Aces forward and South Carolina legend A’ja Wilson was honored with a statue outside of Colonial Life Arena in Columbia, S.C. on Monday.
Wilson’s statue was unveiled on January 14, just under four years after she led South Carolina to the 2017 national championship.
“A’ja Wilson’s accomplishments, on and off the basketball court, make this statue so deserving,” South Carolina athletic director Ray Tanner said in a statement. “She is an outstanding representative of Gamecock Athletics and our University. I am delighted that we can celebrate her in this manner. Thank you to everyone who helped get this done, including our great donors.”
Wilson is one of the most decorated college basketball players of the 2010s. She tallied three SEC regular-season titles in four years with the Gamecocks, reaching the Final Four twice. Wilson was also a three-time All-American at South Carolina as well as the consensus National Player of the Year in 2018. But it’s not just Wilson’s on-court achievements that led to the statue’s creation.
The Hopkins, S.C. native has emerged as one of the WNBA’s leading voices in the fight against racial injustice and police brutality over the last year. Wilson is a founding member of the league’s social justice council, which serves to “address this country’s long history of inequality, implicit bias and systemic racism that has targeted Black and brown communities.”
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