A’ja Wilson, the 4x WNBA MVP winner and 3x WNBA Champion, was chosen as TIME Journal’s Athlete of the 12 months, it was introduced Tuesday. Wilson is a wonderful candidate, having gained her 4th MVP award earlier than the age of 30 in 2025, and has additionally collected varied different awards, together with the WNBA’s Defensive Participant of the 12 months, highest scorer, and Finals MVP awards, and have become the quickest WNBA participant in historical past to attain 5,000 factors.
Her dominance this yr transcends sport and dives into tradition as nicely. Wilson launched her first signature shoe, the Nike A’One, this spring and the inventory bought out in minutes. She can also be a New York Instances Bestselling Writer for her debut e-book, Pricey Black Women: How one can be True to You. Wilson has turn out to be a task mannequin for women, unapologetic about her talent and expertise, all whereas preferring to let her recreation converse for itself and mastering the artwork of humble confidence.
The factor about Wilson is that she is rarely overly flashy about something she does, but her excellence simply shines by means of; it’s part of her being. She’s wonderful at being unapologetic however not boastful, and every part she ever says about herself could be backed up by her accolades. She’s the type of one who waits till there’s undisputed proof of her greatness after which lets you recognize about it. She’s previous the purpose now of getting to show herself, after all, and might hopefully enter a stage of her profession now the place she is well known and simply enjoys every part that comes with making a legacy in real-time.
As a part of her TIME honor, the journal wrote a characteristic on her that included sights and sounds from the Las Vegas Aces’ championship parade in October, in addition to a one-on-one interview a few month later. The story talks about her iconic parade outfit, together with the Marvel Thanos gauntlet she custom-made to incorporate all her accomplishments from the 2025 WNBA season. She talked in regards to the Aces’ historic turnaround this yr, going from a .500-level group midseason to profitable a championship, with Wilson calling it a “wake-up name.”
One other fascinating a part of the article was the place the interviewer talks in regards to the progress of the WNBA. Clearly, that’s one thing being highlighted proper now because the WNBA’s gamers negotiate what will probably be a historic Collective Bargaining Settlement (CBA) with the league. Wilson talked about within the TIME article that the gamers “should not transferring till we get precisely what we wish.”
Regardless of this complete TIME honor being a celebration of Wilson’s achievements this yr, it was fascinating to see the characteristic convey up Caitlin Clark. Particularly, there was an element about Clark’s damage this season being “vindication” for the league, as a result of regardless of Clark lacking a lot of the season, they nonetheless recorded progress in viewership and attendance data (emphasis mine):
Her rocket-ship run comes at an opportune time. In 2024, Caitlin Clark’s rookie season helped the WNBA hit milestone TV and attendance figures. However Clark’s emergence created a poisonous, racially divisive narrative that she was nearly singularly liable for salvaging a league whose basis had been constructed by a largely Black participant base. This storyline bothered Wilson, who in 2024 earned her third WNBA MVP award and her second Olympic gold medal in Paris, the place she was named event MVP. “It wasn’t a success at me, as a result of I’m going to do me regardless,” she says. “I’m going to win this MVP, I’ll win a gold medal, y’all can’t shake my résumé. It was extra so, let’s not lose the recipe. Let’s not lose the historical past. It was erased for a minute. And I don’t like that. As a result of we now have tons of girls which have been by means of the grimiest of dirty issues to get the league the place it’s in the present day.”
The 2025 WNBA marketing campaign offered a measure of vindication for a lot of gamers. Regardless of Clark’s lacking a lot of the season with an damage—one thing Wilson, to be clear, didn’t cheer—viewership for each the common season and postseason was up 5% to six% on a per-game common throughout ESPN networks. “Generally you want a proof within the pudding,” says Wilson. “The largest factor for us, and why I used to be so glad, is that we proceed to rise to the event. This was only a matter of time for us to essentially bloom and blossom. As a result of we now have been invested in one another and our craft for a really very long time. It was similar to, ‘They’re going to concentrate.’”
Now, clearly, Clark is a large a part of each WNBA dialog as of late, however it looks like a stretch to convey her up in a dialog that’s purported to be about A’ja Wilson’s yr. Moreso, utilizing a phrase like “vindication” promotes the bad-faith narrative that different WNBA gamers hate Clark, or are rooting for her downfall. The article made positive to incorporate a disclaimer that Wilson didn’t rejoice the truth that Clark was injured, however why even convey it up in any respect?
There are such a lot of different methods to quantify that the league noticed progress this yr. You may dive into the numbers — per ESPN, the 2025 season was the most-watched season in league historical past, averaging 1.2 million viewers and up 5% year-over-year. The WNBA Finals in 2025 had been the second-most-watched WNBA Finals of all time, solely following final season’s Finals between New York and Minnesota. You may dive into the assist the WNBPA is receiving as they negotiate contracts — together with fan assist, and assist from different leagues’ unions.
Objectively, it’s true that Clark being out for a lot of the season and the WNBA not falling into spoil like some might have thought is an effective signal for your entire league. But, at a time when the gamers should be a united entrance, together with a bit that just about looks like it’s digging to discover a motive to drag them aside, is lame. It wouldn’t even be as dangerous if the chosen phrase had not been “vindicated,” because the implication there’s nearly that gamers celebrated that they’d had success with out Clark, moderately than simply celebrating their success.
Wilson’s quote in that part of the characteristic says it finest — “… we proceed to rise to the event. This was only a matter of time for us to essentially bloom and blossom. As a result of we now have been invested in one another and our craft for a really very long time.” It’s not about one particular individual being in or out of the lineup; it’s that it doesn’t matter what is thrown at these gamers, they may rise as much as the event. They’re finest once they come collectively as a collective, as a substitute of being pitted in opposition to one another by the media with a view to gasoline false narratives.
A’ja Wilson was one of the best girls’s basketball participant in 2025, by a protracted shot. She has been for a few years. That doesn’t imply anybody else is made to be lower than; it simply means Wilson has a degree of expertise that, in her phrases, “is difficult to meet up with.” That’s what she thinks the hunt to be the Best of All Time is: Placing your self able the place it might be arduous for anybody else to catch up. Not tearing everybody else down so that you’re the only individual standing on the mountaintop.
The factor that makes Wilson so good at what she does, but additionally such function mannequin, is that she by no means is dependent upon anybody else for validation. She focuses on her work, on herself, and lets her starpower shine by means of that method. She’ll by no means want anybody else to falter to show that she’s nice; she simply is.
