Ex-Gameco*ck star A'ja Wilson makes emotional homecoming with Las Vegas Aces (2024)

COLUMBIA— Yes, it was a game, the only one the back-to-back WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces have in the preseason before beginning the real season on Tuesday.

Yet, Saturday was about A’ja.

A’ja, driving the ball downcourt. A’ja putting some poor fool who thought she could defend her in a blender. A’ja soaring for a rebound and a putback.

A’ja Wilson, back in the building and playing on the court where she refined her superstar game before taking it to the WNBA, where she’s become a two-time MVP and league champ. Wilson, back at South Carolina’s Colonial Life Arena, back in front of Dawn Staley, back in front of her adoring hometown crowd.

“I never would have thought I’d be back here as a pro, let alone playing on the court. Our lovely equipment manager gave me my same locker in college, so that’s when it really hit me,” Wilson said. “It’s truly a blessing to be back here. Columbia obviously raised me, so I’m just happy to be back, healthy and here with my professional team.”

Wilson put on a show in the Aces’ 102-50 obliteration of Puerto Rico on Saturday, scoring 27 points with 14 rebounds as well. The crowd rained cheers and love for her throughout, the best player on the best team in the highest level of women’s professional basketball.

It was always going to be a special day, but more accolades arrived beforehand. Wilson formally announced that she and Nike have collaborated on her own signature basketball shoe, the “A’ONE.” She is the first Black WNBA player to have her own shoe since the recently retired Candace Parker unveiled hers in 2010-11, and the first Black woman to have her own Nike shoe since Sheryl Swoopes in 2002.

“Today was a big day,” Wilson said. “I’m so glad we were able to get that out and do it here. It’s coming out in the spring.”

It was a day of celebration, and work. The Aces had to cram a lot of preparation time into the game since they had no opportunity to do it another time, not with the season-opener hovering. Wilson was on a minutes restriction, as was everybody, but they couldn’t limit everybody, not with just 11 players since Chelsea Gray was out with an injury.

But Wilson more than played to her standard, which allowed a pleasant time for the pageantry.

“What you see is what you get every day. She’s the same person every day, and she also happens to be the greatest basketball player on the planet,” said her coach, Becky Hammon. “If you know her, she’s kind of a hometown, small-town girl … but obviously, she’s reaching the world in different ways.”

That’s through her book, a New York Times bestseller; her platform; and soon to be her shoes.

Her teammates “went bonkers” on the bus when it pulled up to CLA and they could see her statue out front; Wilson repaid the kindness by visiting the USC bookstore and buying gameday outfits for all of them – Gameco*ck gear, of course, even for those Iowa and/or Connecticut fans who weren’t all that keen to wear it.

Staley was courtside, a day after watching practice alongside associate head coach Lisa Boyer. It’s been seven years since they coached her, yet they were still in awe.

“It’s almost like an out-of-body experience because you watch her out there as a pro, and it’s just effortless,” Staley said. “You’re watching the best player in the world work. At 27!”

Wilson was the same constantly smiling woman off the court, the constantly bedeviling presence on the court. She and Staley cracked on each other, Wilson playfully acted like she was retching when somebody mentioned Clemson in a press conference.

It was a repeat of 2014-18, when Wilson and the Gameco*cks won a lot and lost a few, but brought the Gameco*cks’ first national championship home to roost.

“These two here molded me into the woman and the player that I am today and I am so grateful,” she said, with arms around Staley and Hammon.

And she's still giving back. Much of the crowd was in Aces gear, those that weren’t mostly in Gameco*ck gear, and Wilson was signing autographs and taking pictures throughout the weekend. She even high-fived a young fan sitting courtside during the game.

“I want them to know it’s real. I have my days where I don’t want to be A’ja. I think that’s part of it,” she said. “I know there’s a young girl out there that’s dreaming to be me, so why not make her dreams turn to reality?”