The Michael Jordan comparison isn’t as far-fetched as A’ja Wilson might think: ‘I still have a few more wins left’

Well before winning her third WNBA title, fourth MVP, third Defensive Player of the Year and second Finals MVP, A’ja Wilson reminded me of the player who first made me fall in love with basketball: Michael Jordan. Like most kids growing up in Chicago in the ’80s and ’90s, many of my memories of growing up are intertwined with the Bulls winning six championships, and what I saw from Wilson is reminiscent of Jordan, with one caveat: He did it his way.

After the Las Vegas Aces won their third title Friday night with a four-game win over the Phoenix Mercury, Wilson was asked about the comparison and was clearly surprised.

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“Wow. I still have a few more wins to win before you bring me into that conversation with him,” Wilson said. “But when you’re compared to the greats, when you’re compared to the legends, it means you’re doing something right.”

When you look at Wilson and Jordan, it’s easy to see the similarities. It starts with victory, obviously. By age 29, both had won three championships, as well as Rookie of the Year and Defensive Player of the Year awards (Wilson has three, Jordan had one). All-Star nods were basically annual events.

The NBA’s postseason is longer than the WNBA’s, and men’s games last eight minutes longer, so it’s not entirely fair to compare stats like scoring or rebounding. (In case you were wondering: In his postseason career, Jordan averaged 33.4 points, 6.4 rebounds and 5.7 assists in 41.8 minutes per game; Wilson averaged 21.3 points, 9.9 rebounds and 2.4 assists in 35.2 playoff minutes per game. Jordan won 119 of 145 total career playoff games, while Wilson won 35 of 55.)

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While their stats may not be easily comparable, there’s an easy way to see how similar they are on the pitch: they both want the ball in difficult situations. Finals Game 3 was a perfect snapshot of this. Aces coach Becky Hammon went with the “Give the ball to A’ja and get out of the way.” offensive strategy to end the hotly contested game, and it worked. Guarded by two of the Mercury’s best defenders, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner, Wilson stepped back, pulled up and sank the jump shot to seal the game for Las Vegas.

In one of Jordan’s many examples, the Bulls faced the Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the 1989 playoffs. With time running out in the decisive Game 5, Jordan hit his iconic jump shot over Craig Ehlo to get the win. Subsequently, Bulls coach Doug Collins explained his plan was, “Give the ball to Michael, everyone get out of the way.”

Both Wilson and Jordan are also known for holding themselves and their teammates accountable. As we learned from the documentary “The Last Dance,” Jordan’s methods were anything but gentle.

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“Man, I see a screaming devil. If you make a mistake, he will scream at you, he will belittle you. He almost demands perfection”, Horace Grant, Jordan’s teammate in three Bulls championships said. “Man, when you see your leader working hard in practice, you feel like, ‘Oh, man, if I don’t give it my all, I shouldn’t be here.’”

Wilson created a similar type of accountability within the Aces. Las Vegas struggled through much of the 2025 season, the low point being a 53-point loss to the Lynx in early August. He sent a message to his teammates, according to Michael Voepel of ESPN:

“If you weren’t embarrassed from yesterday, then don’t come to this gym. You’re not needed or wanted here. We need the mindset to change, because it was embarrassing.”

It worked, as the next game marked the start of a 16-game winning streak that gave the Aces the No. 2 seed in the playoffs, setting the table for this year’s championship.

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“We continue to understand and hold each other accountable in the big moments and not weigh ourselves down in the face of mistakes, maybe in that moment, but we continue to encourage each other,” Wilson said after Game 3. “And I think that blind trust just comes from understanding that your teammate is going to hold you accountable, but they’re also going to be there for you and they’re going to be the first one to cheer you on in those moments.”

Wilson’s approach to responsibility is accompanied by a kindness that may not have been present in Jordan’s gyms. He said the Aces spent time together off the court as much as possible during the season, which helped build strong relationships that became the foundation of their championship run.

For Jordan’s Bulls, team bonding time was often spent together on the golf course and in high-stakes poker games on the team plane. For Wilson’s’ Aces, it was all about movie nights and escape rooms.

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“It’s just bank capital,” he said. “That’s the biggest thing, is making sure they understand that I trust them, but I know they’re going to trust me too. And so when it’s just them trusting me with the basketball and getting them to their place, that’s the same thing they do for me. I want to make sure I can show that to them as well. And so when it shows up in assists, great, but if it shows up in just cheering each other on and building each other up, here’s what it’s really all about. And it’s been a long, long year, and we’ve done so many things to get closer to each other, to have that trust. So it’s good that we see him now here in the finals.”

As Wilson said, he has a lot more basketball to play and probably more championships and MVPs to win. But it is easy to see how close the 22 of the aces is to the 23 of the bulls.