After the Aces lost to the Mercury in Game 5 of the 2021 WNBA Semifinals, Las Vegas star A'ja Wilson was overcome with emotion. She collapsed onto the court in tears, laying bare the devastation of missing another opportunity to win the WNBA championship. Her teammates had to lift her up and assist her back to the locker room.
"I think our core understood how painful the loss was last year; we didn't want that feeling anymore," Wilson said of that postseason exit (via WNBA.com).
Nearly a full year later, she has found redemption. Wilson and the Aces captured the first title in franchise history on Sunday night, defeating the Sun to close out the 2022 WNBA Finals.
But that ring didn't just fill in the only gap on Wilson's incredible basketball resume. It also put a bow on perhaps the greatest individual season in league history.
With the Game 4 win over Connecticut, Wilson became the second WNBA player to earn the Defensive Player of the Year award, MVP award and a championship in the same season. Before Wilson's 2022 campaign, only four other players had taken home the Defensive Player of the Year and MVP trophies in the same year.
| Year | Player | DPOY | MVP | Championship |
| 1999 | Yolanda Griffith | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2000 | Sheryl Swoopes | Yes | Yes | Yes |
| 2002 | Sheryl Swoopes | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2004 | Lisa Leslie | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2007 | Lauren Jackson | Yes | Yes | No |
| 2022 | A'ja Wilson | Yes | Yes | Yes |
Wilson averaged 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.4 steals per game during the regular season, then shouldered an even heavier burden in the WNBA Playoffs. She saw a significant increase in minutes, but she never slowed down.
The 26-year-old also stepped up as a vocal leader for the Aces. Kelsey Plum gave credit to Wilson for "cussing her out" before Game 2 of the WNBA Finals and pushing her to deliver a strong postseason performance.
"She has the stats and everything, and she leads in categories," Las Vegas guard Chelsea Gray said of Wilson in August (via the Las Vegas Review-Journal). "But I think [it's about] her willingness to be that leader, and not go up and down.
"I can't speak about anybody else, but what I see on an everyday basis is somebody that's working on both ends of the floor. ... She's doing it all."
Players such as Gray, Plum and Jackie Young deserve credit for their immense contributions to the title run, of course, but Wilson was unquestionably the driving force of the Aces' success.
Her teammates had to carry her off the floor at the end of the 2021 season. This time around, she carried them through the finish line.