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Story by Cassandra Cousineau Photos by Hugh Byrne
The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson and South Carolina women’s basketball coach Dawn Staley have a special relationship.
Wilson did all she could to keep the Aces in a game against the Minnesota Lynx Wednesday before WNBA’s two-time defending champs lost their tenth game of the season, 98-87, to the Lynx. The league’s MVP favorite scored 15 points and snared nine boards as the Aces dropped to 17-10.
Wilson has also grown into a force off the court.
She’s now the face of the W, with a long list of product endorsement deals.
The WNBA today announced that Wilson was named the Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award winner for her positive impact and leadership in the community.
The award, named for WNBA and coaching legend Staley, honors a player who embodies her former coach’s spirit, leadership, and charitable efforts. This recognition is significant for Wilson, who played under Staley at the University of South Carolina from 2014 to 2018, where she won a national championship in 2017.
From being named to Time’s 100 Most Influential People to her ongoing work with The A’ja Wilson Foundation, Wilson has reached an elite level of marketability and court performance as the world’s premier women’s basketball player.
Yet, despite all these accolades, Wilson’s focus is firmly on one thing: winning.
And that didn’t happen at Mandalay Bay’s Michelob Ultra Arena.
With the Aces showing signs of vulnerability in the second half of the season, the championship contention that once seemed inevitable is now slipping into uncertainty. Individual milestones are secondary to the bigger picture for Wilson, who leads the league in scoring with an impressive 27.3 points per game and recently became the franchise’s all-time leading scorer.
Her marketability is undeniable.
She’s been the face of brands like Gatorade and is the first WNBA player to grace the global cover of “NBA 2K25.” A Nike signature shoe collection designed to reflect her bold style is set for release next year. But all the branding, honors, and spotlight come with an underlying truth: Wilson is driven by championships, not just fame.
The Aces are clinging to the No. 4 seed, sitting one game ahead of the Seattle Storm and now three games behind the Minnesota Lynx and Connecticut Sun, with roughly one month remaining in the NBA season.
The Aces started the season as heavy favorites, but the team ise now battling inconsistency. Coach Becky Hammon has leaned on Wilson, who continues to dominate night after night. Still, even a star like her can’t carry a team alone. As Wilson balances her role as both a brand icon and the backbone of the Aces, she remains laser-focused on the one thing that solidifies her legacy: winning it all.
There’s no denying that Wilson is bankable in every sense of the word. Still, for her, success isn’t measured in awards or sponsorship deals but in rings. With the Aces’ championship hopes hanging in the balance, Wilson’s determination to remain in title contention truly defines her as one of the most influential figures in the game today.