COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina Gamecocks basketball legend A'ja Wilson is the 2022 WNBA Most Valuable Player, the second time she's won the league's highest award.
The league announced Wednesday that Wilson, a member of the Las Vegas Aces, had earned MVP honors. She'd previously won the award in 2020, and is the seventh player to win the award multiple times.
Wilson received 31 of 56 first-place votes.
Wilson ranked fifth in the WNBA in scoring with 19.5 points a game and second in rebounding with 9.4 a game this season. She also led the league in blocks.
Wilson and the Aces defeated the Seattle Storm this week to earn a trip to the WNBA Finals. The team is seeking its first league title and will play the winner of the semifinal between the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun.
Wilson grew up in Columbia, graduating from Heathwood Hall where she was the number one recruit coming out of high school.
In college, Wilson became a three-time All-America at South Carolina, leading the team to the 2017 National Championship--the first in program history-- and was the unanimous national player of the year as a senior.
In 2021, a statue of Wilson was erected outside Colonial Life Arena. Wilson is one of three people to have a statue on USC’s campus joining Richard T. Greener, the University’s first African American professor, and Heisman trophy winner George Rogers.
She was the number one draft pick coming out of college, the first men or women's basketball player to be selected first overall.
South Carolina Gamecocks Coach Dawn Staley tweeted "MVP FAMILY!!! after the WNBA MVP award was announced.
