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With 0.3 seconds remaining in the game, A’ja Wilson put the Las Vegas Aces in front with a shot over two defenders. The ball bounced on the rim three times before dropping through the net, and with that made three things clear. First: this shot was the decisive moment in the WNBA Finals. A Phoenix Mercury comeback from a 0-3 deficit in a best-of-seven series was basically out of the question. Second: the Aces would establish themselves as a basketball dynasty with their third title in four years. And third: A’ja Wilson has just played perhaps the best basketball season of all time.
“With A’ja Wilson, we have the best player in the world,” says teammate Chelsea Gray. She has plenty of arguments for it. Wilson led the league in points per game last season, was named the league’s Most Valuable Player, Best Defender of the Season, and Finals MVP. No one had accomplished that before her, not in the WNBA or in the NBA. In the world’s premier basketball league, no one has been as dominant as she. Whether at the rim, deadly from beyond the arc, as a facilitator, or as an elite defender, there is almost nothing Wilson cannot do.
In 2018, the 1.93-meter-tall left-handed player stepped onto the WNBA floor. In the same year the unsuccessful San Antonio Stars franchise moved to Las Vegas, became the Aces, and Wilson became the team’s hope. In the following year the squad was further strengthened with the young wing Jackie Young and reached the playoffs for the first time. In 2020 they reached the Finals, where the talented but inexperienced team clearly lost to Seattle.
With the point guard Chelsea Gray, the Aces brought in the necessary experience in 2021. Everything now seemed to fit. The Aces finished the regular season as the second-best team and serious title contenders. In the deciding game of the semifinals against the Phoenix Mercury, they trailed by two points late. A’ja Wilson got the ball and drove to the basket, but was mercilessly blocked by Mercury center Brittney Griner.
“She Has No Limits”
The game was lost, the Aces were eliminated and Wilson collapsed on the floor. Her teammates had to help her to the locker room. “Being literally slammed the ball into my face hurt,” Wilson recalls in hindsight. “But at the same time it strengthened me.” And that has shown her mettle ever since.
Becky Hammon, WNBA legend and since 2022 on the Aces’ sidelines, remembers how in her first season as coach she told others that Wilson, then 25 years old, would become the greatest player of all time. “She has no limits,” Hammon said. “She is the greatest, the most athletic, she has the best skills and also the willingness to make the right plays.” Hammon was the final missing piece that completed the on-court trio around Young, Gray and Wilson. The following years brought two consecutive WNBA titles.
Team Has Grown
That the team has grown and can stay calm even in challenging situations was shown this season. The Aces began the season with 12 wins and 13 losses, including a 53-point defeat, the largest in league history. But led by Wilson, the team fought back. And won 16 games in a row. During that stretch Wilson averaged 26 points, 12 rebounds, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals. In the Finals they faced the Phoenix Mercury and the German national player Satou Sabally. They found no answer to the Aces’ offensive power. Wilson’s game-winner in Game 3 cemented the dominance of the Aces and her status as the best basketball player in the world. In the final, fourth game, Wilson led the team to a 97-86 victory with 31 points and nine rebounds.
The Aces are thus one of only three teams to win three titles in four years. And in a phase some call the “golden era of the WNBA,” Wilson eclipses all. At just 29, she has been named the Most Valuable Player four times, more than anyone before her. “You have your Mount Rushmore; she’s alone on Everest,” said coach Hammon after the game. “There is nobody else there.”
