South Carolina retired A’ja Wilson’s No. 22 jersey ahead of its SEC matchup with Auburn on Sunday afternoon. While Wilson has had an 11-foot bronze statue outside of Colonial Life Arena since 2021, fans will now also be able to see her jersey hanging in the rafters for every Gamecock home game.
“This is huge. This is a big, big moment. I’m super blessed to be able to say that my jersey is hanging in the rafters in my home — not a lot of people can say that,” Wilson said. “To be able to have everyone come out and enjoy the moment, and that I can share the moment with everyone, it’s going to be truly, truly special.”
Ahead of the game, South Carolina also debuted two court decals with Wilson’s signature and an outline of the number 22.
A’lways and forever pic.twitter.com/QtRtAvguI4
— South Carolina Women’s Basketball (@GamecockWBB) February 2, 2025
Wilson was a transformative player for South Carolina. The South Carolina native committed to the Gamecocks as the No. 1 overall recruit in 2014. Coach Dawn Staley had just completed her sixth season at the helm of the Gamecock program and though it was clear she was pushing the program to levels never seen by South Carolina women’s basketball — the team reached the Sweet Sixteen in 2012 and 2014 — it had not yet broken through onto the national stage as a perennial power.
In Wilson’s four seasons in Columbia, the Gamecocks finished in the AP top-10 every season (it had only done that once before her arrival), advanced to its first Final Four during her freshman season and won the program’s first national title during her junior year. South Carolina went 129-16 and won three SEC titles during Wilson’s career. She sits atop the South Carolina record books in career points (2,389), career blocks (363), career free throws (597) and career player efficiency rating.
Wilson was a three-time All-American and cleaned up the national player of the year awards her senior season after averaging career-bests in points (22.6), rebounds (11.8) and blocks (3.2) per game.
We’re going to remember this one for a lifetime 🫶 @_ajawilson22 pic.twitter.com/XlHD0svSVW
— South Carolina Women’s Basketball (@GamecockWBB) February 2, 2025
“There’s no one more deserving of this weekend than A’ja,” South Carolina coach Dawn Staley said ahead of the ceremony. “She legitimized our program. She took it to another level and we still feel her legacy today. Everybody still talks about her contributions to our program.”
In 2018, Wilson became South Carolina’s first-ever WNBA No. 1 overall draft pick when the Las Vegas Aces selected her. Like at South Carolina, she helped the Aces establish themselves among the elite in the league. She won WNBA titles with Las Vegas in her fourth and fifth seasons, has thrice been named WNBA MVP (2020, 2022, 2024) and has been a WNBA All-Star six times (every season in which the WNBA had an All-Star game).
In 2021, Wilson and Staley reunited with Team USA, where the US won its seventh-consecutive gold medal. Wilson was again selected to the national team ahead of the Paris Games, where she helped Team USA win its eighth-consecutive gold medal. Last week, Wilson was named Team USA’s 5×5 female athlete of the year.
(Photo: Sean Rayford / Getty Images)
