Meteoric rise has A’ja Wilson looking like the idols she once admired
Photo courtesy: Las Vegas Aces
LAS VEGAS -- As Lisa Leslie was winning back-to-back WNBA titles in 2001 and 2002, a little 5-year-old girl in South Carolina watched from afar with stars in her eyes.
When Candace Parker won her first WNBA MVP trophy as a rookie in 2008, that same little girl in South Carolina was 11.
WNBA television coverage was limited when A'ja Wilson was growing up, but she knew who Leslie and Parker were, and slowly her dream about playing basketball grew stronger. They were the women who helped Wilson believe her dream could come true.
Imagine the emotion for the 24-year-old reigning WNBA MVP, on National Girls and Women in Sports Day, knowing she's become to thousands of little girls what Leslie and Parker were to her.
"I think that’s my message now, now that I’m getting older and now that I’m seeing a lot of different things and hearing a lot of different things," Wilson said recently during a Zoom session with WGRamirez.com. "I want to be a part of a bunch of other Black women to help the next generation, to see us, understand that we’re out here, we’re doing things, and you’re fully capable of doing it as well."
Doing it, as in NCAA champion, consensus National Player of the Year, a No. 1 draft pick, competing at the USA level, a two-time WNBA All-Star, a WNBA MVP, a trip to the WNBA Finals, and most recently, a statue of herself installed on the plaza in front of Colonial Life Arena at the University of South Carolina...
That's just a few of the highlights.
Since the day she arrived in Las Vegas, Wilson has been every bit a part of transforming Southern Nevada from a college sports town into a landing spot for major professional sports, as the likes of any of the Vegas Golden Knights or Las Vegas Raiders.
And it goes beyond the bright smile she flashes at fans when she runs out of the tunnel at Mandalay Bay Events Center, more than her classic introduction “stanky leg” dance with former teammate Sydney Colson, more than the All-Star Weekend appearance when she and the Aces hosted the festivities, and more than leading the team to last season's WNBA Finals.
So much more.
Wilson has been out in the community, gone to YMCA events she could have easily let other players go to, spent time in different areas of the valley, reminding so many youths how important they are to her, just as she may be to them.
"She has become the leader that I saw in her from the start, and I'm very proud of it," Las Vegas Aces coach Bill Laimbeer said in September after Wilson won the league's MVP trophy.
Now add to the mix the humility and humbleness she walks and talks with, it's no wonder she's become the same role model she once saw in those former Los Angeles Sparks superstars, for so many little girls and young women.
For one young lady, Wilson's become impressionable.
TRICK OR TREAT
With a majority of us working from home while the Aces were playing in a WNBA bubble, the Zoom sessions were never short of touching when 9-year-old journalist Pepper Persley was on board to speak to the players, for her stories and podcasts on The Next website.
Each time PR man John Maxwell announced Persley's name, you could see through the players' smiles how heartwarming it was for the Aces to hear the young journalist's questions. Persley was insightful and informed, she knew her topics, and she was poignant in what she was asking - all during a time when daily emotions ran high as WNBA players promoted the Say Her Name campaign in honor of Breonna Taylor.
On Sept. 24, Persley's precious persona and pure innocence struck a chord with Wilson, who fought back tears when asked what message she would give to children who are confused, sad, and angry.
I don't think, at that moment, the 9-year-old journalist or 24-year-old icon realized the impact they were having on one another.
"Pepper, you got me tearing up," Wilson said that day. "My message is to keep fighting. We can't stop fighting. It gets harder as you get older. I hate that you even have to think about going through it. I'm going to make sure that you don't have to live through this as hard as we've lived through it right now. When you get older, I hope that there's a change, that you don't have to continue to write about it. Dream big and don't let anyone tell you that you cannot do something, that you are incapable or unqualified, just because of the color of your skin."
A little more than one month later, on Oct. 31, the face of the Las Vegas Aces was floored to learn Persley's Halloween costume was none other than A'ja Wilson.
"That’s when it just hit me; the effects that can go on," Wilson said during our conversation last month. "I’m like, 'Oh my, God. That’s so powerful.' I was overwhelmed just by that one picture just because someone wants to be me, or someone thinks I have that effect enough to where they want to dress like me. I think that’s when it really hit me."
Wilson said she often hears about students that write about her for Black History Month projects, bringing back memories of her writing about Parker and many other athletes she looked up to when she was in school.
