Do we like them?

Do we like A'ja Wilson?

Our score: 8 out of 10. No harmful words or company found and years of genuine community work; docked a little because the record on LGBTQ+ topics is thin and she had one hot-headed playoff moment.

A'ja Wilson grew up in Hopkins, South Carolina, near Columbia, in a tight family and church community. Her grandfather preached at Saint John Baptist Church for more than 50 years, and her parents made sacrifices so she could attend private high school. She has said “Columbia has raised me”, and a family friend says she's a better person than she is a basketball player.

She became the nation's top recruit and chose to stay home at South Carolina, where she played for Dawn Staley, won a national title and now has a statue on campus. In the WNBA she has built one of the great resumes: four MVPs, defensive honours and a record-setting supermax re-signing with the Las Vegas Aces in April 2026.

The harm check comes up clean. Searches for her own words and acts on LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the climate found nothing nasty, and no sign she keeps company with people who push harm. Her public stands run the other way: when a league commissioner's alleged remarks about player pay came out, she said she was “honestly disgusted” and “gonna ride with Phee always” in support of Napheesa Collier. To be straight about the gap, there's little on record from her specifically on trans rights, so this is a pass on what's there rather than a loud ally badge.

The recent drama is mostly other people's noise. On 29 September, Wilson was called for a technical after a clash with a Fever fan who was pointing and yelling at her. AP reported the league did not suspend or fine her, after an in-game review found she never left the court area. It's a human moment, not a pattern.

Then there's the World Cup row. Wilson withdrew from Team USA's squad, and ESPN's Linda Cohn floated that she might be dodging the “Caitlin Clark show”, before saying she was “just asking questions”. Plenty of fans, and Bernice King, who called the comments dangerous and demanded an apology, thought that was a stretch. That's criticism of Cohn's speculation, not something Wilson did.

The good stuff is long-running. She founded the A'ja Wilson Foundation in 2019 for children with dyslexia and anti-bullying work, funding scholarships and school-supply drives, and earned a WNBA Cares award that same year for mentoring, volunteering and community work. In 2024 she won the league's Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award, and in 2026 she landed a Wheaties box that comes with a $50,000 donation to her community efforts.