Sports
A’ja Wilson Wins Unanimous MVP Award in Historic Year on and Off the Court

Las Vegas Aces A’ja Wilson has never minced words with regards to her quest for greatness. Being the top talent in today’s WNBA simply is not adequate for Wilson. Elite in this era is not enough.
In May 2023, Wilson, while a guest on the show, when asked by George what legacy she wanted to depart behind in the sport, replied that she wanted her name to be synonymous with all of girls’s basketball.
“When you talk about GOATs of the W, my name has to be there. At least in the top three. That’s my goal,” Wilson told George. “When you think about women’s basketball, when you think about the W, I want my name to be there. Whatever it takes. Whatever it takes to get there — whether it’s rings, whether it’s individual accolades — I want to be there in that category.”
It’s an announcement that few players with the talent and circumstances to attain could make. Those are former players like Sheryl Swoopes and Candace Parker, Maya Moore and Cynthia Cooper.
Since joining the league as the No. 1 overall pick in 2018, Wilson has steadily climbed the WNBA’s Mount Rushmore, starting with a Rookie of the Year award and an All-Star nomination. In 2020, she won her first MVP title and her first gold medal at the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. In 2022, she added one other MVP title, Defensive Player of the Year honors and her first WNBA championship with Las Vegas. Wilson added a second straight title by winning one other Defensive Player of the Year award in 2023.
In her seven-year profession, Wilson has gone from basketball immortality to jumping. It’s gotten to the point where Wilson could achieve her Goliath goal before she turns 30.
Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images
In 2024, Wilson became the league’s first 1,000-point scorer, set the record for many points and rebounds in a season, set a brand new record for points per game — breaking the previous record that had stood for 18 years — and became the first player to average 25 points and 10 rebounds in a season. That doesn’t include her second Olympic gold medal in Paris, where she was named tournament MVP.
On Sunday, Wilson became the second player in WNBA history to be unanimously named MVP — a feat that hasn’t happened since 2006.
“I know how hard it is to be successful in this league, how hard it is to maintain your greatness in this league,” Wilson said Sunday after receiving the MVP trophy. “My first one was, ‘OK, I kind of have my name in the record books, in the history books of this league.’ To this day, I feel like I’ve fully settled into the league that I dreamed of playing in.”
When Atlanta Dream point guard Allisha Gray first saw Wilson play as a freshman at South Carolina, she knew Wilson was playing at a unique level. Gray met Wilson as her recruiting host at the University of North Carolina when Wilson was the No. 1 recruiter in the 2014 class. The two quickly became friends after a funny experience at a neighborhood carousel during Wilson’s stay.
“It was one of those UFOs that just spins around and you’re glued to the wall,” Gray said. “That ride blew us away, man.”
That moment brought the two closer together and they at the moment are best friends. Gray, who later moved to South Carolina and won a national championship with Wilson, texted her friend when she heard the news.
“I know her phone is blowing up,” Gray said before the Dream’s first-round playoff game against the New York Liberty on Sunday. “As a best friend, I’m really happy with her. I’ve all the time believed in her and I knew she could do it, it’s only a matter of whether she believes in herself — and she does.
“She is the best player in the world.”

