At the end of the 2023 WNBA season, after the Las Vegas Aces won their second consecutive title and A'ja Wilson was named Finals MVP, Wilson sent out a message.
“Thank you to everyone who voted me fourth (for MVP), thank you so much,” Wilson said at the team's victory rally. “I want to thank you all, because it means I still have a lot of work to do.”
While the 2024 Aces have fallen flat on their laurels, that is not the case for Wilson, who, as she vowed last October, returned as an improved player in her seventh year in the WNBA.
Already a two-time MVP and Defensive Player of the Year, Wilson also currently holds the single-season record for most points scored by a player. Against the Indiana Fever and rookie Caitlin Clark, who may challenge that record in the not-too-distant future, Wilson scored her 941st career point in the second quarter, breaking Jewell Loyd's single-season record of 939 points set in 2023.
There are 941 buckets planned for 2024, and more are expected to come.
A'JA WILSON is the WNBA's single-season leader in points Welcome to #W pic.twitter.com/ysR3DWubVz
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 11, 2024
Numerous WNBA single-season records have been broken in the past two years since the regular season expanded to 40 games. When the league began in 1997, the season was 28 games. The next year it was 30 games, the year after that it was 32 games, and so on until 2002. The regular season was 34 games from 2003 to 2019, during which time Diana Taurasi set a scoring standard that stood until last season.
Still, Wilson's stats suggest he doesn't need more games to break records. Through 34 games, Wilson has scored 929 points, the most in league history, far surpassing Taurasi's 860 points in 2006. Wilson was averaging 27.3 points entering Wednesday's game.
If she scores a total of 83 points in the remaining five games, she will surpass Taurasi's 25.3 points record as the WNBA's all-time scoring leader in a single season.
Wilson not only led the league in scoring, but also in defensive rebounds, blocks, turnover percentage and win shares — a strong performance from Wilson, who is a overwhelming MVP candidate.
“I don't want anyone to forget how good (A'ja) is,” Aces coach Becky Hammon said before the Fever game. “She can do it all. There are times when I want to shake her while she's running and say, 'Do you know how good you are?' But I don't want to shake her because I don't want to wake her up. She just needs to stay in whatever zone she's in.”
This zone has helped Wilson make history. Through seven seasons in her career, Wilson is also threatening Taurasi's record as the league's all-time leading scorer. She has a better scoring average than Taurasi at her age (20.9 vs. 20.7), and the WNBA's expanded schedule allows Wilson to reach Taurasi's point totals in fewer seasons.
For now, Wilson and the Aces are focused solely on winning a third title, but as the greatest player of all time, he'll likely have to set some personal records along the way.
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(Photo: Justin Castaline/NBAE via Getty Images))
