A’ja Wilson, a four-time WNBA MVP winner and three-time WNBA champion, was selected as TIME Magazine’s Athlete of the Year, it was announced Tuesday. Wilson is an excellent candidate, having won her fourth MVP award before the age of 30 in 2025, and has also collected several other awards, including WNBA Defensive Player of the Year, leading scorer and Finals MVP awards, and becoming the fastest WNBA player in history to score 5,000 points.
His dominance this year transcends sport and also immerses himself in culture. Wilson releases its first signature shoe, the Nike A’One, this spring and stock sold out in minutes. She is also a New York Times bestselling author for her debut book, Dear black girls: how to be true to you. Wilson has become a role model for girls, making no apologies for her skill and talent, while preferring to let her game speak for itself and mastering the art of humble confidence.
The thing about Wilson is that she’s never overly flashy in anything she does, but her excellence just shines through; It is part of your being. She’s great at being unapologetic but not boastful, and everything she says about herself can be backed up by her braces. She’s the kind of person who waits until there’s indisputable proof of her greatness and then lets you know it. Of course, you’re past the point where you have to prove yourself, and hopefully now you can enter an internship in your career where you’re celebrated and just enjoy everything that comes with creating a legacy in real time.
As part of its TIME honor, the magazine wrote an article about her that included images and sounds of the Las Vegas Aces championship parade in October, as well as a one-on-one interview about a month later. The story tells of her iconic pageant outfit, including the Marvel Thanos glove that she customized to include all of her accomplishments from the 2025 WNBA season. He talked about the Aces’ historic turnaround this year, going from a .500-level team midseason to winning a championship, and Wilson called it a “wake-up call.”
Another interesting part of the article was where the interviewer talks about the growth of the WNBA. Obviously, that’s something that’s being highlighted right now as WNBA players negotiate what will be a historic Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the league. Wilson mentioned in the TIME article that players “won’t move until we get exactly what we want.”
Even though this entire TIME honor is a celebration of Wilson’s accomplishments this year, it was interesting to see the feature mention Caitlin Clark. Specifically, there was a part about Clark’s injury this season being a “vindication” for the league, because even though Clark missed most of the season, they still recorded growth in viewership and attendance records (emphasis mine):
His rocket ride comes at an opportune time. In 2024, Caitlin Clark’s rookie season helped the WNBA reach historic television and attendance numbers. But Clark’s emergence created a toxic and racially divisive narrative that she was almost solely responsible for saving a league whose foundation had been built by a largely black player base. This story upset Wilson, who in 2024 earned her third WNBA MVP award and second Olympic gold medal in Paris, where she was named tournament MVP. “It wasn’t a blow to me, because I’m going to do it anyway,” he says. “I’m going to win this MVP, I’m going to win a gold medal, they can’t get rid of my resume. It was more so, let’s not lose the recipe. Let’s not lose the history. It was erased for a minute. And I don’t like that. Because we have tons of women who have gone through the dirtiest things to get the league to where it is today.”
The 2025 WNBA campaign was a measure of vindication for many players. Even though Clark missed most of the season with an injury — something Wilson, to be clear, did not applaud — both regular-season and postseason viewership increased by 5% to 6% on average per game on ESPN’s networks. “Sometimes you need proof in the pudding,” Wilson says. “The most important thing for us, and what I was so happy about, is that we continued to rise to the occasion. It was just a matter of time before we really blossomed and flourished. Because we’ve invested in each other and our craft for a long time. It was like, ‘They’re going pay attention'”.
Now, obviously, Clark is a big part of every WNBA conversation these days, but it seems like a stretch to mention her in a conversation that’s supposed to be about A’ja Wilson’s year. Furthermore, using a word like “vindication” furthers the bad faith narrative that other WNBA players hate Clark or are rooting for her downfall. The article made sure to include a disclaimer that Wilson didn’t celebrate the fact that Clark was injured, but why mention it?
There are plenty of other ways to quantify the league’s growth this year. You can dive into the numbers: According to ESPN, the 2025 season was the most-watched season in league history, averaging 1.2 million viewers and up 5% year over year. The 2025 WNBA Finals were the second most-watched WNBA Finals of all time, trailing only last season’s Finals between New York and Minnesota. You can delve deeper into the support the WNBPA receives as it negotiates contracts, including fan support and support from other leagues’ unions.
Objectively, it’s true that Clark being out for most of the season and the WNBA not going bankrupt like some might have thought is a good sign for the entire league. However, in a time where players need to be a united front, including a section that almost seems to be digging for a reason to separate them is lame. It wouldn’t even be so bad if the word choice hadn’t been “vindicated,” since the implication is almost that the players celebrated that they had been successful without Clark, rather than simply celebrating his success.
Wilson’s quote in that section of the article says it best: “…we continued to rise to the occasion. It was only a matter of time before we really blossomed and flourished. Because we have invested in each other and our craft for a long time.” It’s not about a specific person being in or out of alignment; The thing is, no matter what is thrown at these players, they will rise to the occasion. They are better when they come together as a collective, rather than the media pitting them against each other to feed false narratives.
A’ja Wilson was the best basketball player of 2025, by far. It has been for many years. That doesn’t mean anyone else is made to be less than; It simply means that Wilson has a level of talent that, in his words, “is hard to reach.” That’s what she believes the quest to be the greatest of all time is: putting yourself in a position where it would be difficult for anyone else to catch up. Not tearing down everyone else so that you are the only person on top of the mountain.
What makes Wilson so good at what she does, but also a good role model, is that she never depends on anyone else for validation. She focuses on her work, on herself, and lets her star power shine that way. You will never need anyone else to falter to prove that you are great; She just is.