A’ja Wilson is the greatest player in the WNBA right now, arguably the greatest WNBA player ever. That’s not hyperbole. That’s not hometown bias. That’s Sports Illustrated. Or that was Sports Illustrated — in December 2023.
In other words, the venerable sports publication nominated the Las Vegas Aces forward for GOAT status before she became the first player in WNBA history to score more than 1,000 points in a season. Before she won her third league MVP. Before she won her second gold medal and claimed the tournament MVP at the Olympic Games in Paris.
And that’s just on-court A’ja. In the offseason, the former University of South Carolina standout and six-time WNBA All-Star likes to enjoy a little downtime, which, well — decide for yourself if she’s pumping the brakes.
In February 2024, she published her epistolary memoir Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You. Within a week, it was a New York Times best-seller. In February 2025, she was back at her alma mater for the retirement of her No. 22 Gamecocks jersey, dabbing tears as it was hoisted to the rafters at Colonial Life Arena. Not three weeks later, she was named one of TIME magazine’s 2025 Women of the Year.
In a career punctuated by a long string of memorable moments, the 28-year-old is enjoying what can perhaps best be described as an ALL CAPS MOMENT — and we haven’t even touched THE SHOE.
A’ Shoe In
Two years in the making, Nike’s new A’One silhouette officially hits shelves and online shopping carts May 6, but a few lucky Gamecock FAMS got a chance to buy it early when Wilson was in Columbia as grand marshal of the annual St. Pat’s Parade in Five Points. And fans everywhere else also enjoyed a few sneak peaks.
Wilson’s “favorite Olympian from outta town,” Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo, laced up a pair of the signature Pink Aura version for a showdown with the Brooklyn Nets in February — just days before Wilson confirmed their power couple status during her jersey retirement speech. Best friend and fellow former Gamecock Allisha Gray rocked the pink shoe in an Unrivaled League game in March, then busted out the Black Label exclusive color way a few weeks later.
And then there was Coach. Or no, first there was Coach. Wilson sent the very first pair of Pink Auras to her mentor, Dawn Staley. Later, Wilson’s “second mom” unboxed a pair of Black Labels on Instagram Live, and her off-the charts reaction went viral.
“Oh, it was amazing, but it didn’t catch me by surprise because that’s just who she is,” says Wilson with a huge smile. “Coach Staley supports her players. We could be selling toe socks and she’d be like, ‘I got me 50 pairs!’ So I’m just so happy that I was able to give her the shoe first. And she would literally cuss me out if I didn’t!”
Tough Skin Charmin
In one sense, the A’ja Wilson story begins with Coach Staley. Yes, Wilson was a top prospect coming out of Columbia’s Heathwood Hall, where the McDonald’s All-American led her high school to a state championship. And yes, her father, Roscoe Wilson — himself a former professional player in Europe — helped his daughter develop her talents and basketball intelligence before she ever suited up.
But it was Staley who convinced the Columbia native to stay put, play for the Gamecocks and help the program become the perennial NCAA powerhouse they now are. It was Staley who toughened her up, Staley who taught her how to handle the elbows that inevitably get thrown between the hugs and high-fives.
“I remember her and Coach [Nikki] McCray, rest her soul, they would call me ‘Charmin.’ They were like, ‘You private school!’ ‘You soft!’ ‘You Charmin!’ And I’m like, ‘What? No, I’m not!’” Wilson laughs at the memory but appreciates the approach. “They really helped me develop tough skin. They gave me tough love. If I didn’t have Coach Staley in my life, I definitely would have been somewhere crying in the corner.”
Trouble in the Bubble
The Charmin anecdote didn’t make it into Dear Black Girls, a memoir told through candid, sometimes self-deprecating, frequently funny open letters to Black girls and Black women about life on, off and even before Wilson set foot on the court. For the 2018 mass communications grad, who wanted to be a writer before she could dribble, it was a dream fulfilled. It was also her chance to help the next generation fulfill their own.
