The story of Aja Wilson: from South Carolina to WNBA Superstar

As the WNBA playoffs kick-off, we are chronicling the stars that are expected to play a big role on the contenders. In this article, we look at the story of A’ja Wilson.

Chapter 1. Basketball Genes

A’ja Wilson was born in Columbia, South Carolina on August 8th, 1996 to Roscoe Jr and Eva Wilson.

Wilson had genes for Basketball, her father having played professionally in Europe for 10 years as well as her older brother Renaldo playing professionally overseas. Her father played across 7 different countries in 7 years in Europe, notably averaging 25 points and 20 rebounds while playing in the Swedish Basketball league.

A’ja attended a high school at Heathwood Hall Episcopal School, being one of the few black students at the private school. She showed promise at Basketball early being named to Varsity in just the eighth grade. As a senior Wilson led Heathwood to a South Carolina State Championship in 2014, being named National High School Player of the Year and a McDonalds All-American. Her performance left her ranked the no. 1 high school prospect by ESPN in the 2014 class.

Chapter 2. College

In 2015, A’ja elected to attend the University of South Carolina and join their NCAA Div 1 basketball program under legendary college coach Dawn Stanley in her home state. This was significant for A’ja, her father and grandparents did not have the opportunity to play at the University of South Carolina as athletics were only being integrated while her father was playing at nearby HBCU Benedict College South Carolina where he is in the school’s Hall of Fame.

As a gamecock, A’ja had fairly immediate success at the college level being named SEC Freshman of the Year, breaking 4 single-game and 3 single-season freshman records in 2015. As a sophomore, Wilson won SEC Player of the Year and was a consensus All-American leading the South Carolina Gamecocks to a Regular Season and Tournament Championship.

It was as a junior in 2017 Wilson led South Carolina to their first ever National Championship, in addition to winning the Tournament and Regular Season Championships, being named the most outstanding player of the at the NCAA Championship along the way.

As a season Wilson had another stellar statistical season, being named to the All-American first team and SEC Player of the Year for the third consecutive season. A’ja Wilson remains the South Carolina Gamecock’s Women’s Basketball All-Time leading scorer to this day. While Wilson was at South Carolina the team led the nation in game attendance, since 2014 having more than 10,000 people attend every game.

While at the University of South Carolina, Wilson earned a degree in Mass Communications and was a member of the sorority Alpha Kappa Alpha. In 2021, Wilson was honored by the University of South Carolina with a statue outside of the home stadium Colonial Life Arena for her contributions to the school:

“My grandmother couldn’t even walk on this campus; she had to walk around. If she was here today to see her granddaughter has a statue where she once could not walk … it goes to show how you just plant seeds, and that’s what it’s all about.”

Chapter 3. WNBA Draft and Rookie Year

In the 2018 WNBA draft A’ja was selected as the 1st overall pick, heading to Las Vegas to join the Aces franchise which had been recently relocated from San Antonio and had been re-branded from the Stars following a sale of the franchise to MGM Resorts. Wilson was joining the 2017 1st overall pick that had been made at the San Antonio Stars, Kelsey Plum.

Wilson was competitive her rookie season, being the second Rookie ever to put up a 35-point and 15-rebound performance, being voted into the 2018 All-Star Game, and taking out Rookie of the Year honors. Despite Wilson’s performance, the Aces the season 9th, falling just outside of the playoffs. The franchise’s future was bright though, with their newly drafted star putting up 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 2 assists per game to rank equal third overall in the league for scoring for her rookie season.

Following the conclusion of the WNBA season Wilson signed with Women’s Chinese Basketball Association club Shaanxi Red Wolves.

Chapter 4. Rising Star

A’ja continued to collect individual All-Star and All-WNBA accolades over her next three seasons. In addition, her team the Las Vegas Aces slowly improved through key off-season signings, most notably center Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum.

In 2019 the team made the playoffs to be defeated by the eventual champions the Washington Mystics in the Conference Finals. Aja earned another All-Star Game appearance.

In 2020, without fellow All-Star Liz Cambage, A’ja led the Aces to the Final in the WNBA Bubble where they were defeated by the Seattle Storm in a three-game sweep. A’ja took out her first MVP title in 2020, WNBA 1st Team and earned All-Defensive 2nd team for the first time.

In 2021, A’ja represented the US at the Tokyo Olympics as part of the gold medal-winning team, comfortably winning all their matches to eventually beat Japan in the final 90–75.

The 2021 season was a successful individual season for A’ja, being named to the All-WNBA 2nd team, but her team was eliminated in the conference finals despite a strong regular season record securing the 2nd overall seed in the playoffs by the Pheonix Mercury. In 2021 Las Vegas signed another key piece in their team — Chelseas Grey as well as being joined by a new coach — Becky Hammon.

Off the court, Wilson was also having success, being named in the Forbes 30 Under 30 in 2021. She has also started a business, Burnt Wax Candles, as well as a foundation, The Aja Wilson Foundation, that is focused on preventing bullying and educating people about Dyslexia. Aja also co-hosts a podcast with fellow WNBA star Napheesa Collier called Tea with A & Phee. Wilson sits on the WNBA’s Social Justice Council.

Chapter 5. MVP and WNBA Championship

By the start of the 2022 season, Liz Cambage had departed the Las Vegas Aces but the core of A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Grey, and Kelsey Plum remained. A’ja Wilson had a career year, taking out her second MVP, making All-WNBA 1st Team, Defensive WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, and All-WNBA. The Las Vegas Aces were dominant recording a 26 and 10 regular season record, beating the Connecticut Sun 3 to 1 in the finals series to take the franchises’ first WNBA championship and the first championship of any professional sporting team in the city of Las Vegas.

The 2023 season has seen A’ja continue on her trajectory to go down among the all-time WNBA greats. The Las Vegas Aces look poised to make another deep playoff run with dominant performances in the early games of the first round of the playoffs after a record-breaking 34 and 6 regular season win record. A’ja is again the MVP and Defensive Player of the Year discussions. The team, with the addition of future Hall of Famer Candace Parker, set a new regular season wins record and were dominant.

At only 27 years old, the most exciting part is A’ja Wilson’s career is just getting started.