LAS VEGAS — In a vulnerable moment on the media podium, Becky Hammon places her hand on A’ja Wilson’s leg under the table. A quick supportive touch broken by four quick pats before placing her hand back in her own lap and averting her gaze toward the box score in front of her on the table.
The Las Vegas Aces coach doesn’t need to say a word. Wilson is doing the talking, explaining how she put her confrontation with a fan during Game 2 of a first-round playoff matchup at Gainbridge Fieldhouse behind her in order to score 36 points and to eliminate Indiana Fever in Game 3.
Wilson admits she prayed and cried in the aftermath of feeling disrespected by the fan, but the outpouring of love and Bible verses she received from her inner circle reminded
her she’s “covered.” Hammon fittingly reaches out right when Wilson uses that word.
It’s one Aces guard Dana Evans uses as she describes the threads that bind the relationship between the Hall of Fame coach, the four-time MVP and the entire Las Vegas locker room.
“Becky and A’ja, they set the tone for us,” Evans says after a practice. “It’s the little things. It's a spirit and a soul thing. It’s like we’re covered and protected here. And it’s a good feeling.”
Wilson and Hammon are one of the most decorated player-coach duos in sports, especially now that Wilson has won her fifth MVP. The duo are going for a fourth WNBA title in five years. Their relationship is built on a bunch of small things: a shared Bible verse or vote of confidence when Wilson expands her game. But Hammon also does big things, like standing up for her star when referees miss a call or critics question her talent. It’s all worked to empower Wilson to reach heights this league has never seen. Even when it’s hard, like it was this year.
“The biggest thing with Beck and I’s relationship is that we talk things out, whether it's good, bad, ugly,” Wilson says after a practice at Michelob Ultra Arena in mid-August. “It’s just trust for us. She tells me what she sees me doing and she knows I'm capable of doing it.”
Hammon opened up Wilson’s game
At that same practice, Hammon describes Wilson’s case for WNBA MVP like a busy fast-food worker reading back a customer’s order to check it for accuracy. Hammon has made the argument countless times during her reign over the dynastic Aces organization: Wilson is more efficient, more versatile and more dominant than any player in the league.
Hammon interrupts the endorsement when she notices Wilson approaching. She shares an idea for a different way to utilize her 6-foot-4 star.
“A’ja – what about a big lineup tomorrow? Cheyenne (Parker-Tyus), NaLyssa (Smith), and you at the 3. And when we do our shapes, you’re at the top,” Hammon asks.
“That could be interesting,” Wilson answers. “I’m not mad at it.”
“Think about it,” Hammon says with a smirk before returning to interview-mode, albeit more excitedly now: “We gonna run her at some big guard!”
Wilson laughs when asked if this is how game-plans are made. The answer, she says, is yes, before she and Hammon launch into their process. They bounce off each other like two old friends, recalling adjustments and ideas they’ve shared over the years.
They’ll both be the first to tell you that every season is different. If you ask Wilson what’s changed this year, she’ll tell you about how she sees the game.
“It’s like I have the controller,” she says, alluding to a video game. "My feel for the game is different. I feel like before, I was kind of just watching it, getting a feel for it. But now I'm coming into games really understanding how teams are playing me, what I can get away with, what I can't get away with, and then trying to adapt and adjust from there.
“I have to come into games literally ready to see anything. And when I say anything, I mean anything and not settling. Because it's just like, in my eyes, I can do whatever shot I want. That's just how I feel. But now I'm figuring out exactly how. So that's the mindset I have.”
That level of basketball dominion comes from a level of freedom allowed by Hammon. It’s something Hall of Famers wish they’d had in the league’s infancy. The rules for posts back then were “pound, pound, hook.” Under Hammon’s rules, Wilson can do whatever she wants.
“I look at A’ja Wilson and her game in particular, and I see myself. I see what the possibilities would have been for me,” Lisa Leslie said in a phone interview after Wilson passed her on the league’s all-time scoring list in July. “I think the idea of having the skills is different from being allowed to play outside of those positions. And that was the difference. I think it's the coaching styles that have changed. They've been able to broaden their minds.”
As Hammon watched the Aces from her assistant role with the San Antonio Spurs under Greg Popovich in 2022, she was thinking ahead to how many different ways she could use Wilson. She hadn’t taken the Aces’ job yet, but she saw the team was able to score without great spacing – in an offense Wilson simply describes as “low post” for her, and “clunky” for the rest of the team.
Hammon told Popovich she was going to take the Aces head coaching job.
“I think I can win, like right away,” Hammon says she told Popovich, who deadpanned “OK.”
To do that, Hammon figured she had to get Wilson to shoot the 3. When Hammon arrived, Wilson was already ready to make a change. She doesn’t remember talking with Hammon about it. They were just aligned.
“I knew I had to sharpen it up so I could be ready for anything,” Wilson says.
Now, of course, 3-point shooting is part of Wilson’s arsenal. It’s why she can play “big guard” in a way Hammon admits she’s never allowed any other Aces’ bigs, past or present.
Wilson worked so hard on her 3 ball – and still does – that she texts her trainers “Come on, now” whenever she misses one.
