Wilson followed up with a text in the team group chat afterward, just to assuage any bruised feelings. \u201cEven though it wasn\u2019t that harsh in the first place,\u201d Stokes said.<\/p>\n The Las Vegas Aces did not lose another game the rest of the season.<\/p>\n No, really. Not one. There were 16 games remaining in the regular season after the debacle against the Lynx and Vegas won every single one. They won those games by an average of 12.4 points.<\/p>\n It was Aces 1,418, Rest of W 1,220.<\/p>\n They finished with a 30-14 record and the No. 2 playoff seed. The streak was only two games short of the league record set by by the Los Angeles Sparks<\/a> in 2001, and it\u2019s possible it ended only because there were no more scheduled games.<\/p>\n In the last of those victories, the Aces set a league record with 22 made 3-pointers. Though she is a 6-3 center and attempted only one long-distance shot in her first three seasons, A\u2019ja nailed three herself in that game.<\/p>\n SN Athletes of the Year2021Shohei Ohtani2022Lionel Messi2023Caitlin Clark\/Angel Reese2024Shohei Ohtani (male)\/Caitlin Clark (female)2025Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (male)\/A’ja Wilson (female)<\/p>\n ARCHIVE: Complete list of past winners since 1968<\/a><\/p>\n The Aces carried all of that momentum into the WNBA playoffs and appeared to be positioned, at last, for an eventual showdown between the league\u2019s best player and the league\u2019s best team, Minnesota\u2019s Lynx, the team that had punished Vegas so fiercely in that midsummer game. It didn\u2019t turn out that way.<\/p>\n The Aces had to battle their way through near-elimination in the first round against the Seattle Storm<\/a>, which required 38 points from Wilson to secure a one-point victory in the final of the three-game series. And, in the semifinals, things grew even more desperate her and the Aces.<\/p>\n![\"A'ja](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/USATSI_27292733.jpg.webp.webp\" "\\"A'ja")
A’ja Wilson’s leadership changes Aces’ luck<\/p>\n