Ian Maule/NBAE via Getty Images
This season, Wilson became the first player to guide the league in points, rebounds and blocks in a single season. It was a dominant performance that spanned the entire league. According to ESPN Stats & Information, Wilson has averaged 25 points and 10 rebounds against six opponents this yr. Before this season, no player in WNBA history had averaged the same numbers against greater than two different opponents in a single season.
Throughout the yr, Wilson’s pursuit of greatness was measured by the performance of other great men whom she equaled or surpassed.
The single-season points-per-game record was originally set by Phoenix Mercury point guard Diana Taurasi. Wilson and Parker are the only players to record at the least 25 points, 15 rebounds, 5 assists, and 5 blocks in a single game, which Wilson did against Atlanta on August 30. Wilson’s single-season rebounding record broke the record set by Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky rookie Angel Reese also broke Fowles’ record that season). Wilson became the second player in WNBA history after Yolanda Griffith (1999) to complete in the league’s top five in points, rebounds, blocks, and steals per game. Wilson has scored 40 points twice this season, giving her 4 profession 40-point games, tying Taurasi and Breanna Stewart for the most points in WNBA history. With her third MVP title, she joins Lauren Jackson, Lisa Leslie and Swoopes as the only players to perform this feat.
“When you have players of that caliber playing now, you appreciate it. One day she won’t be here,” Las Vegas Aces guard Alysha Clark said Sept. 11. “She’ll retire and move on with her life, and people will admire what she did. Marvel at it now. It’s pretty damn impressive.”
Wilson matches that energy off the field as well.
In February, her first book, , was published and became a bestseller. In April, she was named considered one of the magazine’s 100 most influential people. In May, Nike announced that Wilson would receive her own signed shoe, making her the first black female WNBA player to have a signed shoe since Parker in 2010 and the first black woman since Swoopes in 2002 to have a signed Nike basketball shoe. In July, 2K Sports announced that Wilson would seem in the NBA 2K25 All-Star and WNBA editions of the popular video game.
For Gray, Wilson’s recognition is something she’s been waiting for for a very long time. While Wilson’s performances and resume could have warranted the amount of attention she’s currently receiving, Gray said Wilson has never complained earlier in her profession.
“A’ja, she’s a very humble person. What’s hers is hers. We know what she deserves, but she won’t cry and complain – she just shows what she does,” Gray said. “She’s not conceited, she’s not arrogant, what’s hers is hers and that’s why she’s always blessed. She always does everything right.”
“I know how hard it is to be successful in this league, it’s hard to maintain your greatness in a league like this.”
— A’ja Wilson
A yr ago, Wilson finished third in considered one of the tightest MVP races the league has ever seen. The final vote tally revealed Wilson received the fourth-place votewhich could have affected her placement in the race. Wilson said she “pushed” for the vote early on. During the Aces’ 2023 championship parade, Wilson, the reigning Finals MVP, wore a T-shirt that referenced her fourth-place finish and thanked the voter during her speech. But she said in February that she had decided to let the situation go.
“I had this epiphany moment where I just thought, ‘You know what, get my feelings out there. Put in the work, A’ja. Make sure people have no doubts about who you are and who you want to be in this league,’” Wilson said. “I think that was a turning point for me.”
Wilson ended her answer by saying that she didn’t really need to speak about the fourth-place vote anymore. She gestured to the silver MVP trophy that sat on the podium next to her, tapping the base just a few times as she finished.
“Because we are of one mind.”
Sports
Jalen Milroe can follow the Jalen path in NFL

