The Genius of A'Ja Wilson.
The Aces superstar made WNBA history on Sunday, as she guns for her third MVP and another shot at championship glory.
Hey everyone!
Ryan here. From wherever you’re reading from, I hope you had a terrific weekend. Some housekeeping, super quickly:
If you’re exclusively an email subscriber, due to a mistake on my end, you would not have received two articles over the past few days:
August 31st: Caitlin Clark, Greatness
September 1st: American Idiot at 20, An Off-Balance Retrospective
If those sound like your speed, I hope you enjoy them.
And as always? Thanks so much for your continued support!
It is only the most outstanding of basketball players, the rarest of athletes, the lucky few, that can truly excel in all facets of their chosen discipline but A’Ja Wilson is, without question, one of them.
On Saturday, Wilson, not just the best player in women’s basketball but one of the best on the planet, period, continued doing what she has done her entire career: making the extraordinary seem routine.
In the Las Vegas Aces 97-79 win over the Phoenix Mercury, Wilson, with 41 points and seventeen rebounds, joined one-time teammate, the legendary Candace Parker as only the second WNBA player ever to put up such a line in a single game.
It was her second 40-point effort in the last three days (she also added two assists, two steals and one block, just for good measure).
And with just eight games left in their season and the Aces having already secured a playoff spot, Wilson is flexing her might at exactly the right time.
While Caitlin Clark has been, rightfully, the focus for many during her historic rookie season, as Las Vegas looks to complete the three-peat, by winning their third consecutive championship come season’s end?
Their driving force will be Wilson, who has continued to impose her will on the court like few others can.
The W’s leading scorer (at 27.5 PPG, as of this writing), block leader (2.7, per-game) and second-place rebounder (behind Chicago rookie Angel Reese, with 12.0) Wilson is the ultimate two-way threat, able to control the flow of the game from either side of the ball.
The first overall pick of the Aces in the 2018 draft, from the moment she stepped onto the court as a rookie, even as a three-time All-American at South Carolina (with her own statue on campus), Wilson? She has shown herself, as highlighted by Sports Illustrated’s Emma Baccellieri earlier this summer, as a player who is more than willing to refine and further develop her game.
A centre, she has greatly expanded her skill set in recent years. Moving from beyond her pure post dominance to both evolving in her spacing and establishing herself as an occasional presence from three.
More well-rounded, more complete and at 28, right in the prime of her career, what we’ve seen over the course of this season is, easily, on a whole, the greatest work of her career so far.
High praise, considering she is already a two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year both - and now, an Olympic gold medalist, as well.
Well over-pace to break Diana Taurasi’s record of points-per-game (25.3) in a single season, Wilson has cemented herself as not just one of the most gifted players of her era but all-time.
But perhaps the most impressive thing?
She’s far from finished.