A’ja Wilson had a bittersweet WNBA game on Tuesday night. She met her musical crush Usher for the second time. The world-famous crooner attended his first Las Vegas Aces game, but her team was also upset by Angel Reese’s Chicago Sky, who were in seventh place in the league entering the game.
It should have been a blowout win, and then meeting Usher would have been icing on the cake.
A’ja Wilson Rips Teammates For FanGirling Usher After Bad Loss
After the game, Wilson’s teammates ran to take pictures with Usher and a nearby hot mic picked up Wilson ripping her teammates, whose performance was less than championship-level.
In a video, Wilson was heard saying to a teammate, “They ain’t did (expletive) all day, but they want to take a (expletive) picture with Usher.”
Wilson was clearly less than enthralled with the enthusiasm the team showed for Usher’s presence. In her opinion, it was more than the energy they put forth in laying an egg against one of the WNBA’s weaker teams.
And while Wilson is surely qualified to make a comment on her team as the league’s best player and a two-time defending world champion, she also has to take some responsibility in her team’s recent struggles and worry less about being Usher’s favorite WNBA player.
The Aces have been starting games slowly all season, which reflects on their lack of hunger as a team to three-peat. They were trailing a team that’s ninth in the league in scoring out of 12 teams by 13 points after the first quarter.
Eighteen first-half turnovers put the defending champions in a tough position and they rebounded from a 21-point deficit but couldn’t close, losing 93-85.
Coach Becky Hammon acknowledged the difficulties of mounting comebacks, saying, “Those are hard holes to dig out of. Even if we had won this game, we still feel that there’s a lot of things that we could get better at, defensively especially,” per ClutchPoints’ Candese Charles.
The Sky is the WNBA’s leading rebounding team, led by Double-Double Reese and 6-foot-7 Kamilla Cardoso. They lead the WNBA in rebounds per game with 36. The Sky dominated the boards 56-32 and picked up 14 second-chance points, compared with the Aces’ three. Wilson had a standout performance with 28 points, 14 rebounds, five blocks and three steals, but it wasn’t enough to secure a win.
However, her reaction was more funny than anything because she didn’t know she was on a hot mic.
Relationship Between A’ja Wilson and Usher
Back in 2022, after the Aces had won their first WNBA championship, Wilson — the NBA2K25 cover star — practically begged Usher to attend their title celebrations. In the postgame press conference following the Game 4 win over the Connecticut Sun, Wilson said: “Usher, I better see you Usher. I’m not playing with you.”
However, Usher could not attend the 2022 parade or 2023 parade after the Aces clinched back-to-back titles. But the Vegas resident later invited the team to one of his concerts.
Wilson and her teammates took him up on his offer, with the team attending his concert in October 2023. The 45-year-old serenaded Wilson onstage, and he decided to visit her and the Aces this time around.
After the game, Wilson embraced Usher before presenting him with her jersey. The WNBA X account posted a clip of the interaction along with the caption: “Dreams do come true.”
Usher also posed for photos with Sydney Colson and Jackie Young. The trio was smiling despite the defeat, which left the 16-8 Aces second in the Western Conference.
That’s when Wilson didn’t like the energy and made her comment. It’s not the first time Usher has been involved with sports in 2024. Earlier this year, Usher headlined the coveted Super Bowl halftime show at Allegiant Stadium, the home of the Las Vegas Raiders.
