A’ja Wilson: Athlete of the Year 2025

Covering Wilson’s left hand is the golden gauntlet worn by Thanos, the Marvel supervillain. Under each of the six Infinity Stones that control the universe, Wilson, the 6-ft., 4-in. superstar, has written one of her season’s honors: Scoring title, her second; 5K—in June she became the fastest player in WNBA history to reach the 5,000-point milestone; DPOY, for defensive player of the year, her third; MVP, her record fourth; Finals MVP, her second; and Champ, her third. She’s the first player, in WNBA or NBA history, to win a championship and be named Finals MVP, league MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. And she’s one of just four players in either league to win four MVP trophies before the age of 30, the others being Bill Russell, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and LeBron James. “I’m waiting on them to call for the Academy Award and the Emmy,” quips her father Roscoe.

“When you’ve collected everything, that’s Thanos,” says Wilson, 29, during an interview in a New York City hotel room, about a month after the parade. “And this year, I collected everything. I don’t really talk much sh-t. I mean crap. I kind of let my game do it. This was my biggest moment of doing it, because no one’s ever done what I’ve done. And I think people really needed to understand that.”