Star Black playmakers aren’t any longer an exception – they’re the rule. Throughout the entire football season, this series will discover the importance and influence of black QB from bottom -up to NFL.
Indianapolis-keep me, should you heard it earlier: playmaker Alabama born in Texas, who’s a stronger runner than a passerby, will probably be called outside the first round of the NFL Draft.
The playmaker was undefeated in Sec as a primary -year starter.
The playmaker never played for the same offensive coordinator.
The name of the playmaker is even Jalen.
But it isn’t clear that Jalen hurts. This winter he was busy winning the Super Bowl MVP, and he didn’t play Iron Bowl or against Michigan.
Instead, it’s a former playmaker of Crimson Tide Jalen Milroewho last week Combine Combine tried to convey the case to the trainers and evaluators that he – like his namesake – is price being their playmaker franchise in the future despite questions on his ability.
“I went through adversity. I saw everything as a quarterback, “Milroe said on Friday. “I played at the most difficult conference in the country. It would be easier to play at other conferences, but what I could see in Sec catapulted me that I was ready to play NFL. “
Justin Casterline/Getty Images
Departing from Katy in Texas, she originally got involved in Texas in 2019, but a 12 months later she fell to Alabama. After he was sitting behind the Crimson Tide Starter Bryung for 2 seasons, Milroe took his reins in the 2023 season. He helped Alabama survive Sec (8-0) this 12 months, won by the conference rival and two-time defender Georgia in the SEC championship, which caused Crimson Tide to the play-off collection.
But while Milroe had a big arm (his 10 yards for the test took third place in Sec in 2023), the pass was not his strong suit. For two seasons as a starter Milroe never achieved 3000 yards in one season, the first starter of Alabama, who did it because it … hurts.
Hurts, from Houston, led Crimson Tide to the National National Championships in 2016–17, but during these two seasons were lower than 5,000 yards. While Hurts was a singular Rusher (1,809 yards and 21 sticks) at the moment, his weakness as a passerby is known for led to the spare Tua Tavailoa during the break of the national championships in 2017.
In the mix, Milroe decided that despite his pedestrian passes, he was still worthy of being a start at NFL.
He is aware of his weaknesses and swore that he worked in the ass to enhance outside being “one dimension.” He could move when his legendary trainer, Nick Saban, retired after the 2023 season, but decided to not fall off. He traveled six miles a day to ensure that that something was left in the fourth quarter in the fourth quarter. He studied progression and reads after I-SNAP to lift his IQ in football.
Unlike the forecast sorts of the first round, Cam Ward and Shedeur Sanders, Milroe threw a mix on Saturday, hoping that he would show the bands that he has mechanics to do that to the playmaker NFL. It turned out to be a mixed bag. Milroe showed strong arm strength and a very good location of sail routes, curls and it while throwing exercises, but fought accuracy on intermediate and on the routes.
“That’s so many things that I can learn more where I am today and where I will be when it comes to day 1, starting with NFL,” said Milroe before Saturday exercises. “Always be a game student, at all times attempt to develop, because it would be so many opportunities in which I can look back and say that it was the moment after I grew up as a playmaker.
“That’s right now, I’m just trying to grow as much as possible, put my best foot forward and just look for development.”
Derick E. Hingle/Getty Images
Milroe was asked that he was one other playmaker in Alabama to succeed in the mix, following in the footsteps of the role (who moved to Oklahoma in 2019), Tavailoa, Mac Jones and Bryce Young. Milroe said he appreciates being in the company of others, but he added that it’s difficult to check him with others.
“We had different bands, we had different players around us, we had a different system,” he said.
But when he specifically asked what he could study the journey of Hurts-from the first manager of the game after the super Bowl-Milroe master said he inspired him his companion Alabam.
“The most important thing I learned from J. Hurts is how he kept his head (I) always continued to work,” said Milroe. “He at all times raised his game, he has never been self -deserved, and all the pieces you see is great progress from him.
“And I have to applaud him as a person, he as a man, because he is definitely inspiring for many playmakers of my image, as well as many playmakers throughout the country. He leads to all of us. “
The couple isn’t completely similar. Hurts had about 20 kilos on Milroe when he was in college. Milroe has a stronger arm, while Hurts played more and not using a mistake of football: Milroe threw 17 interceptions and ate 67 bags for 2 seasons as a starter in comparison with 10 captures Hurts and 43 bags.
But they can each be changing the game when their teams need them. In a highly publicized match against Georgia at the starting of the last season, Milroe finished almost 82% of his passes on 374 yards and two appointments, adding 117 yards to the ground for the next two results.
Milroe can also match the wounds in the so -called “Jalen-ISMS. “
“Climbing upstairs is not easy, but when you reach the top of this mountain, you will learn so many things when it comes to adversity when it comes to difficulties, things along the way,” said Milroe in a mix.
Sports
Like Tommie Smith and John Carlos from 1968. Black Power Salute inspired me to find my goal

