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A'ja Wilson Overcome With Emotion As South Carolina Retires Her Number
A'ja Wilson is a basketball legend. Her icon status was cemented even further Sunday when South Carolina lifted her No. 22 jersey into the rafters at Colonial Life Arena.
Wilson has dominated every level in basketball, becoming an NCAA champion as the tournament's Most Outstanding Player in 2017. Since then, she's won three WNBA MVPs and two championships with the Las Vegas Aces, including six All-Star appearances and being named the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year twice. She's won two gold medals with Team USA, too.
The accomplishments are endless. So it was no shock that the Gamecocks decided to retire her number forever, it was just a matter of when. She already has a statue outside of South Carolina's basketball stadium, but seeing the fresh banner at Colonial Life Arena was bound to bring out all the feels.
Official 🥹 @_ajawilson22 | @GamecockWBB pic.twitter.com/v63tU5PSgy
— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) February 2, 2025
A South Carolina legend 💐
— WNBA (@WNBA) February 2, 2025
From bringing the @GamecockWBB program its first ever National Championship, to the countless achievements on the highest levels, A’ja Wilson’s #22 is now in the rafters at Colonial Life Arena pic.twitter.com/RmAtL8XN2h
The current South Carolina squad was fired up for their school's legend, adorned in custom warm-up t-shirts for the occasion:
Whole squad hyped for A'ja ❤️ @GamecockWBB pic.twitter.com/wHfF2HQqlj
— espnW (@espnW) February 2, 2025
South Carolina picked the proper day to hang up Wilson's No. 22 for good, on Feb. 2. Of course no other Gamecock would wear Wilson's number. Now it's official. Truly a special honor for the basketball legend.
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Blake Silverman is a contributor to the Breaking and Trending News team at Sports Illustrated. Before joining SI in November 2024, he covered the WNBA, NBA, G League and college basketball for numerous sites, including Winsidr, SB Nation's Detroit Bad Boys and A10Talk. He graduated from Michigan State University before receiving a master's in sports journalism from St. Bonaventure University. Outside of work, he's probably binging the latest Netflix documentary, at a yoga studio or enjoying everything Detroit sports. A lifelong Michigander, he lives in suburban Detroit with his wife, young son and their personal petting zoo of two cats and a dog.