Like many of her NBA counterparts, WNBA superstar A’Ja Wilson has HBCU roots.
While Wilson didn’t play at an HBCU, she definitely has close ties to one in particular. Her father, Roscoe Wilson Jr. was a dominant big man at Benedict College, located in Columbia, SC.
Playing at Benedict in the early 1970s, he was one of the best-known centers throughout the SIAC and the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA). He ranked eighth in the nation in rebounding as a sophomore, averaging an astounding 22.5 rebounds per game, and had a game-high 35 in one game. He was a three-time selection to the all-SIAC, all-NAIA teams, and was a Small College All-American after his sophomore season.
A’ja Wilson’s father also played for Big Wilt’s Smalls Paradise team in the famed Rucker Basketball League in New York, where he played with and against some of the biggest names in basketball — Nate “Tiny” Archibald, Julius “Dr. J” Erving, John Shumate, Connie Hawkins, Tommy Boswell, Charlie Criss, Henry Bibby, Swen Nader, Kevin Joyce, Alex English and many others.
Roscoe Wilson went on to have a stellar overseas career after a short stint with the New York Nets of the ABA, eventually settling into coaching. He later served as head coach at Morris College and Benedict College.
It would have been great to see her at Benedict or any HBCU, but A’ja Wilson averaged 24.7 points, 13.9 rebounds, and 4.3 blocks a game throughout her high school career at Heathwood Hall Episcopal and committed to Dawn Staley and South Carolina. And the rest is history.
Fifty years after Roscoe Wilson tipped off his professional career, A’Ja Wilson has not only followed in her father’s footsteps – she’s more than made her own.
“He got me to where I am now. And he’s going to get me to where I would like to be as well,” Wilson said in a 2016 interview. “But without him putting that basketball in my hand, there would be no A’ja Wilson.”
The center for the Las Vegas Ace is putting up prime Shaq numbers: She’s averaging roughly 28 points, 12.5 rebounds and nearly three blocks per game through the first seven games of the WNBA season.
Wilson has been a star since she arrived in the WNBA back in 2018, and she’s apparently just hitting her stride.