As the one now being emulated, it's the little things that keep her going, knowing young girls are sitting in class - even if it is a Zoom class - and can pick any athlete in the world, but choose Wilson to write about.
"I’m truly blessed to be able to be in the situation where they can trust me enough to be like, 'I want to be like her,'" Wilson said.
STATUESQUE
Photo courtesy: Las Vegas Aces
Wilson's role in society has gotten bigger since arriving in Las Vegas, but it didn't sink in just how much of an icon she's become until last month, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, when she became one of a select few Black female athletes to be immortalized with her own statue. The Columbia-area native stood in amazement on the grounds of the University of South Carolina, looking at an 11-foot bronze replica of her one-handed soft jumper that will serve as inspiration for little girls who walk by her alma mater.
What meant more to her, though, was what she learned two days before the ceremony while preparing her speech. Wilson's grandmother, Hattie Rakes, grew up four blocks from the governor's mansion in South Carolina, and as a child, was forbidden from walking anywhere near the campus. Instead, Rakes was forced to walk around the campus to get to where she needed to go.
"It goes to show how she was planting seeds then," Wilson said of her grandmother. "She was leaving things for me to now pick up, for me to continue to push through, and that’s what I want my journey to be. I know change doesn’t happen overnight, but the mere fact that I can leave my legacy, or leave a footprint for someone else coming up, that’s what it’s truly all about.
"I had the best time of my life, being coached by an amazing woman in Coach (Dawn) Staley, another Black woman. It truly shows how things are in motion and we’ve just got to keep leaving legacies for the next generation; use that stepping stool and get to the top."
From her final game at South Carolina to becoming one of the recognizable female athletes in the world, Wilson said it feels as if she's been "through so much stuff in a matter of a week."
Her meteoric rise is a credit to her diligence toward her craft and the community, her dedication to uplift Black women and little girls, becoming a voice for the voiceless, all of which have helped push her through the moments where things are speeding by and she can't find time to reflect. For Wilson, it's a constant battle of living in the moment, while also recognizing her next step. As tactful as she is on the court, she's relentless in her approach to do right by her adoring fans.
This is why she often takes time for reflection, distancing herself from outside noise when time permits, whether it's for a week, or a day, or even an hour.
"That’s the part that gets a lot of athletes messed up, is when we stretch ourselves so thin, and it runs us low," Wilson said. "I’ve always had those days. By the time I can reflect, it’s on to the next. But I’m greatly appreciative to be in this situation for things to go upward.
"I’m still a human being that has feelings. I’m still a human being that goes through the ups and downs in life, and I may not always want to smile for that picture, but you find a way at all times and all costs, pretty much."
SAY HER NAME
Photo courtesy: Las Vegas Aces
When Wilson wasn't on the court or in her room at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida in the WNBA bubble last season, she was working tirelessly on the Say Her Name campaign, part of the Black Lives Matter movement that called for racial equality.
It still resonates, as she continued to say back then, that the efforts in Bradenton needed to continue in every player's respective WNBA city to make a difference.
It's why one of the more conflicting things in Wilson's mind right now is representing USA Basketball on the women’s national team. A group of the world's best players has congregated in Columbia, South Carolina for its first training camp of 2021, with a distant eye on winning a seventh-consecutive Olympic gold medal at this summer’s Tokyo Games.
But when you call for societal justice from a country that's been riddled with racial tension, Wilson said it's "being a hypocrite" to pull on a jersey with U-S-A emblazoned on the front.
"It really is when you look at it," Wilson said. "I haven’t really tackled that in my mind yet, on how I’d like to go about it ... but it is something that I’ve honestly thought about. It’s something that I’ve taken a lot of deep thought and time to just think about. What’s the message I’m trying to get across when it comes to being an Olympian and putting those three letters across your chest, knowing that you’re representing something bigger than just yourself?"
Wilson said she'll rely on the private conversations she always cherishes with Staley, who is also head coach of the national team. Nearly four years removed from winning a national championship with the Gamecocks, the two remain close, as Staley continues to help Wilson stay grounded by being truthful in everything they talk about, keeping it 100 as they say.
"At the end of the day, if I feel like what I’m doing is standing by me and I’m letting some people in to how I feel, either they’re going to like or they’ll hate it, but I can’t please everybody," Wilson said. "As long as I get my message across and this is why I feel this way, I’ll feel better on the inside versus trying to bottle it up or trying to beat around the bush - it’s who I am."
An idol, like the ones that little girl looked up to with stars in her eyes.
