With Dawn Staley courtside, ex-South Carolina basketball star A'ja Wilson wins 2nd WNBA title

COLUMBIA — A'ja Wilson, now a star with the Las Vegas Aces, led South Carolina women's basketball to its first-ever national championship in 2017. But the team failed to repeat, losing to UConn in the Elite Eight her senior year.

When the Aces, who won the franchise's first WNBA championship in 2022, reached the 2023 WNBA Finals, Wilson reached out to Gamecocks coach Dawn Staley to ask for two phone numbers: Sheryl Swoopes and Cynthia Cooper-Dyke, stars of the Houston Comets team that won four consecutive WNBA titles, from 1997 to 2000. She wanted advice on what it took to win back-to-back championships.

"It's so simple, but they just said 'Just go do it,'" Wilson said. "'Be better than you were last game.' That was the biggest thing I could do, was be better than I was last game . . . I'm so grateful for the legends that laid the foundation down for us to be where we are today."

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With Staley seated courtside at Barclays Center in New York, Wilson had 24 points and 16 rebounds in Game 4 to lead her team to a 70-69 win and a 3-1 victory in the series. The 6-foot-5 forward, who was named Finals MVP, averaged 23.8 points and 11.8 rebounds in nine playoff games. The Aces are the first team to repeat as WNBA champions since the Los Angeles Sparks did it in 2001 and 2002, and just the third all time alongside the Comets.

Alaina Coates, who was a senior on South Carolina's 2017 national title team, also hoisted the WNBA championship trophy. Coates signed with the Aces on a hardship contract in August after spending time with the Indiana Fever and Phoenix Mercury earlier in the season.

Staley surprised Wilson when she showed up at Game 3 in New York, but Wilson said she knew her former coach would be in attendance for Game 4. Soon after the final buzzer sounded, Wilson found Staley for an embrace, lifting the 5-6 former point guard off her feet.

"That moment with Coach Staley was something special. She's watched me win on every level at this point, literally," Wilson said. "Everyone knows Coach Staley is like my second mom . . . and I knew I had to find her, because she has really molded me into the player I am today. She spent countless hours telling me what I needed to do at the pro level, and I thought that relationship was kind of going to disappear as I got to the pros, but we've still stayed together."

Wilson had a historic career at South Carolina. Besides the national championship, she is the most decorated athlete in school history in any sport and was unanimously named national player of the year as a senior in 2018. In 2021, South Carolina erected a statue of Wilson outside Colonial Life Arena.

However, with a bottle of champagne slowly emptying on the table next to her microphone postgame, Wilson said her days playing in Columbia were far from her mind when she finally became a two-time champion.

"Once I got that cap and gown, I was done," she said, laughing. "This was just getting that dub at the end of the day with my teammates. I can't even remember college right now."

Follow South Carolina women's basketball reporter Emily Adams on X @eaadams6 and subscribe to The Greenville News for exclusive Gamecocks content: https://subscribe.greenvilleonline.com/offers.

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This article originally appeared on Greenville News: A'ja Wilson celebrates repeat WNBA championship with coach Dawn Staley