'You run out of adjectives': Another year, another title for A'ja Wilson

PHOENIX -- THE MORNING after A'ja Wilson hit the game-winning shot in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals -- the basket that gave her Las Vegas Aces a 3-0 series lead and became the defining image of Wilson's already storied basketball career -- Aces coach Becky Hammon texted her superstar a graphic comparing an elk and a deer.

Hammon had used the comparison for Wilson weeks earlier, but Wilson, like most people, wasn't aware of the difference between the two. But when you see the bigger, stronger elk, said Hammon, who grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, you realize it's in a class of its own.

Hammon is prone to using analogies for Wilson -- "You run out of adjectives," she told ESPN. "That's why I start using animals and mountaintops and everything else to describe her."

"I've been a gazelle, I've been a lion, I've been an elk all this year," Wilson told ESPN. "If you could put that all into an animal, I think you get A'ja."

But there's a theme of metaphor Hammon has evoked often this season: an elk among deer. A great white among mako sharks. No longer on Mount Rushmore, but Everest.

"By the time it's all said and done," Hammon said, "she will be the greatest to ever do it." Wilson lived up to that billing Friday, leading the No. 2 seed Aces to the 2025 title over the No. 4 seed Phoenix Mercury behind the first four-game sweep in Finals history. With a 31-point performance in Game 4, she cemented her case for series MVP -- and became the first WNBA or NBA player to win the scoring title, MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP in the same season.

The greatest-of-all-time conversation picked up when, three weeks ago, Wilson was awarded her record fourth league MVP, the first player in WNBA history to win as many.

But as the Aces rose to dynasty status with their third championship in four years, Friday marked Wilson's official coronation.

Not as a great white or an elk. But as a GOAT.

WELL BEFORE WILSON became the best player in the world, she had her heart broken. Twice.

The 2018 No. 1 pick led the Aces to their first Finals in 2020, during the COVID season in the bubble at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Florida. Wilson had won her first MVP trophy that season, officially announcing her arrival as a superstar.

"And then I got my ass swept," Wilson said. "... It motivates me pretty much every single day."

In the next season's semifinals, Wilson had the opportunity to send the Aces to overtime in a winner-take-all Game 5 versus the Mercury. After receiving an inbounds pass from Chelsea Gray on the wing, Wilson took a dribble toward the basket before being blocked by Brittney Griner -- a play, Wilson said, that "crushed a little girl's heart."

"That was my taste of like, 'Oh, we could almost get there,'" Wilson said. "But to have it literally smacked back in my face, it was hurtful."

Shortly after that run, Hammon was hired to replace Bill Laimbeer as coach. When she arrived in Vegas, she saw in Wilson an "unbelievable" talent who had room for growth.

Even with an MVP, Wilson wasn't yet viewed as the league's best player. Breanna Stewart, already a two-time champion and two-time Finals MVP, was considered the best in the world. Jonquel Jones had just surged onto the stage in 2021 as the MVP. Alyssa Thomas and Napheesa Collier waited in the wings.

But sometime in her first year as coach, Hammon remembers telling others that Wilson -- then 25 -- would be the greatest to play the game.

"She doesn't have any limitations," Hammon said. "She's the biggest, she's the most athletic, her skill set, and then also her willingness to make the right play."

The past four seasons -- three MVPs and three championships later -- have supercharged her to the top of the list, in large part because Hammon has challenged her not to be put into a box. A dominant scorer and elite defender. An inside force who can increasingly handle the ball, pass and shoot from the 3-point arc. Boasting the grace of a gazelle and the power and ferocity of a lion.

"She can reach a level that most players can't," teammate Jewell Loyd said. "It's not just about her MVPs -- it's just how she plays all the time. If she wants to get a bucket, she's going to get a bucket. If she wants to get a stop, she's going to get a stop. ...

"We know all the work she puts in. When your best player is doing all that, we don't have a reason to take any plays off. "

And this year, she brought the Aces back to the mountaintop.

WHEN THE ACES started the season 12-13, combined with their semifinals exit last season, onlookers whispered about whether their championship core had run its course. Instead, Wilson powered the Aces on a 16-game win streak to end the regular season, reopening an MVP race that many had deemed settled.

"That's an area that I think A'ja has really grown as well, that just ultra-competitor," Hammon said. "She wants to be the greatest every time she walks on the floor. And I think that kind of competitive spirit is really contagious to your teammate."

"I definitely did develop it this year," Wilson said. "Losing will bring that out of you because you want to do whatever it takes to get to that point. ... I think I've had my 'I'm here now' type of year."

The Mercury learned that the hard way. They relatively succeeded in containing Wilson in their three-point Game 1 loss -- she shot 44% but still finished with 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists. But even on a Wilson "off" night, they couldn't win -- which was bad news for Phoenix.

Because Wilson would not be denied a championship.

She and Jackie Young snatched control of the series in Game 2 as Wilson rattled off a 28-point, 14-rebound performance. Then came Wilson's masterclass in Game 3: 34 points, 14 rebounds, 4 assists, 3 blocks, and 1 game-ending dagger.

Four years after Wilson's blocked shot in the semifinals, she delivered the unofficial championship-clincher with 0.3 seconds left. Her elevation over Thomas, with her hands outstretched and DeWanna Bonner's not far behind, was what inspired Hammon's elk comparison again: As she texted Wilson the next morning, elk can jump 8 feet into the air.

"The circumstances, the amount of pressure and expectation that she carries with her on a day-to-day basis, it's just impressive how she handles it, and she just continues to rise," Hammon said. "Whatever the moment demands, that's what she does."

The moment is immortalized with a viral photo: No. 22 standing above the rest with 2.2 seconds on the clock.

With 31 points and nine rebounds in Game 4 -- a 97-86 Vegas win -- Wilson stretched her points total to 114, more than any other player has scored in a Finals.

"Everybody's going to have their opinion of who's the greatest," Gray said. "You can do that by position or whatever. But tell me something she hasn't done. She's done it all, and done it at a high level. ...

"You can look at more recent players, like Candace Parker and Diana Taurasi, and they are on the top tier. But A'ja is doing things that haven't been done before."

Hammon said it first when Wilson was awarded her record fourth MVP. But it was even more apparent Friday as Wilson, just two months after turning 29, hoisted the trophy for the third time in four years -- with plenty of time for more to come.

"You have your Mount Rushmore," Hammon said, "and she's sitting alone on Everest. There's no one around."