South Carolina's A'ja Wilson wins ESPY for Best WNBA Player, gets shoutout from LeBron James

COLUMBIA — A'ja Wilson, the most successful South Carolina women's basketball alumna in WNBA history, earned another accolade Wednesday when she won the ESPY award for Best WNBA Player.

The 6-foot-5 forward, now the star of the Las Vegas Aces, was also nominated for Best Female Athlete — won by skier Mikaela Shiffrin — and as part of the Aces for Best Team. In 2022, Wilson swept the league's MVP and Defensive Player of the Year awards, leading the Aces to their first WNBA championship in franchise history. She averaged 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds and 2.1 assists.

Wilson has never previously won an ESPY, but she was nominated for Best College Athlete in 2018 and earned her first Best WNBA Player nomination in 2021. Her first win earned her a shoutout from LeBron James when the Los Angeles Lakers star was honored for breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's scoring record earlier this year.

"I want to say congratulations to my sister A'ja Wilson on winning the WNBA Best Player ESPY," James said at the end of his speech. "Y'all make sure you get out there and support those women and what they do. God bless y'all and love y'all."

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In 2023, Wilson continues to dominate. She is a team captain for the 2023 WNBA All-Star game Saturday (8:30 p.m., ABC) for the second consecutive year, and she is the first former South Carolina player to earn five All-Star selections. Averaging 19.5 points, 9.2 rebounds and a career-high 2.2 blocks, Wilson has led the Aces to a league-best 18-2 record midway through the season.

Wilson, a Hopkins native, also had a historic college career. She led South Carolina to its first national championship in 2017. She was the consensus national player of the year as a senior in 2018 and was a three-time consensus first-team All-American. Wilson still holds program career records for points, free throws made and blocks, plus a laundry list of single-game and season records.

In 2021, Wilson's legendary career was honored with a statue in front of Colonial Life Arena. She is the only woman with a statue on South Carolina's campus and one of two athletes, alongside 1980 Heisman Trophy winner George Rogers.

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: A'ja Wilson wins ESPY for Best WNBA Player, gets LeBron James shoutout