The book grew out of two essays she wrote for The Players' Tribune (“Dear Black Girls” and “Dear Black Women”) and delves into Wilson’s relationshipswith her parents, Roscoe and Eva; her grandmother, Hattie Rakes; and of course, Staley. The anecdotes run the gamut, from embracing her dyslexia to confronting racism as a young Black girl to learning the social media landscape as an unapologetic WNBA rookie.
For comic relief, she even shares a story about the dress she didn’t properly measure before the WNBA draft, when the Aces picked her No. 1 overall.
“I need my outlets. That’s what I missed the most in the bubble.”
But Wilson also writes frankly — and speaks frankly — about her struggles with anxiety. While she feels good about where she is now, the mental health issues that began during the WNBA COVID ‘bubble,’ when the league quarantined for a three-month season in Bradenton, Florida, nearly sidelined the 6'4" superstar.
The Black Lives Matter protests were playing out on social media following the murder of George Floyd. She was separated from her family, her friends, even her two Aussiepoos, Ace and Deuce. And when basketball became her entire focus — when she couldn’t step away after a game or look up and see a familiar face in the stands — the best player in the WNBA hit one of the worst stretches of her life.
“I need my outlets,” she says. “That’s what I missed the most in the bubble — just coming home to my puppies, having the opportunity just to see my parents, have them come to my games. That experience made me cherish my off-the-court stuff a lot more because that was all taken from me.”
And the emotions were compounded by her success. She was killing it on the court — despite the Aces losing to the Seattle Storm in the finals, Wilson still won the season MVP — but she felt alone. She felt vulnerable. She felt trapped.
“In the bubble, when I won my first MVP, that was not a great year for me. I struggled a lot that year,” she explains. “On the outside, people were like, ‘That’s your first MVP! You should be able to do this!’ And it was like, ‘No, I’m really uncomfortable.’ I did not like where I was, the box I was in. I was fighting to get out.”
The bubble burst at the end of the 2020 season. She went from anxious to depressed. She suffered her first real panic attack in the car with her parents. A few months later, in January 2021, she was immortalized with an 11-foot bronze statue outside Colonial Life Arena, but she couldn’t fully embrace the moment with COVID still limiting public gatherings and her head in a very bad place.
But she started seeing a therapist. She started writing the book. She started looking inward — and then emerged on the other side.
“The type of person that I am, I instantly try to problem solve and figure out: ‘Where’s the problem? How can I fix it?’” she says. “But when you’re having an anxiety attack or a panic attack, you’re literally making it worse because you’re constantly trying to figure out what’s wrong.
“I like when I’m in control of things that I can be in control of, and the minute that’s stripped from me, I’m lost. But I’ve learned how to handle it a lot better. Sometimes you have to let go in order to get through.”
A’One and Hardly Done
When Nike approached Wilson in 2023 about The A’One, a signature moment became true momentum. She already had a marketing partnership with the company, but for an elite athlete, having your own shoe is next-level, and Wilson threw herself into the project like she was wrestling for a rebound.
“It just really hit my heart with a lot of love and passion. That’s what you see when it comes to that shoe,” she says. “I bought into it 100 percent.”
And now that the secret’s out — now that she’s seen the A’One in the hands of her college coach, and on the feet of her best friends — she’s not only taking things in stride; she’s up and running. She is ready for whatever comes next, she says, including the talented young athletes following in her footsteps.
Nowhere was that more apparent than at the jersey retirement ceremony. After thanking her family, her friends, her coaches and the FAMS, Wilson started to walk off the court. But just outside the paint at the north end of the arena, not far from the Gamecocks bench, she struck a pose for the cameras. A moment later, the entire 2024-25 women’s team swarmed the court, smothering the potential GOAT with hugs, smiles and poses of their own.
“That was spontaneous. I had no idea they were going to do that, but it just goes to show the culture that Coach Staley has developed,” says Wilson. “Our culture is a sisterhood. We are true sisters. We’ve always just had this feeling that even when you make it to the pros, or whatever the next level is, if we see each other anywhere, we have that connection.”
