How A'ja Wilson led the Aces to a dynasty -- and reached GOAT status - ESPN

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 (tied for the most in a title-clinching win in WNBA history), 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.

Wilson celebrated with her Finals MVP trophy in one hand and a bright pink tambourine in the other, the rattling