A'ja Wilson has accomplished everything in her professional career.
The Las Vegas Aces star has earned every accolade imaginable: two WNBA championships, three WNBA MVP awards, two WNBA Defensive Player of the Year awards and two Olympic gold medals, to name a few.
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WATCH HEREBut the 28-year-old South Carolina alum opened up about the struggle she deals with: dyslexia. Wilson's learning disability, she said, has shaped the way she's approached her life as a famous figure.
"I feel like when people see me, they see the accolades, they see the resume, and they're like, 'Oh my gosh, this girl, she's perfect,'" Wilson told NBC in the latest episode of "My New Favorite Baller." "But knowing that I have a learning disability, knowing that I struggle with this, with anxiety and depression, it shows people that I'm normal. It shows people that I struggle with similar things.
"So, they go through and we can relate on a more humane level. And you don't get that a lot from your role models or from us as professional athletes. So, I think it just takes me as just a human in understanding and feeling those feelings and knowing that I know you guys see A'ja and love it and it's such a vibe."
Wilson has always been interested in relating to people, no matter how much her stardom blossoms.
Since being drafted first overall by the Aces in 2018, Wilson has completely transformed the franchise. The team relocated from San Antonio to Sin City in the same offseason where it acquired Wilson -- following three straight seasons of single-digit wins and missing the playoffs.
For an organization that hadn't won a championship in its 21-year history before Wilson arrived, her arrival was a turning point. After missing the playoffs by one game in her rookie year, the Aces haven't missed out since.
Despite winning back-to-back titles in 2022 and 2023 and going 102-28 from 2020 to 2023, Wilson still felt no pressure during the Aces' quest to three-peat last season. Las Vegas ultimately came up short, losing in the semifinals.
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SIGN UP "I feel like the joy is going to always outweigh the pressure, because that is truly the moment where you have the most fun," Wilson said. "Pressure makes diamonds and diamonds look great, but sometimes you have to find joy in the process of it. And I think that's what kind of user it's being like, wanting to be around each other, wanting to come in to work every day and to get better."
That sort of mindset has seeped into Wilson's every day life -- on and off the court. Her only goal is to win for her team and form a true bond with the women around her.
"My first success, obviously, would be winning a championship," Wilson said. "And I feel like that is always the go-to answer. But, I feel like I'm in a space where I'm like, I want everybody to eat. I want my teammates, I don't want it just to be me.
"I mean, it's like they talk about -- it's lonely at the top. I don't want it to be that. I want everybody to eat because it's we deserve it. We've worked so hard to get to this situation and as fast as we can, and a lot of people have counted us out against us, especially now when we when we weren't the perfect Aces.
"And so now that's like success to me. It's proving them wrong and kind of getting the egg off their face a little bit. And so I think that's what I'm doing. Success like that and then obviously that when we come with hoisting a trophy at the end, but even then it's like seeing a shake back, digging out of holes, understanding, being resilient on both sides of the basketball."
Another critical step in Wilson's life came in 2023, when she shared in an Instagram post that she helped her mother retire from a lengthy career in education.
"It meant the world to me," Wilson said. "... But she's such a hard worker and my mom is someone that has to stay busy. Like she's the Black mom that puts on the music and they have the whole house up. That's the wake up because she's up and now is cleaning. Like, that's my mom. And she did that 365 days, 24 hours, seven days a week. That's who she was.
"So, I knew was going to be very hard for me to pull her away from that, because she's such a hard worker. And so to be able to be like, 'Mom, you can be a hard worker now for my foundation and for my candle company. It just meant the world to me because that's truly, obviously what she really wanted to do, and that's what she loves the most, is just being alongside me."
Wilson's mother Eva now serves as the executive director of the A’ja Wilson Foundation and chief operating officer of her daughter's candle business, Burnt Wax Candle Company. Not exactly a quiet retired life, but that's exactly the way she likes it.
"It's one of the No. 1 things I wanted to do once I became a professional athlete," the younger Wilson said when asked about starting a foundation. "... I knew instantly, seeing the resources that I got in college, I wanted to make sure that a lot of young kids could have those resources, not just the top athletes at power five schools -- everyone deserves this. And starting from the teachers all the way down to the students.
"And so when it came to my foundation, I poured a lot into it. And I wanted to make it like a foundation where we do bus trips. And when you learn trivia, you get a meal for going to it, you get to go to a WNBA game. But yeah, you also see that your donations are going toward certifying teachers to be able to notice when a child is struggling and identifying with them and being like, 'Let's get you tested and see what your learning disability may be.'"
It all connects back to Wilson's own struggles with dyslexia, and how she has overcome that challenge as one of the most successful female athletes of all-time.
