Las Vegas Aces dressed to impress on Saturday

With A’Ja Wilson back home in South Carolina with her team, the Las Vegas Aces, the two-time defending WNBA champions paid homage to the current college national champions, the South Carolina Gamecocks. As they arrived for Saturday’s preseason game against Puerto Rico at USC’s Colonial Life Arena, several Aces wore Gamecocks apparel, embracing the school’s identity.

They were led by Wilson, a two-time WNBA MVP who played for the Gamecocks and a native of Columbia, South Carolina.

Kate Martin, Chelsea Gray, Kia Stokes, Megan Gustafson and Jackie Young all wore South Carolina clothing, according to The Greenville (South Carolina) News. The Aces, who host the Phoenix Mercury on Tuesday in their season opener, defeated the Puerto Rico national team 102-50.

Martin, a rookie from Iowa, lost to South Carolina in the NCAA title game last month.

Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson signs shoe deal with Nike

A’ja Wilson, a 2017 national champion with South Carolina, has signed a much-anticipated deal with sports apparel giant Nike and will be getting a signature show, she announced on Saturday.

Wilson arrived at Colonial Life Arena ahead of Saturday’s game with a sweater that read:

“Of Course I Have a Shoe Dot Com.”

The URL redirected fans to the announcement on Nike’s page, according to an ESPN story. The shoe will be called the “A’One.”

“It’s been incredible working with Nike toward a dream of having my collection, and it really is an honor to take this next step and become a Nike signature athlete, from my logo to the look of the shoe and the pieces throughout the collection, we’ve worked to make sure every detail is perfectly tuned to my game and style,” Wilson said in a statement.

According to an ESPN report by Alexa Philippou, the collaboration had been going on for over a year, and she pushed Nike to release the news as her team traveled to her native South Carolina. The player becomes the 13th player to get a shoe deal in the history of the WNBA.

The Aces start their WNBA campaign on Tuesday looking for the first three-peat since the Houston Comets won the league’s first four championships (1997-2000).