NEW YORK (Sept. 12, 2025)—The Associated Press today announced that Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson was its Player of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year after another dominating season on both ends of the floor. This marks Wilson’s third (2020, 2024) AP Player of the Year honor since 2020 and her third (2022, 2023) AP Defensive Player of the Year award in the past four years. Additionally, after putting together one of the best seasons of her career, Aces guard Jackie Young earned a spot on the All-Associated Press second team

Wilson, who was instrumental in the Aces current 16-game winning streak, led the league this season in numerous standard statistical categories, including scoring average (23.4 ppg), free throws made (6.2 per game) and blocks (2.3 bpg); while finishing second in rebounds (10.2 rpg) and defensive boards (7.9 drpg). Not only that, but Wilson also ranked No. 1 for player efficiency (33.3), win shares (9.1), offensive win shares (6.0), defensive win shares (3.1), defensive rating (96.4) and usage percentage (32.1). Additionally, Wilson finished the year shooting 50.5% from the field, 42.4% from distance and 85.5% from the line.

Only five times in the history of the league has someone finished the season averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds—Wilson has now done that twice, after first accomplishing the feat in 2024. Chamique Holdsclaw (2003), Candace Parker (2010) and Sylvia Fowles (2011) also did so. When factoring in her other statistics, Wilson is the only player in history to average at least 20 points, 10 rebounds, 3 assists, 2 blocks and 1 steal through the course of the season.

After the Aces opened the season with a 14-14 record, Wilson powered Las Vegas to 16 consecutive wins to close out the season as the No. 2 seed heading into the playoffs. Over the past 16 games, Wilson averaged 26.1 points, 12.0 rebounds, 2.4 assists, 2.3 blocks and 1.6 steals per game, while committing just 1.9 turnovers a contest. Further, she shot 52.7% from the field, made 59.3% (16-27 3pt FGs) from 3-point range and 88.9% from the line.

Young closed the year averaging 16.5 points, which ranked No. 12 among league leaders, 4.5 rebounds, 5.1 assists (5th) and 1.3 steals (15th) per game, while shooting 47.5% from the field, 35.9% from distance and a career-high 89.4% from the line, which listed No. 5 on this year’s charts. In dishing out 10 or more assists on three occasions, Young posted a pair of triple-doubles and an additional points/assists double-doubles. Her scoring and assists averages were the second-best outputs in her seven-year WNBA career after dishing 5.3 assists per game in 2024 and scoring 17.6 points per game in 2023.

The No. 2 Aces (30-14) host No. 7 Seattle (23-21) in Game 1 of the opening round’s best-of-three series on Sunday, Sept. 14, at Michelob ULTRA Arena. Tip is slated for 7 p.m. and the game will be broadcast by ESPN. Game 2 is at Seattle on Sept. 16 (6:30 p.m., ESPN) and, if necessary, the teams will return to Las Vegas for Game 3 on Sept. 18 (time TBD), which will stream on ESPN2. The best-of-five WNBA Semifinals begin Sept. 21 and this year’s WNBA Finals, which will be contested for the first time in a best-of-seven series, tips Oct. 3.