I’d say that I grew up within the household to be sure that that me and my siblings were aware of the black history. My parents invested in the gathering of black encyclopedias. On the duvet we had a version of the Bible with Black Jesus. Our house was stuffed with books of black novelists and thinkers, and if a black document appeared, we watched it. I watched all movies made on television about Dr. King, each “Roots” and “Alex Haley’s Queen” and I sat for all 14 hours “Eyes on the reward”-as a toddler. Bless my heart.
Having said this, there have been pockets of black history, and more likely that I had no opportunity to delve into once I was a toddler. The college was where all the will for information and understanding of the combined. I attended Morehouse College in Atlanta, Ga., One of a very powerful historically black universities within the country. It was there that I met people from around the globe whose knowledge about black history differed (often depending on the colleges and the communities by which we lived), but everyone had hunger to learn more.
One day, through the first yr, I remember one among my friends in a T -shirt by which I had definitely seen before, but I never paid attention to. There was a black and white screen printing on the shirt (what I do know now) the enduring moment on the Olympic Games in Mexico in 1968, where on the rostrum for 200-meter medals, Tommie Smith, John Carlos (races 1. And 3. Place Finaners) Everyone gathered a black fist in gloves while he played “Star Spangled Banner”. Peter Norman, the second place from Australia, wore a human rights badge, like Smith and Carlos.
Not only did they raise the fist of black power (although they each said it was for human rights), they received medals in black socks to represent poverty within the black community, and Smith wore a black scarf for black pride. Carlos showed solidarity with blue-wheeled employees, unpacking the jacket and wore a necklace from the beads for individuals who were lynched. Due to the state of Black America in 1968 and a continuing struggle for equality and civil rights, there have been calls to a boycott of the Games. Martin Luther King, Jr. He was also killed in April this yr – and all three athletes were inspired enough to find a way to do it on the rostrum, which led to one of the crucial durable images of public protest.
I remember how I learned history and realized that on the most important scene these brave men used their moment of triumph and victory to quietly protest against the conditions of underrated communities in America. I felt strengthened; We often discuss standing on the arms of giants, however the more I got into the history of black in America, the more I spotted what number of giants there have been. In college I used to be very bad and for a while ready to burn every part that represented the establishment or any obstacle to black liberation. I felt like all those individuals who even saw their space on the planet in reference to individuals who could never give you the option to speak as heroes whose lives were to be modeled later. Especially since it was also fastidiously that putting people in front of him can often bring an enormous personal loss.
When Smith and Carlos took their position, they were booed on the stadium and ordered to be sent home by the International Olympic Committee. The athletes returned home, but they weren’t welcomed by the hero, but as a substitute of rough sleds, and even in some cases the specter of death. They were also not beloved by athletes. Two men, associated eternally in history, even have a good relationship –Carlos even claims that he let Smith go within the race Because “Tommie Smith would never put his fist in the sky if I won this race,” the claim that Smith denies.
History ultimately has a way of rights, but it surely took a few years and realizations on the front of social policy, in order that the actions of those persons are perceived as brave and needed, not only selfish and smug.
The lessons that I learned from College and continuous reading and education I gained (my head remained within the book about black history) were one among the best advantages in HBCU. The very variety of books I learned about about which I actually have never heard of – I actually have upheld me all my life.
That is why I remember sooner or later I used to be walking around Washington, the eastern Washington market and a street seller was selling different photos of moments in black history, and he had a 40 -inch photo within the Tommie Smith and John Carlos frame. I paid for it in money and spent it across the capital of the country until I returned home. I do know that it happened in 2005 (I finished Morehouse College in 2001) because I just moved to my first apartment with no roommate and it was the very first thing that I actually have ever suspended on the wall. This picture within the frame still hangs on the wall in my home in 2025 and I used it to teach my children about sacrifice and privilege and how you may have to discuss individuals who cannot.

The query that my youngest children often ask: “How do I know who can’t speak for herself?” Which is an incredible query. For this I answered an easy fact, pointing to the photo:
“These men have made a gesture that gave people whose most of us, including them, would never see or never know them, but on which life negatively affects the alternatives of the wealthy and the federal government. Sometimes you may have to take this chance to say something because you do not know in the event you’ll ever have such a big platform.
Son, there may be at all times someone who cannot speak for himself, and you may have to use it in a voice, because perhaps the thing you say or a stand that can help someone you understand, live a greater life. ”
I take advantage of words that may understand a little bit higher, but I can inform you that my children have a look at this photo on a regular basis, and once one among my sons said: “These guys are heroes, right?”
I say yes, they’re. They are the heroes of the Black History.
They will live eternally for speaking, and even quietly, in solidarity with those that couldn’t.

(Tagstranslate) @Ap
Sports
Main Treasury Official Morgan State University, Sterling Steward, died

Morgan State University announced that his older associate athletics director and tax director, Sterling Steward, died.
No reason for death was disclosed, but the college has confirmed his contribution since he was employed in December 2022.
Morgan State University Athletics mourns Sterling Steward’s departure https://t.co/avjzilxhja
– Grizzly Life (@grizzlylife22) February 26, 2025
Steward died on February 26. In Morgan State he was accountable for the event of university programs, supporting partnerships and strengthening the financial and operational success of the Faculty.
“Sterling was more than a colleague-he was a respected leader, mentor and friend,” said in a written statement by Den Freeman-Patton, vice chairman and director of inter-university athletes. “His passion for athletics and commitment to raising Morgan programs were visible in everything he did. He worked tirelessly to ensure that our sports students had resources and the possibilities of distinction, and its impact will be felt for many years. We expand our deepest condolences to his family and loved ones, especially his three sons and sister when we mourn this huge loss. “
While the steward worked in Morgan, strategic growth and cooperation occurred. His work with the institutional development department helped to offer more opportunities and created lasting relationships to support sports programs.
Steward earlier he worked At the University of New Orleans (UNO) as an assistant to the college athletics director for strategic income generation. He also made stays on the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Savannah State University, Mississippi Valley State University, Alabama State University, Kentucky State University, Eastern Oregon University and Xavier University in various roles, including for a senior consultant athletics director and sports director.
He was from New Orleans, who received the title of bachelor and master’s degree on the University of Southern Mississippi. He won a bachelor’s degree in the sphere of coaching and administration/history of sport and his master’s degree in the sphere of sport management.
(Tagstransate) Morgan State Universiry
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