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Marie Claire's Women in Sports cover star A'ja Wilson talks us through her career evolution in the first episode of 'Boss Behavior.' The WNBA champ reveals how she made her first dollar, what happened when she met her her basketball idol, and what job she'd do if she weren't an athlete.
Transcript
00:00What we're going to do here is we're going to throw some questions, but the challenge
00:03is you have to answer them while spinning the ball on your finger.
00:08With these nails, I can pop one off and we can try it.
00:12Hi Marie Claire, I'm Aja Wilson and we're on set for the sports issue.
00:17A superpower that can help me at work, I would have to say to teleport.
00:21Now you see me, now you don't give me teleportation, please.
00:27I really didn't have a first job, but I did have chores that I got paid to do, so technically
00:31that is a job.
00:32My job was to make sure that every bathroom in the house had toilet paper.
00:37And I really couldn't complain because a lot of people could be taken out of the trash
00:40and doing the dishes.
00:40I mean, chores was just the thing that my parents would kind of teach me that money doesn't
00:45grow on trees and you have to work for everything, and also because I was more on the sports side
00:49so I was very consumed with different sports, volleyball, soccer, tennis, basketball.
00:52So chores kind of gave me an opportunity to really understand the cost of a dollar and
00:57how important that is.
01:00I love going to amusement parks.
01:01We had an amusement park close to home, it was called Kerouins, and I would save my money
01:05to make sure that I could go to Kerouins and buy my own ticket.
01:08I didn't need my parents for nothing because I worked hard for those couple of dollars.
01:11So I always save, save, save.
01:13But once I had enough money for that ticket for Kerouins, that's what I was going for.
01:17I would have to say that one big thing that I bring to the table would have to be my
01:21leadership
01:21skills.
01:22I love communicating with people, I love forming bonds with different people to get the best
01:26out of them.
01:27A lot of fun, a little smoky vibe to it.
01:29Are you ballin' and ballin' on?
01:31I did think so, but I am.
01:35I would have to say a big weakness of mine, I am very emotional and sometimes that could
01:40be a weakness because I care so much and I may love so much and I want things to be
01:44perfect and that's not how life is.
01:48Ooh, someone I met in my industry that I really looked up to is the Kobe Bryant.
01:52He came to a game in Las Vegas and he came into our locker room, it was his AAU team,
01:57he
01:57had his daughter, his whole team there.
01:58And that moment there was just incredible because you're talking about someone that
02:03is the GOAT of basketball.
02:05Someone that you would hope that you could get a pinch of his mentality, his mindset in
02:09order to be great.
02:10And he was sitting there having a conversation with me, telling me that my jump shot looks
02:13good.
02:14Like that right there was all I needed to hear, like nothing else matters in the world.
02:18Kobe Bryant said I had a nice fadeaway jumper.
02:20Not a lot of people have that opportunity to say that they met their role model, let alone
02:24THE Kobe Bryant.
02:25That moment was huge.
02:27A moment in my career I would have to say I felt the most successful would have to be
02:31this past year, 2023, when we won our back-to-back championship in New York.
02:36Not a lot of people can say that they've gone back-to-back and it's hard, it is very, very
02:39hard to do that.
02:40I can't even put into words the happiness.
02:42I was today years old when I found out that there's a phrase called work-wife and I've
02:46been working with all of my wives I feel like, my teammates, my sister, the sisterhood
02:50that we've had, I feel like they're all my work-wives.
02:54Fashioned and spout off the court?
02:56I don't know if I have just like one particular person, but I do love like the late 90s, early
03:022000s, video vixen type of vibe.
03:04But also Savannah James is someone that's like iconic when I think about fashion and putting
03:09great things together.
03:10Oh goodness, what type of gossip happens in the locker room?
03:15I feel like there's a whole bunch of everything, who's talking to who, where they've been,
03:19who they saw, who they saw them with.
03:22Any given day, the group chat's always popping because we love spilling the tea.
03:26Majority, it's our own tea, that's the best part about it, it's tea that we can relate
03:30to.
03:30Ooh, if my career had a theme song, it would be On My Mama by Victoria Monet, period.
03:35Because my mom is just one of those badass women and I put that on her every single time.
03:40Like she raised me to be me and I love her for that.
03:44So every time I hear that song, I'm like, you are absolutely right.
03:46This is for My Mama because she blessed me.
03:50If I wasn't a WNBA player, I feel like I would be an actress.
03:54I've spent enough time in front of the camera, why not try to make some more money out of
03:57it?
03:58So I would be an actress.
03:59Let's get into this legging.
04:00My left leg really needs to warm up a lot sooner than my right.
04:05So I started wearing this tight and then it just started turning into a trend and I really
04:09love it.
04:09I feel like it's like a part of me.
04:11I used to cut this, but now it's me to be like this.
04:14So here you have it, the one Lexley.
04:18I would say when it comes to work advice, I turn to my coaches, particularly my college
04:22coach Dawn Salee.
04:23Talk about her drip goddess.
04:25She is that, but she's just someone that's going to always tell me the truth, no matter how
04:29much it hurts.
04:30And I love her for that.
04:31I really don't have any unusual skills.
04:33I mean, I feel like you get what you give.
04:35So I feel like my honesty is pretty unusual.
04:40Our time together is going away and Marie Claire, this has been magnificent.
04:45I loved everything about it.
04:47So I'm going to miss you guys.
04:48Bye.
04:51Bye.
04:51Bye.
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