A'ja Wilson on growth of WNBA: 'I pray it's a movement and not a trend'

There is a lot of hype around the WNBA right now with several new stars, most notably Caitlin Clark, coming into the league. However, the league got off to a rough start in the preseason.

The WNBA League Pass streaming service experienced severe issues during opening night, which frustrated one of the W’s biggest stars — A’ja Wilson.

Wilson recently discussed a number of topics during an interview with Boardroom, including the WNBA needing to take advantage of all the attention it is currently receiving.

“It’s like we know the moment is coming, but we don’t know how to just be ready for it,” A’ja Wilson said. “I feel like sometimes we have to let stuff hit the fan to then be like, ‘Oh, snap.’ And we can’t do that now. That may have worked years ago, but right now, in the moment, we have to be ready for anything. Because the first impression has to be the best impression when we’re talking about the WNBA.

“So I think for us, as the W, and I’m speaking for an entire league right now, which is scary. We have to really be better at being ready and in the moment.”

The league rebounded nicely on regular season opening night, with Caitlin Clark and the Fever bringing in more than 2 million viewers.

Wilson hopes that the newfound attention the league is getting is here to stay.

“We’re in a movement, and I pray it’s a movement and not a trend, because we die down very, very quickly. People die down. The hype can be here and then it drops,” Wilson said. “But the movement, I feel like we have to do a better job of understanding what the movement is and being ready for that and knowing that this is the growth that we’ve been wanting, this is the growth that we’ve needed and now it’s about time.

“So now it’s like, ‘No, people watch us.’ We’re not getting the ‘go back in the kitchen’ comments, the ‘make me a sandwich’ comments. It’s like, ‘No, fly us out.’ People are in my mentions saying, ‘We want to get flown out.’ 

Wilson has won two WNBA titles, two WNBA MVPs and a WNBA Finals MVP. She is doing her part to help promote the league and is optimistic fans will continue to tune in.

With that said, she believes the WNBA has to do its part.

“It’s a moment where like, people are watching us. We had people streaming on their phones and having people that are tuned in to that on an IG live. So it’s like, this is the moment that we need to capitalize on. This is the moment that we need to welcome these people and these fans, because this is the growth that we’ve been wanting,” Wilson said.

“I feel like the growth kind of took the league off guard, and we can’t do that anymore. So hopefully this was a huge lesson learned and now that we know we can grow from here and the best is yet to come. But I feel like in a lot of senses we’re just not prepared for the moment. Now it’s like we can’t not have those moments anymore. It’s now or never. Like we have to capitalize on this.”