A’ja Wilson and the Las Vegas Aces welcome the New York Liberty to Vegas on Sunday for the 2023 WNBA Finals opener , there will be some well-known fans in attendance.
According to ESPN’s Andraya Carter, LeBron James and some of his Los Angeles Lakers teammates will be in the crowd in Las Vegas.
Game 1 ends at 3:00 p.m. ET
James repeatedly described Wilson as his “sister” and gave her a custom pair of LeBron 21 sneakers, sewn in Aces black and gold, before the Finals.
“Aja is my sister,” James said Thursday, SiriusXM reported Nick Hamilton. “I love everything she does, not only for the game of basketball itself, but for the WNBA as well.”
“For me to be able to support her all the way and she trusts me, in the sense that I can be her mentor… it’s a no-brainer for me to be able to take care of her and get to the Finals again,” James continued. . “So, good luck to her and hopefully she can bring it home.”
It’s been a year since the Aces last made it to the Finals. Last season, Vegas defeated the Connecticut Sun to win the championship.
Wilson, the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year for the second consecutive season, will be key to the Aces’ title defense. She became the first player in WNBA history to score 30 points in three consecutive playoff games while leading Las Vegas to a 3-0 sweep of the Dallas Wings in the semifinals.
If she can maintain her postseason pace of 25.8 points per game in the Finals, she could help the Aces become just the third team in WNBA history to win consecutive games, and James will likely be in the crowd to see it all happen.