A’ja Wilson has just won a record 16th Western Conference Player of the Month Award, her third of the season after a July that saw her average 28.3 points and 10.6 rebounds despite missing two games with a leg injury. Even in her ninth season in the league, she has no shortage of admirers, as Seattle Storm rookie Flau’jae Johnson recollects her memorable interaction with the reigning MVP, back when the two sides faced each other for the first time on June 8.

“Probably when I got to play Las Vegas, and it’s like all the people I’ve been looking up to like Asia Wilson and Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray and, you know, A’ja again, Jewell Lloyd just seeing them in action and how they talk and communicate with each other how they all know what the next person gonna do like that’s what you call a team,” she said while talking to CBS reporter Isabel Gonzalez.

“You can see why they have like a championship standard, but just seeing that I was like, wow, it was a, it was a very like welcome to the nice. So when I probably had like a good game, like as far as just playing with them myself for the team, so that was that was a really good eye opener.”

Johnson wasn’t exaggerating about having a good game. She finished with 13 points and seven assists in the loss, a strong showing for a rookie sharing the floor with that much star power. Wilson, for her part, gave Johnson every reason to be starstruck, going for 34 points, 12 rebounds, nine assists and three blocks, and using the night to become the fastest player in WNBA history to reach 6,000 career points, doing it in just 278 games to break Diana Taurasi’s previous record of 291. Jackie Young added 29 of her own as Las Vegas pulled away, 101-91.

In the middle of all that, Wilson still made time for the rookie guarding her.

“Well, she was I was just on the free throw line, and she was just like, ‘ You’re doing your thing, like keep keep working, like keep keep doing your thing, and I was like, wow, you know, she’s an MVP,” Johnson added. “She ain’t really real if you ask me, so that was a that was cool for her to hear her say that, you know she’s been watching me, and she just wants me to keep going like that’s a I mean a lot to me for sure.”

Wilson made history of her own last season too, becoming the first player to win the Scoring Title, League MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, and Finals MVP in the same season, and she’s carried that standard into this year, averaging 26.6 points, 9.6 rebounds, and 3.2 assists per game. It’s exactly the kind of respect that makes her mid-game encouragement mean so much to a rookie still finding her footing in the league.

Flau’jae Johnson has been the silver lining in a forgettable season for the storm

The kind of respect from the league’s best player says something about what Johnson has already built in her own rookie year, even on a team with far less to show for it. She’s averaging 14 points, 5.0 rebounds, 2.9 assists and 1.3 steals a game this season, numbers that have made her one of the very few bright spots on a Seattle roster otherwise defined by turnover. Having this much reliance on a rookie is rare for any team, and Seattle’s own rebounding numbers noticeably improve whenever she’s on the floor.

Despite Johnson’s play, the Storm sit at the bottom of the league at 6-27, and the reasons why go well beyond any one player.

Seattle underwent an almost complete roster reset over the offseason, losing four of its five starters from 2025, including Breanna Stewart, Nneka Ogwumike, and Skylar Diggins, to free agency. What little scoring output the team retained wasn’t nearly enough to offset those losses, leaving new head coach Sonia Raman with an entirely young, largely unproven roster from day one.

Then came the injuries. Defensive anchor Ezi Magbegor missed significant time with a right foot injury, forcing Seattle to lean heavily on young frontcourt pieces like rookie forward Awa Fam and 20-year-old French center Dominique Malonga. Backup guard Taina Mair has also spent time sidelined. Without a deep bench to share the load, rookies like Johnson have been stuck absorbing heavy minutes and tough defensive assignments most nights, a big part of why Seattle’s transition defense has struggled all year.

Still, the young talent already on the roster gives Seattle a real foundation, and Johnson’s continued growth will be worth tracking when the Storm host the Portland Fire on Monday, August 10, their next chance to build some momentum before the season winds down.