Las Vegas Aces superstar A’ja Wilson made history on Wednesday, becoming the fastest player inWNBAhistory to score 5,000 career points.
Wilson needed just seven points heading into the Aces’ game against the Connecticut Sun at Michelob ULTRA Arena and hit the mark midway through the second quarter when she made a layup.
The three-timeleagueMVP is the 28th player to score 5,000 career points but achieved the feat in just 238 games, the quickest to ever do so. Wilson improves on the previous record set by Breanna Stewart, who hit the mark in 242 games.
In scoring 5,000 points at the age of 28 years and 321 days, Wilson is also the second-youngest player to reach that milestone, only behind Lauren Jackson who did it at the age of 28 years and 96 days in her 259th game.
In her press conference afterwards, Wilson showed the shoes she wore during the game – inspired by Tiana from the movie “The Princess and the Frog” – which she had written “5K” and the date on. She said she won’t wear the shoes again to remember the achievement.
Afterwards, Wilson called etching her name into the history books as a “truly special moment.”
“It meant a lot to me. It’s been a special, special season for us,” Wilson told reporters. “There’s been a lot of ups and downs. But when you can hit a milestone like this in a league like this, I can’t let it go unnoticed, so I’m grateful, I’m blessed.
“I’m definitely going to cherish this moment because it’s been a lot of fun. But obviously, we’ve got a lot of work to do.”
Wilson’s historic achievement came in a typical all-aroundperformanceby the center in Las Vegas’ 85-59 win over Connecticut on Wednesday.
The two-time WNBA champion finished with 22 points, eight rebounds, four assists, four steals and three blocks. She has now hit double-digit points in each of her last 62 regular season games, the seventh longest streak in league history and longest active streak.
Wilson finished the game with 5,015 career points – 27th in the WNBA’s all-time standings and some way off leader Diana Taurasi, who has 10,646.
Her performance on Wednesday also meant she became just the sixthplayer– as well as the fastest and youngest – to have 5,000 points, 2,000 rebounds, 500 assists, 400 blocked shots and 200 steals in WNBA history.
“Great milestone for her obviously. Impressive,” Aces head coach Becky Hammon told reporters afterwards. “It’s interesting, she gets all these individual numbers and accolades, but I can tell you she’d trade them in a second for winning.
“Win and all that other stuff gets to happen in a happy place because if you score 40 and you lose, that sucks. You can’t celebrate that and she’s wired like that. She wants to win.”
After Wednesday’s results, the Aces sit seventh in the WNBA standings with a 7-7 record, five games behind the Minnesota Lynx in first place.