A’ja Wilson finished the Aces’ 92-87 loss to the Lynx with 32 points, 7 rebounds, 1 assist, 2 steals, and 1 block. It was her eleventh 30-point game of the season and the fourth in the last ten games.
It may not have been enough to carry her team to a win, but it did move her up the WNBA’s all-time scoring list. Wilson passed Candace Parker to move into eleventh place—and she couldn’t have done it at a better time. It coincided with Parker’s induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame and a speech in which she shouted out Wilson as the next big WNBA great.
“I knew it was close to the finish line,” Parker said about her move to the Las Vegas Aces, “but no one honestly is ever ready. Full circle. I came in as a rookie with Lisa Leslie and her greatness, unknowing how time has wings, and I got to pass it to A’ja Wilson on the way out.”
From one great to the next
Candace Parker was HER from the moment she entered the WNBA as the number one pick in the 2008 WNBA Draft.
Parker is still the only player to win Rookie of the Year and MVP in the same year. She won another MVP award in 2013, as well as a Defensive Player of the Year award in 2020 and a Finals MVP in 2016. She led the WNBA in blocks twice, three times in rebounds, and once in assists. Parker was a two-way force who led the LA Sparks and Chicago Sky to championships and finished her career with another title as a member of the Las Vegas Aces.
Parker didn’t have the privilege of staying home in the offseason. She played overseas, and while those years of year-round basketball probably cut short her WNBA career, she found a lot of success in Russia, too. Moreover, Parker won two Olympic gold medals with Team USA.
Just like Lisa Leslie left the game in good hands with Parker when she retired in 2009, Parker retired next to another great dominating the league. Wilson just turned 30 earlier this month. She already has a historic four MVP awards to her name, alongside three Defensive Player of the Year awards and two Finals MVPs. Throughout her first eight seasons, she led the league in scoring twice and in blocks five times and was the best player on three championship teams in four years.
The scary part: Wilson is far from done. Even this season, she could lead the Aces to their fourth title in five years, and she is also in the running for MVP and DPOY once again.
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