Miami Heat forward Jaime Jaquez Jr. had a curious response when asked if teammate Bam Adebayo is dating Las Vegas Aces center A’ja Wilson.
Jaquez didn’t confirm anything, but his response will definitely raise some eyebrows.
Wilson is a 27-year-old star in the WNBA who has already won two league MVP awards. In addition, she is a five-time All-Star, two-time Defensive Player of the Year, two-time WNBA champion and one-time WNBA Finals MVP.
Currently, she’s working on a stellar 2024 season. Across 14 appearances, she’s averaging 27.8 points, 11.6 rebounds and 2.5 assists per game on 52.4 percent shooting from the field and 38.9 percent shooting from long range.
If Adebayo is dating Wilson, the two certainly have something in common: being elite defensive players in their respective leagues. Wilson is among the WNBA’s best defenders, and the same goes for Adebayo in the NBA.
While the Heat star has never won a Defensive Player of the Year award like Wilson twice has, he has come close on multiple occasions and has been named to five All-Defensive teams.
In the 2023-24 NBA season, Adebayo earned his third All-Star selection and finished the season with averages of 19.3 points, 10.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists per contest.
Jaquez clearly didn’t want to make his teammate’s private business public — that is, if there’s even anything going on between Adebayo and Wilson. But the speculation will likely continue after Jaquez did very little to slow it down.
It’s the offseason in the NBA world, but Wilson’s Aces are busy trying to work toward a third consecutive WNBA title. They won the league championship in 2022 and 2023 and would love nothing more than to get the job done once again.
Las Vegas, however, is having an iffy season so far, with the team only two games over .500 at 8-6. For reference, the Aces lost just six games (34-6) in the entire 2023 regular season.
With the WNBA gaining popularity, the league has a chance this summer to gain some major attention during a somewhat slow time of year in the sports world. It’ll be interesting to see if Wilson’s squad starts to heat up soon.