A’Ja Wilson Is The Future Of The WNBA And The Face Of A Sports Revolution

When I talked to A’ja Wilson last month, I forgot that it wasn’t the offseason for her. That’s not how it works for many WNBA superstars. Those who haven’t started families or got tired of the grind skip playing overseas — which is often much more lucrative than actually playing in the domestic league in America — essentially play professional basketball year-round.

Wilson has played for three different teams in 2018, and she hasn’t been traded once. The South Carolina standout was taken first overall in the 2018 WNBA Draft by the Las Vegas Aces. She shined for the newly-relocated and renamed Aces, winning WNBA’s Rookie of the Year. And then she hopped on a plane to China to play with the Shanxi Flame. According to reports, that deal is worth at least $400,000.

For many WNBA players, the risk of overuse or injury is worth the payday because you simply can’t make that much money in the WNBA. That disparity is why Wilson has almost immediately become a prominent voice in the WNBA, actively criticizing the pay gap between the WNBA and the NBA and advocating for players rights on and off the court.

Wilson suffered a knee injury during her season in China last week, news that only stands out more given that the WNBA Players Union opted out of its collective bargaining agreement with the league. A battle is coming in the WNBA, and players like Wilson seems ready to further the cause. She spoke with Dime on behalf of Mountain Dew about her whirlwind 2018, the future of the women’s game and why companies are starting to embrace WNBA stars as much as they have NBA players.

You’ve had a pretty crazy year with an NCAA Tournament run, going first overall and then your rookie year in the WNBA. Have you had a chance to get a bit of downtime and reflect on it all just yet?

Honestly, no I haven’t. It’s been straight form college to the WNBA to USA Basketball to right now, where I’m overseas in China as we speak. So I haven’t really had a good chance to sit back and reflect on everything, but once that time comes it’s definitely going to be a great time (laughs).

Let’s talk about Mountain Dew and you joining the team. What’s it mean to be the first WNBA player to join the roster and get involved with guys like Joel Embiid?

It definitely means a lot to me to have this opportunity to kind of expand Mountain Dew’s brand on the women’s side of it all. I’m just excited to work with them. It’s definitely a great crop of athletes that Dew has and I’m excited to be one of them.

I spoke with Candace Parker when she dropped her third PE with adidas. She talked about “the next wave” and how important representation is in women’s basketball. What does it mean to you to see brands embracing women a bit more proactively?

It’s definitely something special. I’m glad to be in the up and coming level of it all. I think of women that have paved the way for us that have done a great job in this situation. So I’m just happy to be one of the young guns that’s able to embrace these things in an era of empowering women. I’m definitely excited to team up with Mountain Dew the same way Candace has teamed up with adidas for her PE. That’s a great look for her, and this is great for me. It’s all happening, it’s all coming together so well. So in the future, these young girls looking up to us, it’s the same way we looked up to the veterans of the league growing up. I’m glad that I can kind of be a part of it.

You mentioned Candace doing some broadcast work, and that’s something you got to do with ESPN in the WNBA postseason. What was that like? Why do you think so many athletes are giving broadcasting a shot?

It was a great experience. I didn’t expect my first commentating experience to be with ESPN for a WNBA playoff game. I thought I’d at least start off with a collegiate game, so it was definitely a shock. I was super nervous, but to have the opportunity to use my voice in that situation, to help bring my knowledge of the game to people that are watching was definitely something special.

I think that’s why player are getting involved in commentating: we know the game best because to only are we in it, we are watching the game on film as well. So it’s just like a film session. I think that’s what brings it really together for us.

You’re joining a Dew roster that includes Joel Embiid and Russell Westbrook and a few NBA rookies as well. Do you want to do a commercial with those guys? What kind of things are you angling to do with them now that you’re on the roster?

Um, I mean, anything. Just have fun with them. I know the majority of them and I know that they’re a fun group, so I’m just excited to tag along in any way that I can and expand this brand. That’s what it’s all about, and I can have fun doing it. There’s nothing better than that.

I know you’re not there right now, but what was it like moving to Las Vegas and experiencing the first season with the Aces. What was that first season in the city like?

Living in Vegas was definitely a shock, being a little southern girl, it was definitely a culture shock. But at the same time, I saw a side of the city that many people don’t see. Right before you get to the strip, that was where I lived. But I didn’t really go to the strip. I kind of saw, just the home side of Vegas.

