A’One since Day One… A’ja Wilson’s been that

Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson goes in for a lay-up during a preseason game in South Carolina on Saturday, May 11.

PHOTO: Travis Bell/NBA Photos

By W.G. RAMIREZ

Delayed, but not denied.

It's been A'ja Wilson's mantra for a while now, assuring her adoring fans her time was coming.

The Nike shoe deal was only a matter of time, the face of the WNBA kept inferring.

Saturday, before Wilson's homecoming in Columbia, South Carolina, where the Las Vegas Aces dominated Puerto Rico 102-50 in front of 13,507 fans, the delay was over.

"TOP TIER, no brainer," Wilson wrote on an Instagram post, wearing a coy smile in her picture, to go along with her designer sunglasses (I couldn't tell if they were Dolce, Dior, Palm Angels… nevertheless, they were fly) and a Nike hoodie declaring, "Of Course I Have A Shoe Dot Com."

I checked, and that URL did in fact redirect me to a page on Nike.com with a statement announcing Wilson's signature shoe.

"You thought we'd sleep on an SEC champion, national champion, #1 one draft pick, five-time All-Star, U.S. Olympic gold winner, WNBA Finals MVP, a statue-having, New York Times Best Seller, TIME 100 Most Influential People in 2024, two-time WNBA champion, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time WNBA MVP, and pettiest hooper on the internet?

"You thought.

"Of course, A'ja's got a shoe.

"A'One A'rriving 2025."

Triggered.

Who?

Well, first of all, Aces coach Becky Hammon, who didn't realize it was Nike's post that called Wilson "pettiest" in what I would have to assume was a shot at those who have been triggered for quite some time, every time someone has clamored that Wilson has been-deserved a shoe and then others following with insidious comments.

It's been a hot topic since last year's WNBA Finals when Sporting Tribune founder Arash Markazi suggested to Wilson after Game 1 that she should have her own shoe.

"Ya think?" Hammon sniped back during that postgame press conference seven months ago, as Wilson leaned back with that same coy smile to collect her thoughts before saying a word. "She needs her own shoe, let me answer that. She is the two-time MVP. I'll toot her horn because she won't. Olympic gold medalist, best defensive player two years running. Like, stop."

Then it was Wilson's turn.

"In due time we'll see what goes on,” she said. “But in due time I feel like we're gonna get something shaking, moving and shaking. But I'm blessed to be able to just to have my name in that conversation. I know a lot of people don't get a lot of signature shoes. So, for people to say and demanding that I get one, I'm blessed to be in that situation.”

We’ll later find out she wanted so badly to say something right then, among other ample opportunities.

“In due time, we'll see,” she added. “Until then, I'm gonna rock these Bron 21s until the heels fall off."

Heels off. A'Ones incoming.

"It's so crazy that I'm sharing that with y'all because I've been sitting on that for a couple of years," Wilson said Saturday after scoring 27 points in the exhibition game. "Part of me was like, 'Well, I don't want to say that I have a shoe if it's not what I want it to be.' I have an awesome team at Nike that really put my vision out there into a shoe. So, it was hard, because I'm like, 'it's not ready yet.' And greatness takes a long, long time to build. and I wanted to make sure that when the shoe is ready, and when we're ready that IT'S ME. And so, it was very, very hard. and obviously I see the tweets, I see the DMs, I see the sources say XYZ is getting a shoe. And it's hard, it is hard to just sit there and kind of zip your mouth a little bit.

"But like I've always said, and I tweeted, 'what is delayed is not denied,' and I knew my moment was gonna come and I knew I wanted to share with my teammates and with my home state, and hope that the rollout was great."

And it was, as she detailed in Callie Lawson-Freeman's exclusive interview for the Review-Journal, which broke the news to accompany Wilson's announcement.

Back to triggered, as trolls flocked to posts on the Internet sharing the news, with outlandish comments that got me, uhm, triggered.

"Did Nike just get peer pressured a bit?" one person asked.

"yes...curious to know if it'll sell," another person replied.

"Will sell ZERO…the reason it was never done before," a third clown chimed in.

"Too late Nike," and "took em long enough," and "It's bout time," were three other comments.

It's deplorable to ignore that we're talking about one of the most polarizing athletes in the world, one who has had an impact since the day she was taken No. 1 in the 2018 WNBA Draft. Heck, it might be safe to say since her days as a rising star at South Carolina.

Wilson has been more than a superstar on the court, she's turned into an influence for young women with the hope of bettering themselves in whatever career they turn to. I have guest-spoken in high school classes where young women who have never touched a basketball bring up Wilson's name because she's inspired them to pursue greatness.

"I don't have enough adjectives to describe her as a person," Hammon said. "She's literally one of my favorite people on the planet. She's everything you'd want in a person, but also in your superstar. She just embodies everything that you want and need as a coach and does it so gracefully."

Which is why Hammon didn't take kindly to Nike's jab - which was indeed at fans, not Wilson - with tongue-in-cheek calling her petty.

Because she's not.

Hammon knows it. Nike knows it. Her teammates know it. The WNBA knows it.

And dammit, I know it. I’ve been known it, as Wilson has been as gracious an athlete can be when it comes to dealing with the media.

During COVID, with everything shut down and freelance writers like me out of work, I was going out of my mind on how to spend my time. I decided to write for my own site, every month with three stories under a specific theme. Wilson, along with her doggies Ace and Deuce, granted me a 1-on-1 Zoom for National Girls and Women in Sports Day. Last year, with her parents waiting for her after a game, Wilson didn’t hesitate to talk with me 1-on-1 for a feature that wasn’t even about her, because she wanted to give teammate Kiah Stokes her flowers. Two weeks ago, getting pulled in every direction during Media Day, she made time for me to talk about a rookie hopeful.

Wilson has evolved into a global superstar, yes. But Hammon nailed it, the grace and poise with which Wilson handles her status is impeccable.

Which is why I am confident every time I've said in conversation - especially as a guest on radio shows or have written freelance, that she is the face of the league.

I understood why Caitlin Clark struck a deal with Nike before her first professional game. Business is business, and it wasn't about to let the season start without announcing its alliance with the person stealing headlines, which also had everyone triggered.

But getting angry with Clark? That’s as petty as those getting mad at Wilson for what was never a gripe about not having a shoe, only slight insinuations that in due time she’d have her day.

Click-bait media outlets, along with obnoxious and ignorant fans, are driving narratives - not the athletes. These women are simply doing what they've been raised to do, going after their goals and dreams.

Now you can mark another one accomplished for the 27-year-old South Carolinian.

And with her seventh campaign set to begin Tuesday with another ring ceremony before the season opener against the Phoenix Mercury, what's next?

"I want to be a winner, I want to be a Hall of Famer, I want to be legendary," Wilson said. "So, whatever that takes, whatever that's in front of me, I want to execute it. I want to be a better teammate to my team. I want them to understand that I'm going to be there no matter what and have fun while doing it. That's my goal is continue to grow the game, push the needle in the way that people are opening up to it. It's a blessing to see.

"I can sit up here to talk about championships all day, but I want to dig deeper in that. I want to tap into communities. I want to really grow the game from the ground up, and that's how we sustain the growth. Like I always say, like I've been saying, this isn't a trend, this isn't a fad - this is us, this has been us."

Petty, eh?

Yeah, right.

An A’One since day one, Aj’a Wilson’s been that.