A'ja Wilson Blasts The Treatment Of Black WNBA Players And Being Overshadowed By White Players: 'It Boils My Blood'
A'ja Wilson is speaking out about the treatment of Black WNBA players who she says have often been looked over.
When the Las Vegas Aces forward was asked about the race element in relation to rookie Caitlin Clark who was drafted No. 1 to the Indiana Fever, she called it "a huge thing."
"I think a lot of people may say it's not about Black and white, but to me, it is," she told the Associated Press.
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The 27-year-old continued: "It really is because you can be top-notch at what you are as a Black woman, but yet maybe that's something that people don't want to see."
The five-time WNBA All-Star went on to explain how even if a Black player is incredibly successful on the basketball court, they will still be forgotten.
"They don't see it as marketable, so it doesn't matter how hard I work," Wilson said.
She also said that "it doesn't matter what we all do as Black women, we're still going to be swept underneath the rug. That's why it boils my blood when people say it's not about race because it is."
Caitlin Clark led the Iowa Hawkeyes to back-to-back national championship games, losing both to LSU in 2023 and Dawn Staley's South Carolina Gamecocks in March. The Iowa native, 22, not only made an appearance on NBC's "Saturday Night Live" — despite losing the NCAA champsion — signed a record-breaking signature shoe deal with Nike. The deal represented the most lucrative contract for a women's basketball player in history.
A'ja Wilson is a two-time Defensive Player of the Year and a two-time WNBA champion.
Wilson helped lead the South Carolina Gamecocks to their first NCAA Women's Basketball Championship in 2017. She won the NCAA basketball tournament Most Outstanding Player award.
According to ESPN, she shot a "career-best 55.7 percent from the floor" and has not missed one game in the past three seasons. Across that span, she's averaged 20.2 points, 9.4 rebounds, and 2.3 assists.
