B’ank Broken: A’ja Wilson inks largest contract in WNBA history with Aces
TheGrio...
The four-time league MVP and three-time champion is adding to her résumé as one of the faces of the league.
One of the WNBA’s greatest players just made history: again.
A’ja Wilson, the league’s only four-time MVP and three-time WNBA champion, is returning to the Las Vegas Aces on a three-year, $5 million deal.
The financials of the deal, which were revealed by ESPN’s Shams Charania and Andraya Carter, not only make Wilson one of the first to sign a supermax contract in the league, but she’s also the highest-paid player in league history.
“A’ja is truly one of one, who has led this franchise to where it is today,” Aces president and GM Nikki Fargas said in a statement. “Not only has she catapulted into the history books and surpassed almost every record in existence, but she does so with the utmost confidence, authenticity and grace. We look forward to continuing to see her thrive in an Aces uniform.”
In 2025, Wilson helped lead the Aces on a second-half surge that led the franchise to its third WNBA title. In the process, she became the first player, NBA or WNBA, to win the scoring title, Defensive Player of the Year, Most Valuable Player, and Finals MVP in the same season. Since leading the University of South Carolina to its first NCAA title in 2017, all Wilson has done is win.
Four years after being drafted No. 1 overall by the Aces in 2018, she led the club to its first WNBA title in 2022 and repeated the feat in 2023. She won the first of her two Finals MVP awards in 2023, and in 2024, she became the first player in WNBA history to reach 1,000 points in a single season while averaging a league-record 26.9 points per game.
The WNBA’s new CBA has been revolutionary for star players in this transformative free agency period. The same can be said for new draftees as this year’s No. 1 pick, Azzi Fudd, will earn $500,000 in the first year of her rookie contract, six times more than what the 2024 No. 1 pick, Paige Bueckers, earned in the initial year of her deal.