The Las Vegas Aces’ pursuit of another WNBA championship may have ended after getting swept in the Semifinals, but the conversation around A’ja Wilson as the WNBA’s greatest player has not, especially after she won her record fifth MVP title this season. Wilson finished this season as the only player to score 1000+ points twice in league history, but for Sheryl Swoopes, a three-time Olympic Gold Medalist and three-time MVP herself, the GOAT conversation may be more nuanced than it appears.

“You know, my thing with that conversation is when people are like, oh, you’re the goat, she’s the goat, he’s the goat, they’re the goat, who’s the goat? I don’t know if it’s fair to compare different generations,” said Swoopes on Friday’s episode of “The Draymond Green Show” on YouTube.

Swoopes substantiated her point by mentioning that Cheryl Miller, who did not get to play formally in the WNBA, is widely considered one of the all-time greats in women’s basketball history. Miller was a 3× Naismith Player of the Year from 1984 to 1986, and for Swoopes, it’s not fair to compare players across different timelines in league history.

“…People ask me the same thing on the NBA side. Listen, Michael Jordan is my goat because I watched him play. Like, that was during my time… I just personally hate that conversation. I just do. Because I feel like you’re never going to get it right…,” Swoopes added.

“But my thing is, if you’re asking me for mine [GOAT], it’s mine. So it can’t be wrong because it’s mine. There are several players that I’m putting in that conversation. It’s like the Mount Rushmore when you say, well, who’s on your Mount Rushmore? That’s really hard for me to put four people… Somebody’s always, somebody very deserving, is always going to be left off.”

Swoopes further mentioned all the great NBA players that she did not get to watch, like Dr J [Julius Erving]. Draymond Green agreed with her while mentioning that they don’t have even the video of Wilt Chamberlain scoring the record 100 points in a game. So, for Swoopes, all these factors make the GOAT debate seem a little off the point.

Green also pointed out that with time, as more and more talent enters the WNBA, the conversation around the greatest player will only get harder and harder.

This debate around Wilson is nothing new. Wilson defended her MVP crown this season by securing a whopping 713 points from the voters, with 65 of the 74 first-place votes going her way. This makes it the third consecutive year that she has won the individual award, making her the first player in WNBA history to do so. She finished the 2026 season with 1073 points, only behind Kelsey Mitchell, who had a historic scoring season of her own with 1,086 points.

It’s hard to believe that despite all these records and achievements, Wilson did not believe that she would win all these honors as a young basketball player.

“When you dream as a young girl, you dream so big, and you write your goals out, and you just never imagine that you will be able to check them off,” said Wilson. “… That’s why I cried harder on this one because 15-year-old A’ja wasn’t sitting up here dreaming about being a five-time MVP. She wasn’t dreaming about being a three-time champion. She was dreaming about surviving this world. So for me to sit up here surrounded by these trophies … it means a little bit more to me.”

While the Aces may have lost to the Valkyries in the Semifinals this season, a team that has A’ja Wilson is expected to bounce back stronger. The Aces have won three of the last four league titles, and it would not be surprising to see them mount a similar challenge next year.

And the GOAT debate? That is one for eternity.