12/10/25 06:03:00
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12/10 06:01 CST A'ja Wilson wins AP Female Athlete of the Year following
historic 4th WNBA MVP
A'ja Wilson wins AP Female Athlete of the Year following historic 4th WNBA MVP
By DOUG FEINBERG
AP Basketball Writer
A'ja Wilson stood atop the WNBA again in 2025, winning an unprecedented fourth
MVP as her Las Vegas Aces earned a third championship in four seasons.
For that, she earned The Associated Press Female Athlete of the Year on
Wednesday for the first time in her career. It's the second consecutive year a
basketball player won the award after Caitlin Clark was honored in 2024.
"It's an honor when you think about the group of women who have won before,"
Wilson said in a phone interview. "Just to have my name be a part of it, I'm
blessed."
Wilson is only the fifth basketball player to be honored as the Female Athlete
of the Year since it was first presented in 1931, joining Sheryl Swoopes
(1993), Rebecca Lobo (1995), Candace Parker (2008, 2021) and Clark.
A group of 47 sports journalists from the AP and its members voted. Wilson
received 17 votes, tennis star Aryna Sabalenka was second with nine and Paige
Bueckers was third with five.
"The things she's done on the court have never been done. To me, she's in a
category all her own," Aces coach Becky Hammon said of Wilson. "People always
ask who's on your Mount Rushmore? I'm saying she's on Everest --- there's
nobody up there with her."
Shohei Ohtani won the AP Male Athlete of the Year on Tuesday for the fourth
time.
Hammon has been impressed with everything about Wilson in her four years
coaching in Las Vegas.
"Her relatability, her being down to earth makes her a great superstar," Hammon
said. "Her skill set is unmatched, but she's also the easiest player to coach.
To have that mixture of humility, grace and skill, there's a reason why she's
doing things that have never been done."
This season was different for Wilson and the Aces, who had cruised to their
previous two titles as a heavy favorite. This year, with a month to go, the
Aces were sitting at .500 and were in danger of missing the playoffs after
coming off a record 53-point loss against Minnesota.
Wilson rallied her team to wins in the final 16 regular-season games to secure
the No. 2 seed, and Las Vegas went on to win the championship.
"This season I found myself through the adversity and mud we went through," she
said.
Despite her numbers being on par with her unanimous MVP season the year before,
Wilson heard the chatter that she wasn't playing as well and that she wasn't
the front-runner to repeat as the league's top player.
The 29-year-old used that as fuel on the court. She led the league with 23.4
points and 2.3 blocks per game.
"The way they talk about us, the way they talk about me, I'm ready for that,
I'm ready for the noise," Wilson said. "It's always going to be something. If
we sit here and try to please everybody, we're going to go insane. I'm just
going to continue to prove why I'm one of the greatest and why my team is part
of a dynamic dynasty."
Wilson raised her game even further in the playoffs, helping the Aces survive
decisive winner-take-all games in the quarterfinals and semifinals. She then
helped Las Vegas sweep Phoenix in the WNBA Finals, hitting the winning shot in
Game 3.
"It's fair to say the expectations for her are so sky high now, she'll be
compared to a degree to the unanimous MVP she was the year before," ESPN
analyst Rebecca Lobo said. "Even though she wasn't unanimous MVP this year, the
journey she had this season was different and she was playing the best
basketball of her career in the playoffs."
"Every year, you wonder how she'll get better, and she always does."
Wilson became the first player in either the WNBA or NBA to win the MVP,
Defensive Player of the Year, Finals MVP and lead the league in scoring in the
same season.
Wilson broke a tie with Swoopes, Lisa Leslie and Lauren Jackson, who all won
the WNBA MVP three times. She plans to have another relaxing offseason as she
won't play overseas or in Unrivaled, the domestic 3-on-3 league.
She's already crossed one thing off her bucket list, meeting her idol Beyonce
at the Formula 1 race in Las Vegas last month.
"It was super cool, Beyonce is someone that I've always wanted to meet because
I just admired her work," Wilson said.
The Aces great is that way herself for so many. She launched a shoe and
clothing line with Nike. Her shoe sold out minutes after it went on sale.
"It's amazing, something that I think about every day when I look around and
see people just wearing my shoe. Every day it's a gentle reminder that you know
it's a special moment that we're living in and I'm so grateful when I look back
on it."
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AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
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