A'ja Wilson does it again; South Carolina basketball legend sets new career best in dominant performance

South Carolina basketball alum A'ja Wilson has been all over the news in the basketball world this week. The former Gamecock was named as a cover athlete for NBA2K25, she was honored as the Western Conference Player of the Week and the Western Conference Player of the Month, and she became the all-time leading scorer in the history of the Las Vegas Aces franchise.

On Wednesday, mere hours after the 2K announcement, Wilson had one of the best games of her MVP-destined season.

In a win on the road over the Seattle Storm, Wilson scored 24 points and pulled down 20 rebounds. It was the first-ever 20-20 game of her WNBA career, and the 20 boards marked a new career-high. In the game, she also managed 4 blocked shots and 3 steals, bolstering her case for her third Defensive Player of the Year honor to go with her potential third MVP award and third WNBA Finals championship trophy.

Wilson has a realistic chance to break the all-time WNBA single-season rebounding record this year (404 rebounds by Sylvia Fowles in 2018), and pulling down 20 misses on Wednesday certainly will help her cause. Wilson now is up to 11.3 rebounds per game after her big performance (a little off of Fowles' 11.9 rebounds per game mark from her record-setting 2018 campaign), but because Charles played just 34 games that year, Wilson is on pace to blow past the total rebound record this year.

Currently, Wilson's points per game mark of 26.9 is the best in WNBA history, as well, and her 2.7 blocks per game are on pace to give her the best blocks season of all-time by any player not named Brittney Griner or Margot Dydek.

A superstar who stands out above other superstars, A'ja Wilson is the best player in the world, and performances like hers on Wednesday reinforce that reality.