A’ja Wilson reflects on WNBA and herself turning 30 this year
Aces star A’ja Wilson talks about the impact she’s had on the league as she approaches 30 years old along with the WNBA.
Sports Seriously
Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson has the kind of life people write fiction about.
With an unprecedented resume as the WNBA’s first four-time MVP, Wilson is at the top of her game and just signed a three-year, $5 million fully guaranteed supermax contract in April. The 29-year-old also happens to do it all off the court; selling out her signature Nike shoe, rubbing shoulders with Hollywood celebrities at the Met Gala and gracing the cover of magazines — all while somehow making time for a relationship with Miami Heat center Bam Adebayo.
Wilson and Adebayo kept their relationship private until the world took notice when they were photographed together during their respective gold-medal runs at the 2024 Paris Olympics. A by-product since? Content creators attaching headlines to made up stories and social media influencers spouting nonsense about Wilson’s personal life.
Most recently, a social media post from a major digital sports outlet speculated Wilson and Adebayo had gotten married because she moved her Oura ring from her left ring finger to her right during a post-practice interview.
That social post, intrusive as it may be, is child’s play compared to unwelcome speculation Wilson has had to put up with in regards to her relationship. Last December, reporter Rachel Nichols referenced a social media joke in the midst of an interview with Oklahoma City Thunder star Shai Gilgeous Alexander and asked him if Thunder general manager Sam Presti would “be at the sonogram” scouting Wilson and Adebayo’s future children.
“It just gets weird,” Wilson told USA TODAY. “Why my uterus? Why is my future even in a question. … I don’t know. I’ve had fake sonograms of me (on social media) saying that I’m having twins. I’m dating a whole NBA player so I know that’s a whole different side, but I just think it’s really strange that people feel so comfortable to talk about other people’s bodies.”
Nichols’ interview question came shortly after Wilson told TIME magazine in her 2025 Athlete of the Year cover story she was excited to start a family with Adebayo. But that hasn’t stopped Wilson from being open about her goals and dreams outside of her decorated WNBA career. In a cover interview with Vanity Fair released earlier this month, said she would “love to just dive into being a wife, being a mother.”
Wilson tries to tune out the noise on social media but eventually sees everything, and it’s not lost on her when some compare her to WNBA great Maya Moore, who stepped away from basketball in her prime. Moore, who won four titles with Minnesota Lynx, helped overturn the wrongful conviction of Jonathan Irons — an innocent man she later married. Moore officially retired in 2023 to focus on her family and criminal justice advocacy.
“People think that you can’t be a phenomenal mom, or you can’t be a lovely wife, but also a bad ass of an athlete,” Wilson said, “It was a caption grab for everyone to just be like, ‘Oh my gosh, she doesn’t even care about basketball, she’s about to retire,’ when it wasn’t necessarily that. I wanted to show that I am still a woman, I still have dreams.”
Wilson is part of an era of women athletes who have pushed against the narrative that having children means quitting the sport they love. In the National Women’s Soccer League, there are a record 28 mothers rostered this season. In the WNBA, moms like Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier, Chicago Sky guard Skylar Diggins, Sparks forward Dearica Hamby and even Wilson’s Aces teammate Cheyenne Parker-Tyus have made quick returns to the court after giving birth.
For Wilson, her mother Eva Rakes Wilson, who worked as a court stenographer and entrepreneur while raising her, is a role model.
“I see my mom and how she raised me. Being in that household, I saw that I can still be that and also be a bomb ass independent b—-, like it can coexist,” Wilson said. “So that’s what I want people to understand. Stop putting women in these boxes that we have to be a certain way, or we can’t have everything. I can absolutely have everything if I want to.”
And since there’s so much curiosity, Wilson didn’t hesitate to talk about her thought process surrounding a timeline for starting a family.
“I haven’t even thought that far, because I just know my life, and my life has never been about a schedule, no matter how hard I try. Things never work out how I plan,” Wilson said. “So I really just honestly gave it to God. I ain’t got really no timetable, I’m just vibing.”
Aces coach Becky Hammon, who has built a dynasty with three WNBA championships in four years with Wilson leading the charge, isn’t speculating about how Wilson will balance it all.
“I have no idea. What I do know, is her and Bam will make phenomenal parents. That kid ain’t gonna get away with s—,” Hammon joked. “I hope I get a wedding invite, and when the baby’s being born, I hope I get invited to the hospital. They’ll be great when the time comes, but honestly, that’s just between them two.”
