Lately, I’ve been thinking about what it means to be great.
Is it something you do? Is it something you are? Is it both something within and something you work on? Is greatness something you’re born with that lies dormant until one day you unlock it?
And while you certainly can be great at something you aren’t passionate about, I imagine true greatness requires not only passion but dedication at its root.
While I may not be able to nail down what greatness is outside of a dictionary definition, I know it when I see it. I know when someone is doing something we’ve never seen before in a way we’ve never seen before.
And what we’re seeing from Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson this season is nothing short of greatness.
Wilson is a proven winner at every level — high school, college, pros and the Olympics. Her awards and accolades going back to her prep career are far too many to list, but in her seven-year professional career, Wilson is a two-time WNBA champion (2022, 2023), two-time MVP (2020, 2022), two-time Defensive Player of the Year (2022, 2023) and six-time All-Star (2018-19, 2021-24).
Add two Olympic and two World Cup gold medals, and Wilson has more hardware than my neighborhood Ace.
During the 2023 WNBA season, though, Wilson finished third in MVP voting, a few points behind Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas in an incredibly close race. Of the 60 voters, 59 had Wilson, Stewart and Thomas in their top three. But one voter gave Wilson a fourth-place vote, the only non-top-three mark among the trio.
“Fourth place in MVP voting in a year that I had better than my MVP before is mind-blowing to me,” she told Boardroom then. “So that right there spoke volumes to me, and it’s something that I’m going to always bring up because it doesn’t make sense to me. So I’ve got to make it make sense in my mind, and that means to go out there and play.”
It became personal for Wilson — which reminded me of someone else.
In the spring of 2020, “The Last Dance,” ESPN’s Michael Jordan documentary, kept millions entertained while we mostly hunkered down in the early going of the COVID-19 pandemic. While many memes emerged, one that continues to linger — despite not being exact — is Jordan saying, “… and I took that personally.”
The Chicago Bulls legend described in great detail a few times in his career when he took something someone said or did — or, more specifically, not winning MVP in 1993 — personally.
Throughout the 10 episodes of the documentary, we saw Jordan use perceived slights, whether big or small, as motivation. Doubting him was fuel to his fire. Talking trash to him made him play harder.
I’ve always believed elite athletes have another gear, a deeper level that allows them to compete. When mere mortals would hit a wall, they somehow mentally break through and achieve greatness.
But something that always has fascinated me is their ability to be motivated by a slight. There’s some zone, hidden from the rest of us, reachable by only a select few, that takes them to some G.O.A.T. plane.
Though Wilson went on to be a WNBA champion in 2023, that fourth-place vote still bugged her, and this season she has done nothing but wreck shop. Her play has made it undeniable that she is unlike any others.
The first player to reach 1,000 points in a season, Wilson entered Thursday night’s regular-season finale averaging 27 points — the highest scoring average in league history — with career highs in rebounding (12 per game), blocks (2.6) and steals (1.8). She’s the first player in WNBA or NBA history to lead the league in points, rebounds and blocks in the same season.
A monster of the midrange, Wilson is shooting 51.9% from the field. Her player efficiency rating (PER) is 35.2, the best in WNBA history. Wilson not only set the record for points, but also passed injured Chicago Sky forward Angel Reese for most rebounds in a season.
When the Aces aren’t playing well, Wilson makes it her mission to put the team on her back, even forgoing her fashionable tunnel fits for a basic white T-shirt and sweats to keep the main thing the main thing.
“I have to want to put on clothes. Right now, where I am, I don’t feel like I deserve to put on clothes. … Right now my main focus is just getting wins,” she said last month. “So if we start getting a couple wins under our belt, I might pop out and show a little something. Right now, I am digging in the bottom of my T-shirt drawer and I’m putting on a shirt and I’m getting out.”
Throughout the season, I watched Wilson play so smoothly and with such passion, my only reaction was to type her name in all caps. Because at some point, you run out of words for someone who turned a chip on her shoulder into one of the greatest single-season performances ever.
So while you might make a case as to why someone else could be MVP, I find it difficult to argue that Wilson isn’t. Just remember all caps when you spell the woman’s name.
