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FILE – Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) dribbles against the Phoenix Mercury during the first half of Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Rick Scuteri, File) <\/p>\nFILE – Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) dribbles against the Phoenix Mercury during the first half of Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo\/Rick Scuteri, File) <\/p>\n
HENDERSON, Nev. \u2014 The GOAT talk regarding A\u2019ja Wilson began in earnest late last season when her play and leadership not only rescued the Aces but helped carry Las Vegas to the WNBA title.<\/p>\n
And when it comes to greatest-ever discussions, there is no separating Wilson from her team.<\/p>\n
History is a large part of the background for Wilson and the Aces as another season is about to begin.<\/p>\n
Wilson already has taken her career where others have yet to go. She became the league\u2019s first four-time MVP last year and the first WNBA or NBA player to be named the top player, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP and lead the league in scoring in the same season. For all that, Wilson was the fifth basketball player to become The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year.<\/p>\n
Her success has been the Aces\u2019 success, Las Vegas coming off its third championship in four seasons. Should the Aces win another title this year, they would join the Comets, Minnesota Lynx and Seattle Storm as the only franchises to win four overall. They also would join the Comets as the only teams to win four times in five years; Houston captured the WNBA\u2019s first four championships.<\/p>\n
What\u2019s scary for the rest of the league is that the 29-year-old Wilson remains in her prime years, meaning her GOAT argument has an excellent chance to strengthen and for the Aces to continue to build their legacy.<\/p>\n
Wilson said she has taken the approach of focusing on the daily process since being drafted No. 1 out of South Carolina in 2018 and changing the arc of the franchise.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve worked so hard to get to these situations and put myself in these spaces that I\u2019m like, \u2018OK, yeah, I\u2019ve earned it, of course,\u2019\u201d Wilson said. \u201cBut when it comes to people and where they want me and they\u2019re saying are you the next GOAT? I have no idea because in my mind I have a lot more winning to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
And in an Aces uniform, with the club having signed Wilson to a supermax three-year, $5 million contract that is the most lucrative in WNBA history.<\/p>\n
Wilson\u2019s athletic ability has been unquestioned since she entered the league, the 6-foot-4 post player averaging 21.4 points, 9.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocked shots over her eight-year career.<\/p>\n
But greatness isn\u2019t just about accumulating numbers, and Wilson showed in two notable moments last season in her commitment to the team why she has separated herself.<\/p>\n
One was there for all to see when she made a turnaround jumper over two defenders with 0.3 seconds left to win Game 3 at Phoenix and set up a four-game WNBA Finals sweep.<\/p>\n
The other and probably even more important action occurred out of sight as the season was slipping away. Minnesota had come to Las Vegas and handed the Aces a 53-point defeat \u2014 the largest home loss in league history \u2014 and at 14-14 even making the postseason was far from assured.<\/p>\n
Wilson texted her teammates to say that they might as well not show up anymore if they were not embarrassed by that performance.<\/p>\n
They were. And the league was in trouble.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was pissed and I knew they were pissed, which is the better option,\u201d Aces coach Becky Hammon said.<\/p>\n
The Aces rolled off 16 consecutive victories on the way to winning another championship.<\/p>\n
\u201cA\u2019ja\u2019s a great leader because she does it herself first,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cAny time you have a leader that works by example first, holds herself accountable to the highest standard, then she has two legs to stand on with the group about holding others accountable.\u201d<\/p>\n
Six-time All-Star Jewell Loyd, who was traded to the Aces last year after helping the Storm win two titles, agreed with Hammon\u2019s assessment.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe wants the best out of each and every person here no matter if you\u2019re the security guy at the front or you\u2019re Chelsea Gray,\u201d Loyd said of Wilson. \u201cShe takes good ownership, and that\u2019s what you want as your leader. As someone who\u2019s the face of women\u2019s basketball, you want that as an ambassador.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hammon said Wilson also has surrounded herself with a strong supporting cast off the court that includes her mother and boyfriend Bam Adebayo of the Miami Heat that helps keep the WNBA superstar grounded. But Wilson also is careful not to get caught up in the accolades that come her way and instead focuses on the next task.<\/p>\n
For the Aces, that\u2019s another season as defending champs and knowing they again will get every opponent\u2019s best shot.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019ve been the hunted with the Aces before we even got banners and rings, so it\u2019s a part of who we are,\u201d Wilson said. \u201cWe try to let our newcomers know when you put this jersey on, it\u2019s a different feel and I love it. It brings the competitor out of everybody. So, yeah, we\u2019re definitely going to be the hunted, but we\u2019re the hunters as well.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FILE – Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson (22) dribbles against the Phoenix Mercury during the first half…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":624604,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[73],"tags":[99,434],"class_list":["post-624603","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624603","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=624603"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/624603\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/624604"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=624603"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=624603"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=624603"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}