Wilson went from taking a total of two 3-pointers in her professional career before Hammon’s arrival to shooting 40.4% on 94 attempts this season.
“She’s the versatile one that we've really put in guard access for,” Hammon says of Wilson. “Her versatility, her athleticism, her size – skill set allows her to do that. She's just a little bit different, and the fact that she added the 3-ball, it’s like, pick your poison.”
Hammon lets Wilson lead
Because they have a relationship built on trust, Hammon says she doesn’t “micromanage” her star.
As Wilson dealt with a back issue that started as early as June, Hammon followed her lead as the WNBA paused for the FIBA women’s World Cup. When Wilson decided it was best to sit out of the tournament, Hammon “trusted (Wilson’s) feel” for how she’d use that time off.
One of the things Wilson did during her down time was send her teammates another text.
Her teammates say the text was "pretty much the same,” as the one that’s often cited as the turning point toward the historic 17-game win streak the Aces used to close the 2025 regular-season and win it all after taking a 53-point loss to the Minnesota Lynx. Except this time, Wilson was even more firm.
“‘Championship's not on your mind? You're useless. And that's just the simplest way she could put it,” Kierstan Bell said at practice a few days after receiving the message.
“How she leads, we all respect her. We won it last year, but nothing carries over.”
Hammon says Wilson is one of a small group of players who asks to be coached hard and “backs it up.” Wilson has spent years under Hammon taking the brunt of it all. Shouldering the responsibility of each loss publicly. Getting yelled at privately.
Back when Wilson was drafted with the No. 1 overall pick out of South Carolina, then Aces head coach Bill Laimbeer was pushing his star to take the leadership reins.
“There are a lot of great players gifted with talent that don't win a goddamn thing. To win, you have to involve your teammates and they have to believe in you,” Laimbeer says. “She had to learn to be that leader.”
But if you ask Wilson’s mom, Eva Rakes Wilson, the Aces star figured out a key part of leadership this year: self prioritization.
“She’s always been the type of person to put other people before herself. And sometimes, that’s not a good thing,” Rakes Wilson says.
Wilson sets boundaries, backed by Hammon
Surrounded by reporters at a practice entering the Aces’ playoffs series with the Fever, Wilson says success on the court this season has required her to be more “disconnected from the outside world” than she’s been in her career.
“It kind of hurts me because I like to hang with my fans,” Wilson says. “But I really just kind of separated myself from that because mentally, I wasn’t in a really good space.”
During the FIBA break, Rakes Wilson stayed with her daughter in Las Vegas – glad Wilson was taking time for herself, but irritated by the noise from the outside world.
“A’ja’s not on social media, but I am. And it really bothers me sometimes when I see the things that people say about somebody's child,” Rakes Wilson says. “I stayed with her even before FIBA, but particularly during the FIBA games, because she needed to be reminded that she was good.”
Even before criticism of her choice to miss the World Cup, there’s been plenty of chatter from fringe media and fans around Wilson’s life this year. From speculation and weirdness surrounding her desire to start a family with NBA boyfriend Bam Adebayo to claims that her success on the court comes from a “special whistle.”
For every murmur, Hammon is there like the Barack Obama anger translator from the Key& Peele skit. She said Wilson'spersonal plans are no one's business. Hammonaddressed critics of Wilson's FIBA absence. And, after officials missed a foul call at Wilson's expense in August, Hammon went so hard she got ejected for the first time in two years.
“Becky can say things that other people just can't say when it comes to A'ja, because she's in the trenches with her. And she's always gonna be there to protect her. Even when A'ja doesn't protect herself,” Rakes Wilson says. “Becky can say things that A'ja can't say. And she doesn't have a problem doing it. She's always been there to uplift A'ja.”
At Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the fan noise Wilson blocked out all season came stepping toward her on the baseline.
After Wilson apologized for confronting the man in a postgame press conference, Hammon took the podium and said that even without seeing the situation, she knew something was wrong. Because she knows Wilson.
It’s one of the reasons Laimbeer says he knew Hammon would be a good coach for the Aces: She understands how to work with players. What she does for Wilson, she’d do for any of them.
“When you have a players’ coach like that, that's going to rock for you no matter what, it kind of makes you want to win for them. It makes you want to play a little extra harder for them,” Wilson says. “She's poured so much into us, both as women and players … I mean, it's the reason why she's the greatest.”
The God to whom Wilson bows her head and prays to on the court before every game seems to have a thing for numbers. Four years at South Carolina under Dawn Staley. Four years under Laimbeer. And now, a fifth MVP in her fifth season with Hammon.
“Time is ticking away if there is such a thing,” Rakes Wilson says as she thinks about her daughter. “She’s really understanding, ‘I need to start thinking about me and my future.’”
No matter what else is ahead for Wilson, it’s clear she’ll have her coach in her corner for as many years as she has left.
“I got that girl’s back all day long. On the court, off the court, I got her back,” Hammon says. “Why wouldn't I?”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: How Aces coach Becky Hammon helped unlock the best version of A'ja Wilson
