A'ja Wilson's Absence from World Cup: Protecting the MVP
LAS VEGAS — The Aces aren’t flinching. Not at the criticism. Not at the noise around A’ja Wilson. Their franchise cornerstone is sitting out the FIBA Women’s World Cup, and in Las Vegas, that decision has a simple explanation: protect the four-time WNBA MVP.
“She’s needed some time, obviously,” coach Becky Hammon told USA TODAY after Wednesday’s practice. “I still think she's dealing with some back stuff. Some days it's a little sorer than others.”
Wilson has been the face of the Aces’ dynasty push, the league’s standard-bearer and the engine of everything Las Vegas does. She is also, right now, a player managing a body that has taken a season’s worth of hits in the paint. Hammon’s job, as she sees it, is to make sure Wilson is healthy enough to finish this campaign, not chase another medal in late summer.
When the WNBA schedule resumes from the FIBA break on Sept. 17, Hammon expects Wilson to be ready to drive the final stretch: four regular-season games, all with seeding and a title defense on the line. Run the table, and the Aces are well-positioned to lock down the No. 3 seed and launch another deep postseason run.
“For the most part, I think she's able to come out here and compete, and be there for her teammates, which is always her first priority,” Hammon said. “But I'm keeping an eye on her, you know? Even in this downtime.”
That “downtime” has become anything but quiet.
A World Cup absence, and a storm of opinions
Wilson and former Aces guard Kelsey Plum were late withdrawals from the World Cup roster, with USA Basketball announcing on Monday, Aug. 31 that Washington Mystics players Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron would step in. The timing raised eyebrows: the news dropped just days before the U.S. opened group play in Berlin on Friday, Aug. 31.
Team USA rolled through the group at 3-0, as expected. The drama came from outside the lines.
Former ESPN host Linda Cohn questioned Wilson’s motives on her show, suggesting the decision was less about health and more about “insecurity” and the prospect of watching the tournament turn into “the Caitlin Clark show.”
“If Aja Wilson has a back injury, then why did she play over 30 minutes a game in six of her last seven games and over 27 minutes in the other?” Cohn asked, casting doubt on the reported injury.
The insinuation landed hard. It triggered a wave of backlash, including a pointed response from Bernice King, daughter of Martin Luther King Jr.
“Linda Cohn owes A'ja Wilson a public apology and a retraction,” King wrote. “What disappointing, delusional, and dangerous commentary targeting a great ambassador and GOAT athlete for the @wnba and for sports. Period.”
Hammon said she hadn’t heard the comments directly, but she didn’t hesitate when asked about the criticism around Wilson’s choice.
“A'ja has every right to do what she feels is best health wise. And the other thing is, the men do this all the time,” Hammon told USA TODAY. “Can you name me any of the men's world championship rosters right now? Can you name me any person on there?
“What I’m saying is, LeBron (James) and those guys — if this was a man making this decision, there would be nothing to say. And that's my problem.”
The numbers back her up. LeBron James has played in just one FIBA Basketball World Cup, back in 2006 in Japan, where he won bronze with Team USA. After that, he focused on the Olympics and preserving his body for the NBA grind. Stephen Curry’s lone World Cup appearance came in 2014, when he helped the U.S. to gold. The sport’s biggest male stars have long treated the World Cup as optional, a nice-to-have, not a must.
The debate over Wilson’s absence only underscores a double standard Hammon and others see clearly: when NBA icons choose rest and longevity over another international tournament, it’s called “load management.” When a WNBA superstar does it, her motives are questioned.
Aces walk the line between urgency and protection
Inside the Aces’ camp, the conversation is far more practical. Wilson’s body has been talking for weeks.
She appeared on the Aces’ injury report twice in the week leading up to her official withdrawal, listed with a back injury. Before that, she missed the Commissioner’s Cup Championship — a 93-85 loss to the New York Liberty — with a right leg issue. The pain lingered, costing her games against the Chicago Sky on July 3 and the Indiana Fever on July 5.
“She wants to play. I’m not letting her play,” Hammon said at the time, drawing a firm line between Wilson’s desire and the staff’s responsibility.
The tension has been obvious. Las Vegas hit a rough patch in late August, winning just two of six games before a 101-78 blowout of the Connecticut Sun on Aug. 20. The Aces needed rhythm, cohesion, and a reminder of who they are. They also needed to avoid running their star into the ground.
When asked why Wilson and the rest of the Aces’ top players weren’t given the night off in that lopsided win, Hammon didn’t dress it up.
"Have you seen us play lately?" she shot back. “We need to start getting our [expletive] together."
That’s the balance: protect Wilson’s long-term health while still demanding the standard that made Las Vegas a powerhouse. It’s a calculation every contender faces, but the stakes are sharper when the player in question is the league’s most dominant interior presence.
Reinforcements in the paint
The front office has moved to ease some of that strain. With forward NaLyssa Smith ruled out for the remainder of the 2026 WNBA season on Aug. 27, defenses could afford to throw even more bodies at Wilson in the paint. The Aces answered by going big.
On Aug. 29, Las Vegas signed 6-foot-7 center Kalani Brown, a move designed to absorb some of the pounding Wilson takes every night and give Hammon another true post option.
When Brown was introduced, Aces general manager and president Nikki Fargas didn’t hide her expectations.
She said Brown would “be very impactful immediately,” then widened the lens to what players like Wilson endure.
“I just want to say, there's a lot of pounding that goes on in this league. And there's a lot of expectations that are placed on these players,” Fargas said. “(With) the greatness that exists in A'ja at this time, the most important thing is is player health. And so as an organization, we want to make sure that we're leading in that way.”
Leading, in this case, means absorbing the outside criticism while standing firm behind a player who has given everything to the franchise and the league. It means trusting the medical reports, not the hot takes. It means accepting that sometimes the best way to chase a championship is to say no to another jersey, another anthem, another international spotlight.
The Aces will come out of the break knowing exactly what’s in front of them: four games to sharpen, secure their seed, and get Wilson as close to full strength as possible.
If they’re right about their approach, the real judgment won’t come from talk shows or timelines. It will come in the only arena that has ever really mattered to A’ja Wilson — the playoffs.
