A'ja Wilson's evolving case to be the WNBA's greatest of all time

It's quite possible that basketball fans might be watching one of the greatest careers in WNBA history unfold right before their eyes.

She might not get the same level of attention as some of her predecessors and contemporaries, but Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson is in the midst of a special basketball career. When all is said and done, she may have an excellent case to make as the greatest of all time. All statistics are sourced from Basketball Reference.

A’ja Wilson is in the midst of her seventh WNBA season. Remarkably, she’s been named an All-Star in six of those campaigns. She made up for not making the All-Star team in 2020 by winning league MVP.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Wilson took home MVP honors in 2020 and in 2022. Sports noted in early September that the Aces leader is the heavy favorite to win it again in 2024, which would put her in elite company if she were to get it a third time.

Lisa Leslie, Sheryl Swoopes and Lauren Jackson are the only players in WNBA history to bring home league MVP three times.

Career averages of over 21 points and nine rebounds per game would cement Wilson’s legacy as an offensive powerhouse, but she’s also one of the best defenders in the WNBA. She’s won Defensive Player of the Year in 2022 and in 2023, and is very much in the running to bring home the honor for a third straight season.

It’s hard to believe that Wilson had much room for improvement as a defender, but Aces head coach Becky Hammon believes her star player has actually improved on that end of the floor. She told Andscape in June 2024, “Her reading the defense is getting so much better—her reading in space.”

Wilson isn’t the type of player who puts up hollow stats on a struggling team. She’d led Las Vegas to two WNBA championships, and the Aces figure to be in the championship mix for years to come. Wilson took home Finals MVP during the 2023 title series.

Las Vegas Aces president Nikki Fargas told Marie Claire in July 2024, “she’s the nucleus of this league. I really think that A’ja—I know this sounds crazy—but I think she is just now peaking.”

Fargas may have a point. Wilson is still just 28 years old, despite having achieved the same amount of things as some of the greatest players in history did over their entire career. In theory, she can play for another decade and double the number of All-Star appearances, championships and MVP’s, and that might be a conservative estimate.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

In order for her to get to where she is today, Wilson needed to hit the ground running. She did just that, as she also took home WNBA Rookie of the Year honors in 2018. She averaged just over 20 points and eight rebounds that year, to go along with nearly two blocks per game.

In addition to everything she has accomplished in the WNBA, Wilson has also stepped up during international play representing the United States. She’s won two gold medals, coming in the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

Wilson was also named the MVP of the Olympic women’s basketball tournament, as she averaged over 18 points and 10 rebounds per game.

In September 2024, Wilson took down a meaningful WNBA record. She set the single-season mark for points in a season. She told The Guardian, “The points are great. They’re always going to be there. I’m never going to stop shooting, but the group that we have in this locker room is something that I’m truly so happy to be around.”

The best players in sports often look for motivation in places that other would never stop to consider. Wilson felt that Breanna Stewart deserved to get MVP in 2023, but she wasn’t thrilled with how the voting went. She told ESPN, “I feel like the most motivation for me, and everyone probably knows this story, is the fourth place vote… to see that I got a fourth-place vote was kind of like, ‘ok, obviously I have more work that needs to be done’.”

Wilson’s greatness might actually be flying under the radar, considering how good she’s been from the moment she joined the WNBA. Other players like Caitlin Clark have commanded the spotlight and have been impressive in their own right, but it’s hard to look at Wilson as anything less than the best in the game right now.

Want to see more like this? Follow us here for daily sports news, profiles and analysis!

Let us know what you think by leaving a comment!