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Alex Philippou
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Alex Philippou
ESPN
- Covers women’s college basketball and the WNBA
- He previously covered UConn and the WNBA Connecticut Sun for the Hartford Courant
- Stanford graduate and Baltimore resident with further experience at the Dallas Morning News, Seattle Times and Cincinnati Enquirer
Las Vegas Aces star Aja Wilson – the three-time WNBA MVP and two-time league champion – is signing a six-year contract extension with Nike in one of the richest shoe deals for a women’s basketball player, sources told ESPN on Tuesday.
The news comes after Wilson was named to Nike’s signature athlete list in May and announced: the premiere of her signature shoe“A’One”, which will be released in spring 2025 before the WNBA season.
Wilson’s new deal ranks among the highest-paid sneaker endorsements in sports, alongside those involving the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft Caitlin ClarkUSC star JuJu Watkins and the standout Liberty Sabrina Ionescu.
Earlier this year, Clark reportedly signed a deal eight-year contract worth over $20 million plus potential bonuses at Nike. Watkins also agreed to extension of the multi-year contract with the footwear giant in October. Ionescu debuted her second signature shoe that she owns gained popularity in the NBA, with Nike this spring.
In her seventh season in the WNBA, the 28-year-old Wilson joined an exclusive club of WNBA players – including Lauren Jackson, Sheryl Swoopes and Lisa Leslie – and won MVP honors three times. Since then, she has been the first unanimous recipient of the award Cynthia Cooper in 1997, the league’s inaugural year.
The former South Carolina champion had one major league season cut short scoring AND collection records in 2024 and became the first player to score 1,000 points in a single campaign, finishing with 1,021 in the regular season.
This summer, Wilson also won her second Olympic gold medal with Team USA Basketball, taking home the event’s MVP.
