[et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.91″ custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|0px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Top Image” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ show_in_lightbox=”off” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” show_bottom_space=”on” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][et_pb_row custom_padding=”2px|0px|8px|0px” _builder_version=”3.0.47″ background_size=”initial” background_position=”top_left” background_repeat=”repeat”][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_text admin_label=”Top Image caption” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” background_layout=”light” \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ _builder_version=”3.0.92″ custom_padding=”2px|0px|37.9062px|0px” prev_background_color=”#000000″ next_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row custom_padding=”0px|0px|18.9531px|0px” custom_margin=”10px|||” _builder_version=”3.0.92″][et_pb_column type=”1_3″][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 1″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/AJA-WILSON-2.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Caption 1″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”8px|||2px” custom_padding=”|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
A’ja Wilson and USC women’s basketball head coach, Coach Staley talk about her transition to the WNBA.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 2″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/AJA-WILSON-IMAGE-3.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Caption 2″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”8px|||2px” custom_padding=”|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
A’ja Wilson, USC’s top women’s basketball player, holds her Naismith trophy. She also won the Wade Trophy, the USWBA award, and the AP Player of the award.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 3″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/AJA-WILSON-IMAGE-1.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Caption 3″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”8px|||2px” custom_padding=”|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
A’ja Wilson is presented with the Naismith trophy by Tammy Mochado, vice president of Citizen’s Watch Co., and executive director of the Atlanta Tip-Off Club, Eric Oberman.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][et_pb_image admin_label=”Image 4″ show_in_lightbox=”on” show_bottom_space=”off” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”||2px|” custom_padding=”|||” animation_style=”slide” box_shadow_style=”preset2″ box_shadow_horizontal=”4px” box_shadow_vertical=”4px” url_new_window=”off” use_overlay=”off” always_center_on_mobile=”on” force_fullwidth=”off” src=”http:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/04\/AJA-WILSON-IMAGE-4.jpg” \/][et_pb_text admin_label=”Caption 4″ _builder_version=”3.0.106″ text_font=”|600|||||||” text_font_size=”12px” text_line_height=”1.4em” custom_margin=”8px|||2px” custom_padding=”|||” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
A’ja Wilson thanks her fans at the Colonial Life Arena in Columbia for their support.<\/p>\n
[\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][et_pb_column type=”2_3″][et_pb_text admin_label=”News Story” _builder_version=”3.0.106″ custom_margin=”0px||0px|” background_layout=”light”]<\/p>\n
Former USC basketball star A\u2019ja Wilson was presented with her final award April 8 as a college athlete, the prestigious Citizen\u00a0Naismith Trophy. Hundreds of people gathered at the Colonial Life Arena to celebrate her achievement.<\/p>\n
Wilson won all of the National Player of the Year awards for 2018: the Wade Trophy, the AP Player of the Year award, the United States\u2019 Basketball Writers\u2019 Association award and the Naismith award. She is the first Gamecock to ever win the Naismith award, the 37th<\/sup> woman to win the award and one of eight women who have won the award multiple times (the high school Naismith award as well as the college Naismith award).<\/p>\n However, Wilson is much more than a star athlete.<\/p>\n \u201cA\u2019ja is the person who never turned down an autograph, a selfie, a high five,\u201d USC President Harris Pastides said.<\/p>\n \u201cWow you never meet anybody with that type of character and does what she does on the court,\u201d Citizen\u2019s Watch Co. Vice President Tammy Machado said.<\/p>\n Wilson left a legacy at USC with her basketball skills and her character as well. She thanked her family, women’s head basketball coach Dawn Staley, the coaching staff and her supporters.<\/p>\n \u201cI just can\u2019t put into words how grateful and blessed I am to be apart of a great family like Gamecock nation,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n Staley says that her character will allow her to be the face of change for the WNBA.<\/p>\n \u201cIt takes more than just points and rebounds. You have to have a great personality, you have to be relatable and she has all those things that can take the league to the next level,\u201d Staley said about A’ja transitioning\u00a0\u00a0to the WNBA.<\/p>\n Wilson says the only thing that worries her about transitioning\u00a0to the WNBA is playing for someone other than Staley.<\/p>\n However, Staley made a plan so that Wilson wouldn\u2019t be too far away -at least in spirit.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cWe need an A\u2019ja Wilson statue,\u201d Staley said.<\/p>\n Staley has started to petition to get a statue of Wilson on campus.\u00a0On April 12, Wilson was picked number one overall in the WNBA draft by the Las Vegas Aces.<\/p>\n [\/et_pb_text][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section][et_pb_section bb_built=”1″ fullwidth=”off” specialty=”off” prev_background_color=”#000000″][et_pb_row][et_pb_column type=”4_4″][et_pb_video _builder_version=”3.0.92″ \/][\/et_pb_column][\/et_pb_row][\/et_pb_section]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A’ja Wilson earned an armload of honors as she exited the USC women’s basketball team and prepared to enter the WNBA. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":8385,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"on","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[69],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/22"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8337"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9685,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8337\/revisions\/9685"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8385"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8337"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8337"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carolinanewsandreporter.cic.sc.edu\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8337"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}