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Add another line to the resume for South Carolina women's basketball legend A'ja Wilson.
The 2017 NCAA Tournament Most Outstanding Player is headed for the South Carolina athletics Hall of Fame when the university inducts its 2025 class in October.
Wilson headlines the six-player class, which also includes Natasha Hastings (track and field, 2005-07), Paul Jubb (men’s tennis, 2016-20), Brandon Hulko (diving, 1999-2002), Akram Mahmoud (swimming, 2014-18) and Mollie Patton (women’s soccer, 2006-10).
Wilson has gone on to become a three-time WNBA MVP with the Las Vegas Aces and a two-time WNBA champion. But at South Carolina, she was one of the most important players to the program's rise as one of the premiere programs in the country.
It took Dawn Staley four seasons before she took the Gamecocks to the NCAA Tournament for the first time in 2012. Wilson entered the fold in 2014, and that same season, South Carolina reached the Final Four for the first time, winning the national championship her junior year.
By the time her college career was over, Wilson was a National Player of the Year, three-time All-American, three-time SEC Player of the Year and two-time SEC Tournament MVP. South Carolina has since retired her No. 22 and she graduated as the program's all-time leading scorer.
A'ja Wilson's rise from South Carolina legend to WNBA MVP
The Aces superstar was the No. 1 overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, and much like she did at South Carolina, she helped build Las Vegas into a championship franchise. They went 14-20 in her first season but became a playoff team in year two before reeling off four straight years in which they finished with the best record in the western conference.
Las Vegas reached the WNBA Finals in the COVID-shortened 2020 season and finally hoisted the trophy in back-to-back seasons in 2022 and 2023.
In addition to her three MVP awards, Wilson is also a seven-time All-Star, two-time Olympic Gold Medalist, two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year and was the 2023 Finals MVP. At 28 years old and in the midst of another dominant season, she appears to have plenty in the tank as she continues to build what looks like a no-brainer case for the Naismith Hall of Fame.
