Instead of being used as a garnish, as they should be, terms like ‘generational’ and ‘goat’ are forced into scenarios where they do not belong. That is not the case for one A’ja Riyadh Wilson.
Two WNBA Finals MVPs.Three DPOYs.Three WNBA championships. Four league MVP awards. Five players have won MVP and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season. No player has won MVP, DPOY, and Finals MVP besides Wilson. At just 29 years old, she has more prime years ahead of her than behind her, which means this one-of-a-kind run as a professional basketball player is only reloading for a repeat.
A’JA. RIYADH. WILSON.
The one. The only. ✨
A’ja Wilson becomes the first player in WNBA history to earn regular season M’VP, D’POY, and Finals M’VP in a single season.
— Las Vegas Aces (@lvaces.bsky.social) October 11, 2025 at 5:29 AM
I am not in the business of crowning players as the greatest ever while they are still playing. I was not a fan when the league did so for Diana Taurasi, so it is only right that the same is the case for Wilson. What I will say is that I have never seen an athlete blaze a path directly through a list of her peers on the way that the Palmetto State’s finest did to reach her third title in a mere four seasons.
It may not be today, tomorrow, or even a few months from now. But at some point in the near future, we will take a gander at the 2025 season in its totality and realize that this may as well have been one of the greatest comeback stories in the history of sport.
THE MOMENT LAS VEGAS BECAME WNBA CHAMPIONS ONCE AGAIN 🏆
That’s three titles in four years for A’ja Wilson and the Aces 👏 pic.twitter.com/8Pe1flvJk2
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) October 11, 2025
Leading the Las Vegas Aces from the beginning to the end was Wilson. She will not let you forget that she did not do this alone. From Jackie Young to Chelsea Gray to Jewell Loyd to Megan Gustafson, the stars showed up, and so did the role players.
Through the days filled to the brim with light and others that carry sporadic, yet torrential downpours, Wilson always manages to credit her teammates and staff before herself. She is on a flight path that very few, if any, have been authorized for. Yet and still, she is more than aware that it takes a village to hoist a championship as many times as this core has in its time.
As the WNBA embarks on an unprecedented time in its history, with nearly all of its players being free agents and a collective bargaining agreement that will most likely not be agreed upon before the Oct. 31 deadline, take a moment to reflect on where this team was, the path it took to reclaim its crown, and how we will never see this particular kind of run again.
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Born and raised in Chicago, Christan Braswell is a women’s sports journalist with a focus on the WNBA and women’s college basketball. He’s an avid fan of elevator screens and stuffed-crust pizza. Outside of sports, he’s an avid cook and lover of the great outdoors.
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