Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson officially became the first player in WNBA history to score 1,000 points in a single season during a win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday.
Wilson reached the 1,000-point mark on a fadeaway jump shot with 1 minute and 57 seconds remaining in the game, prompting a celebration with her teammates and those attending the game shortly after the game finished.
Multiple WNBA players have come close to reaching 1,000 points in a season, but Wilson has now become the only player to accomplish the feat, surpassing the previous total scoring record of 939 points set by Jewell Loyd in 2023.
Wilson credited her teammates after the game and said she was grateful for “every single teammate along the way” and the opportunity to “be able to play with selfless women.”
“My teammates are the heartbeat. They keep me going. I don’t get any points without them passing me the basketball,” she added, according to NPR.
“So the points are great. They’re always going to be there. I’m never going to stop shooting, but the group that we have in this locker room is something that I’m truly so happy to be around,” she said.
Wilson has been one of the top players in the WNBA over the past few years and remains among the best during the 2024 season. She is currently averaging 27 points, 12 rebounds, 2.3 assists, 1.8 steals, and 2.6 blocks per game.
While discussing her consistency over the past few seasons, Wilson said she likes to “pinpoint little things” to improve in her game while mentally and physically preparing during the offseason.
“I really have to credit my offseason work and my preparation. I take time to get away from basketball, to let me miss it. So then when I’m in it, I don’t take it for granted. My screensaver is, ‘Rest at the end, not in the middle,’ and that’s something I tell myself every single day,” she explained, per ESPN.
“I got work to do, that that’s going to be my mindset until I’m done playing, until I’ve squeezed everything out of this game,” she said.
This record-breaking performance comes as Wilson continues an illustrious career in which she won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2020 and 2022. Many around the league believe she will add another MVP award to her trophy case this season.
The two-time MVP has also helped lead the Aces to back-to-back championships the past two seasons, winning a Finals MVP award during the most recent finals win against the New York Liberty in 2023.
Las Vegas will now prepare for its final two regular-season games against the Dallas Wings and Seattle Storm before beginning the 2024 playoffs.
Despite beginning the season slowly, the Aces now sit just two games behind the Minnesota Lynx for the top overall seed in the Western Conference and have already locked themselves into the playoffs.