This year, she\u2019s in the same stage-setting scenario. First place, 1,101 points ahead of Rebekah Gardner. Her competition to lose.<\/p>\n
But something feels different this time.<\/p>\n
When discussing the potential favorable outcome to close Season 5, Sims stifles a smile. No matter what the leaderboard says, she\u2019s trying not to take the win for granted.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou want to be modest about it,\u201d she explained. \u201cI\u2019ve had a couple AU athletes tell me, especially after Week Two, when I kind of shot up, \u2018This is your year.\u2019 And I don\u2019t think it\u2019s clicked yet, because I just don\u2019t want to get too comfortable.\u201d<\/p>\n
After the first two games of Week Four, Sims has left little room for doubt. She posted two of her strongest performances of the season, including a career-high 44-point showing and a clutch Elam Ending win.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, her 771 leaderboard points made her the first player to surpass 30,000 career leaderboard points and gave her a sizable lead over Gardner in second place.<\/p>\n
Thriving Despite Inconsistency<\/p>\n
Sims\u2019 AU career leaderboard points record is far from the first she\u2019s captured in five years with the league. She\u2019s always possessed a personality and style of play that fit perfectly with AU\u2019s untraditional format. She takes the individual points system, shuffling team rosters, weekly drafts, and team captain responsibilities in stride.<\/p>\n
Succeeding despite inconsistency while adapting to new teammates, playbooks, locker rooms, and cities aren\u2019t tasks that are solely reserved for the annual five-week competition.<\/p>\n
Adapting and adjusting are skills that she\u2019s mastered over her 12-year pro career, especially in recent WNBA seasons.<\/p>\n
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In the 2022 W season, she split time between Minnesota and Connecticut. After a two-season stint in Dallas, she started the 2025 season with the Los Angeles Sparks before she was waived by the team 12 games into the year. A month later, she was picked up by the Indiana Fever on a hardship contract, jumping straight into a crucial role for the injury-stricken team\u2013fueling a late-season push that led the team to the semifinals.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a path that has made her feel prepared for whatever life or her career throws at her.<\/p>\n
\u201cI mean, at this point, just to touch on my W career, the last few years, going to one team, getting cut, picked up, you know, that kind of thing, I think that\u2019s helped,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s easy for me to adapt. Just do my job. I do my best. That\u2019s pretty much it. Just have fun, make sure I\u2019m having fun with it, and just enjoying the people that are around me.\u201d<\/p>\n
She finished last W season with 10.1 points, 2.4 rebounds, and 3.8 assists per game averages in the regular season, and upped that scoring average to 14.1 per game in the playoffs, closing the year with a valiant 27-point effort in the Fever\u2019s Game 5 loss to Las Vegas, the eventual champs.<\/p>\n
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Her clutch playoff showings caught the attention of the entire league in September, but takeover-style performances like that 27-point playoff outing are nothing new for Sims. They have been one of the hallmarks of her AU career.<\/p>\n
Mastering the AU Model<\/p>\n
Sims understands more than most that the AU title cannot be secured by individual performance alone. As captain of the Gold Rush for Week Four, she carefully crafted her squad with players she knows she can trust.<\/p>\n
For the second week in a row, she managed to draft Kiah Stokes, Aneesah Morrow, Te-Hina Paopao, Lexie Brown, and Bree Hall. Along with Ariel Atkins, Teana Muldrow, Asia Taylor and Coach Chaz Franklin, they make up a team that she\u2019s thrilled to have surrounding her for the final week.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy goal is to win. But for me, I just focus on controlling what I can control, which is trying to get a [game] win,\u201d she explained. \u201cControl my team, just making sure we have fun, play together. So I\u2019m excited. I think I really have a well-balanced group. The vibes have been immaculate with this group and everybody\u2019s excited. I\u2019m excited.\u201d<\/p>\n
Her Week Four Gold Rush squad has lived up to her expectations so far with a 2-0 record to start the week and some big momentum-building performances entering the final contest.<\/p>\n
On Thursday, Atkins posted a season-high 24 points, and Morrow tied the AU Pro Basketball single-game record with 19 rebounds while tallying 23 points.<\/p>\n
Sims holds individual records in nearly every one of the league\u2019s major stat categories, including most leaderboard points earned in a single game. That career highlight came last year versus Team Bradford in the 2025 season when Sims added 941 points to her leaderboard total. Right now, Gardner has 5,021 points in second-place, trailing Sims\u2019 6,122-point total. Gardner would have to far surpass that record to prevent Sims from taking the crown.<\/p>\n
In Thursday night\u2019s Elam Ending win, it was Sims who zeroed in on the basket when her team trailed by three, sinking the triple to tie it up. Sims who stepped confidently to the free-throw line to take the game-winning shot.<\/p>\n
So far, she\u2019s done everything possible in this final week to earn the title of champion, and her reaction to the win matched the magnitude of the situation. But it\u2019s not official yet.<\/p>\n
Having the first-place medal officially placed around her neck would be the cherry on top of what has already been a very fulfilling AU career.<\/p>\n
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The Final Stamp on a Legendary Legacy<\/p>\n
Sims\u2019 career has been defined by resilience, and AU has been the space where she\u2019s often in her most dominant form. The game she puts on display today has been shaped by obstacles and the shifting sand she\u2019s often had to build it on.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s developed traits as a player and as a person that she can be proud of, and they\u2019re qualities that she hopes to pass on to her son Jaiden.<\/p>\n
Now in school, five-year-old Jaiden hasn\u2019t spent as much time in the AU environment as he has in previous seasons, but he\u2019s been no less a part of Sims\u2019 campaign. He and his grandmother paid a visit to Nashville during Week Three, and even when he\u2019s not on site, his voice can often be heard in Nashville Municipal Auditorium through a phone speaker.<\/p>\n
Sims can frequently be found on FaceTime with her son, placing bedtime calls behind the scenes postgame. Motherhood and basketball have left two of the biggest impressions on her life and made her into the person she is today.<\/p>\n
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\u201cNothing really holds me down. Nothing gets me too down on myself, because I do have somebody looking up to me\u2013my son. So I just want to continue to grow as a player, as a mom, as a daughter, and have fun at the end of the day. That\u2019s it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sims knows that perseverance is what\u2019s allowed her pro career to last.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think I had the opportunity where I could have lost my focus, or I could have been on the verge of retiring, but me being able to just stick with it no matter what\u2019s thrown at me\u2013I just accept it and keep it pushing.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, Sims feels more confident than ever that this is her time to go for gold.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had one hell of a career, including in the W,\u201d she said. \u201cBut with AU, it\u2019ll be the stamp on everything, and me winning\u2013it\u2019s like I\u2019ll forever be a legend here.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt doesn\u2019t have to be basketball, but any career path, you\u2019re always gonna have your ups and downs. It\u2019s about how you face it, how you respond to it, because you can never stop learning. Doesn\u2019t matter how old we get; we can never stop learning. So I\u2019m just keeping that in mind, continuing to grow, continuing to have fun, and making my team and myself proud.\u201d<\/p>\n
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