If you ask just about anyone who regularly watches the WNBA who the best player in the league right now is, they're going to tell you A'ja Wilson. Sure, there are plenty of people who will also answer a different player (usually their favorite), but it's pretty tough to deny that what Wilson is doing on the court is very special.
Her coach Becky Hammon is often one of the first people to note exactly that. Wilson added on 34 points, 12 rebounds, 9 assists, 1 steal, and 3 blocks on 52.6% shooting from the field and 3-5 from the beyond the arc against the Seattle Storm this week, a feat that helped her fly past 6,000 career points faster than anyone else in the history of the WNBA. As Hammon put it, "It seems like she’s breaking a record every day, so you start to lose track of them."
The thing about Wilson, who was drafted as the No. 1 overall pick by the Las Vegas Aces in 2018, she's always been good—she's even always been great—but she's still had to work on her skills just like anyone else starting out a new job has to. And unlike some WNBA newcomers, including Angel Reese and Caitlin Clark, she was able to do that without being under the microscrope of hundreds of thousands of people, some of whom are only pretending to be fans.
Wilson's 3-point shooting is something to brag about now, but that hasn't always been the case. In fact, this season she's clocking in at 55.6% from the three so far. There's no one who who say Wilson isn't a three-point shooter in 2026.
Both Reese and Clark have come under even more scrutiny lately from fans and watchers who believe they both have skills to work on. For Reese, it's also her 3-point shooting; for Clark, it's her defense and her emotional responses to some moments in games. If Wilson's career is any indication (and there's no reason it can't be), for Reese to solution is to keep reforming and working on her shot. Clark can similarly improve defensively by putting the work in—and the rest might just be part of what makes her who she is (like, say, Diana Taurasi before her).
Wilson is a leader in the WNBA for a lot of reasons, and one of them is the fact that she's worked hard to get to where she is now—and that's something anyone in the league can do.
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