In a powerful demonstration of love and shared ambition, WNBA star A’ja Wilson and her fiancé have announced plans to co-found a youth academy dedicated to empowering young athletes. The couple’s initiative will focus on providing underprivileged children with access to elite sports training and mentorship.
Wilson stated, “It’s always been our dream to give back together. This is only the beginning.” The announcement has garnered widespread praise, with fans celebrating not just their relationship but their shared commitment to making a difference.
Before he gets his Christmas present from his girlfriend, he figured he’d almost certainly get some advice from her.
Likely it would be a postgame text getting right to the point:
“Work on your free throws.”
Then again Josh Cunningham’s romantic interest isn’t just someone watching basketball from the stands.
She’s roundball royalty.
A’ja Wilson, the 6-foot-4 power forward for the Las Vegas Aces, was the WNBA’s Rookie of the Year this season.
She was the No. 1 player taken in the WNBA draft last April after a career at South Carolina where she was the National Player of Year as a senior, led the Gamecocks to their first ever NCAA crown as a junior and was a three-time first team All American who scored 2,389 points in her college career.
Before that she was national high school player of the year.
Until a recent injury, she was playing this offseason for the Shaanxi Red Wolves in China. Now back home she’s become the first women’s pro player ever to join her NBA counterparts and sign a lucrative endorsement deal with Mountain Dew.
And Saturday – just before the Dayton Flyers were to tip off against Presbyterian at UD Arena – she finished up a Nike photo shoot in San Francisco and was headed to the airport and a flight back home to Columbia, South Carolina.
Yet, even with all that, Cunningham, UD’s 6-foot-7 redshirt senior captain, knew what was coming.
