A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces are once again on top of the WNBA world.
The four-time MVP and the Aces completed a four-game sweep of the Phoenix Mercury on Friday night to win the first best-of-seven WNBA Finals series and stamp themselves as the league’s new dynasty.
“Greatness is who you’re around,” Wilson said during the postgame news conference.
Already labeled a potential GOAT by her head coach Becky Hammon, Wilson took her game to another level after the Aces were routed 111-58 by the Minnesota Lynx in early August. That loss put Vegas at 14-14 and in danger of missing the playoffs entirely. From that moment on, the Aces ran the table the rest of the regular season, finishing the year on a 25-3 run and a dominant showing in the Finals.
The Aces’ 16-game win streak to finish the regular season propelled Wilson to her fourth MVP award, the most all-time and the first player to win back-to-back MVP awards since Cynthia Cooper in 1997-98. In the Finals, after her game-winner in Game 3 and overall dominance, Wilson was awarded Finals MVP and capped another historic campaign as the first player ever, NBA or WNBA, to win the scoring title, league MVP, Defensive Player of the Year award and Finals MVP.
“We got the best player in the world in A’ja Wilson,” Wilson’s teammate Chelsea Gray said. “Jackie Young the best guard in the league. Everybody that stepped in was huge. We champions.”
The Aces join the Houston Comets (1997-2000) as teams that won three or more WNBA titles in four years. The Comets, the league’s original dynasty, won the W’s first four titles.