It was a lot of fun bringing in the Aces there, having people go to games and do such a great job to support us and watch our fanbase grow. I think people got hooked on to us and we have a great fan base and it’s continued to grow. We’re in a great place, Las Vegas, where people go in and out of there all the time. So people can stop by and catch a game and I think that’s something special. I think we realize where we are.

I think people misunderstand the market there and just how many people live there and how it’s a real community beyond just the strip. Did that surprise you to see how many people were there to support a team from Vegas?

Yes, it definitely did. That’s what Las Vegas is known for — the strip and entertainment and gambling. But, you know, anywhere and everywhere you have a sports fan. And that’s something that Las Vegas wanted: they wanted sports. They just wanted a team to support. They had UNLV, but that’s collegiate sports. Professional sports is a whole different game.

We had the opportunity to go to a Golden Knights game, I mean, the place is packed. It was sold out. Our season opener, the place was packed. We had Floyd Mayweather sitting courtside at our games. It’s what Vegas needed, and I’m so glad we got to be there. And the Raiders are coming soon. So the best is yet to come for Las Vegas and I think they’re all about it, too. That’s always great when you have a state, a company, a league that has all bought into you. Because they treat us so well, as a team and as professional athletes.

Is there anything in particular that you were surprised to learn about the WNBA in particular in your first season. Maybe something that changed your game or how you approach the game.

The biggest thing I’d have to say the mental aspect. I don’t think I realized how much the mental game really matters until I made it to the pros. In college, you have so much on your mind. You have class, you have weights, you have meetings with your professor, you have team bonding. There’s just a lot of stuff. But when it comes to being a professional athlete, that’s your job. You don’t have time. And I kind of found myself being in college at times and that wasn’t a really good look for me. It kind of knocked me back to reality and it made me realize that it’s probably 90 percent mental. The rest is physical.

You’ve been outspoken about the pay gap between the WNBA and the NBA. A lot of different stats have come out and the one I think is most telling is the average WNBA salary is less than what the NBA’s sports league athlete makes. You tweeted about the difference in contracts when LeBron signed with the Lakers. Did the initial reaction from skeptics surprise you? You tweeted something that was factually correct and got a lot of criticism for it.

Yeah. I mean, it’s just one of those things where a lot of people are just have some phony information. And then they kind of know but we’re just going to keep going and keep going as a league.

Why do you think fans always defer to owners when it comes to labor negotiations between owners and players? It happens again and again in sports — players will always be closer economically to fans and yet they always take a team’s side when it comes to contract talks or even CBA agreements. Why do you think that is?

Oh, that’s a great question. I honestly never looked at it that way. I just think when people look at a team they look at the person with the most control and they gravitate toward that. But as players, we just love the game and we love what we do. We’re going to go out there and play with a lot of passion and heart.

You’ve gone viral a couple of times. One for that LeBron tweet, but another time when you were drafted and Blake Griffin gave you a shout on draft night. You’ve had a pretty big year, but is that the best thing that’s happened to you in 2018? Where does that rank on the list?

(Laughs.) Yeah, it’s probably still No 1. That was a huge moment for me. That was kind of just a dream come true. Of course, being drafted (is a dream come true.) But when you have a player you’ve looked up to since a young age, I mean, I was probably Blake’s No. 1 fan. And he probably hears that all the time, but honesty, I followed him through his years at Oklahoma, I knew he was home schooled, it was just really, really weird how much I knew about Blake Griffin.

And I’m kind of embarrassed about it, I’m a fangirl but I don’t want to creep him out. I was just a fan of his game and his personality, he’s a funny guy, I like all his comedy shows and all that. So just to have the opportunity to see him supporting me in that time was definitely something special and something I’m going to remember forever.

So here’s the last question: you’re going to have people who are just as big a fan of you as you are a fan of Blake Griffin. What does that mean to you?

Oh man. I think that’s the beauty of it all. I never really realized that people will look at me the same way I look at Blake because I just found myself just so bland, so basic. So that’s definitely the beauty of it all. That’s the reason that I play and that’s the reason that I do what I do. I am who I am.

My parents have done a great job with me in just keeping me balanced and I feel a lot of pressure, but when you have young girls that are shaking and crying just because you’re saying ‘hey’ to them, that’s when it really hits me that, wow, I have the potential to really have an impact on a young girl’s life. And I just really want to continue to be the best that I can be to show them anything is possible if you put your mind to it.