<\/p>\n
On the Friday of WNBA All-Star weekend, A\u2019ja Wilson joined Sue Bird and Dwyane Wade onstage at the Chicago Theatre for a live taping of the new TOGETHXR podcast, Everyone Watches Women\u2019s Sports<\/em>, hosted by Ari Chambers and Sam Jay.<\/p>\n The event was presented by J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, and all of the athletes onstage serve on the JPMorganChase Athlete Council, which launched earlier this year to help athletes navigate their finances throughout their careers. Other members include Jalen Brunson, Megan Rapinoe, and Tom Brady.<\/p>\n After a first segment featuring Dallas Wings star Alysha Clark, vice president of the Women\u2019s National Basketball Players Association, WNBPA executive director Terri Carmichael Jackson, and J.P. Morgan Wealth Management CEO Kristin Lemkau sharing insight into how the historic collective bargaining agreement was achieved, Wilson, Bird, and Wade answered questions about managing their finances and what they wanted athletes coming up behind them to know about money.<\/p>\n After the taping, I joined Wilson in her dressing room (her boyfriend, NBA star Bam Adebayo, was also there) to talk about money, her style, ESPN\u2019s new Life in the W<\/em> series starring the four-time MVP, and what to expect from the second half of the season.<\/p>\n The biggest thing is just the understanding that big checks do shrink. I think you don\u2019t really understand that when you\u2019re a young athlete coming into a lot of money. If you\u2019re coming into a pro league, you\u2019re getting hit with a big, big check, and those numbers look great, so you\u2019re like, \u201cOh my gosh, yes, this is all that I wanted. I can get everything I want.\u201d And you want to get everything quick, but then you start to realize that it\u2019s going to shrink. So the lifestyle that you want to obtain, you have to think longevity. You can\u2019t just think in the moment.<\/p>\n And so for me, I think the quicker you can get educated on how to manage your finances\u2014and it doesn\u2019t mean don\u2019t spend on anything because, no, we deserve it, we\u2019ve earned it\u2014but it\u2019s a matter of educating yourself on who to trust, how to trust them, and what to do. I think that is why I\u2019m so grateful to be a part of this council, so we can continue to give our insight and share the decisions that we made with the next athlete.<\/p>\n Yeah. Not all money is good money is one of those terms that my mom always used to tell me. It\u2019s crazy growing up because you see these opportunities and you see these big brands, and you may not be aligned with them, which means they\u2019re not going to get the best from you and you\u2019re probably not going to get the best out of them because it\u2019s just going to bump heads. Even though the check looks great and the number could be great, the feel of it may not be good. And that\u2019s what I mean when I say not all money\u2019s good money. I know it may seem like it is, but again, you have to think about longevity\u2014it might be gone in a second. So you have to be very careful about who you trust and where you want to put yourself when it comes to your image and your brand, but also the dollar bills behind it.<\/p>\n You can get fooled by the optics of a lot of things that we see on our phones. I feel like it looks like everyone\u2019s living their best life, which obviously I love that for them. But it\u2019s like, truly, are we? And sometimes social media can really disguise that, and it may seem like, \u201cOh my God, they got all of these things.\u201d But you don\u2019t know\u2014that car could be leased or it could just be a picture. And so I think for me, I had to really understand that everything is not as it seems. You have to zoom in and see what\u2019s real. And when it comes to your finances, sometimes you got to zoom in and see if it\u2019s real, see if it\u2019s really going to be a long-term thing. Can it be sustained? Can it help me when this basketball stops bouncing? Because I\u2019m accustomed to a lifestyle. But once the ball stops bouncing and that check may not be coming in, can I still live the lifestyle that I want? So I\u2019m just like, sometimes you got to give social media its break.<\/p>\n It feels good. I feel like I\u2019m in a space of womanhood and adulthood where I\u2019m okay with sharing my life. Or at least giving some glimpses because sometimes I have to protect my peace. In the world that we\u2019re in, everyone constantly wants to know what am I eating? What am I wearing? Who am I with? Where am I going? And that\u2019s great, and I get it. I love my fans, I do, but sometimes I have to protect my peace. So I was glad that we were able to kind of show a little insight into the real life that we live as athletes. It\u2019s cool that you get to see behind the scenes. We\u2019re so great at what we do, but it\u2019s still hard sometimes, and yet we still show up every day as our true selves. So I\u2019m excited for people to watch it all and really kind of get a glimpse of everyone\u2019s life. It was pretty cool to have the cameras around. I\u2019m not going to lie, I was a little creeped out sometimes, but that was all a part of it.<\/p>\n A\u2019ja Wilson:<\/strong> I feel like it was organic. I feel like it was us.<\/p>\n Bam Adebayo:<\/strong> It wasn\u2019t forced.<\/p>\n AW: <\/strong>I hope people see the realness of it. It was very, very us. We\u2019re not really for the foolishness, honestly, but we always want to have each other\u2019s backs. So I\u2019m kind of excited to have people finally get some insight because I know everyone\u2019s wanting to see it and wanting to be a part of it. So it\u2019s cool to give them a glimpse of, like, no, we\u2019re really just two athletes who love what we do and love each other, and we\u2019re going to push each other to be great. So I\u2019m excited to have that little piece in it.<\/p>\n I think what I take from losing is the value of winning. When you lose, you really understand how hard it is to win. When you win, it disguises everything. You\u2019re like, \u201cOh, we\u2019re good. We don\u2019t have to worry about whatever those little things we brushed under the rug. It doesn\u2019t matter. We won.\u201d But when you lose, it magnifies everything. So I think the losses last year really taught us the value of Game 2 to Game 32. They\u2019re equally as important. We can\u2019t take possessions off. We can\u2019t take days off and just think that we\u2019re just going to be great, put on a light, and be great. It really takes a lot of hard work to get to what you want. We always say, \u201cOh, I want to win a championship.\u201d And it\u2019s like, \u201cBut do you? Do you want to do it when it\u2019s really hard?\u201d And so I think the losses last year really helped us put in perspective that we have to put a lot of things aside in order for us to win. We have to sacrifice.<\/p>\n I developed as a leader by understanding the different roles I may have to play and the different hats I may have to wear in order to get the best out of my teammates. I can\u2019t lead one teammate the same way I would lead another. It just doesn\u2019t work like that\u2014we\u2019re all too different. And so I love being a leader because it allows me to create different relationships and bonds with people to get the best out of them.<\/p>\n And I will always say last year, it was a joy for me to see my teammates healing right in front of me. I could see a walking testimony. I could see the breakthroughs. We were all going through things from top to bottom. We had grief, we had anxiety\u2014we were all going through things\u2014but it was a moment where you could really tell, \u201cOh, we\u2019re healing. We\u2019re coming together. We\u2019re putting things in order.\u201d And that right there is why I love being the leader of my team, because I get to see people be successful, and that\u2019s a beautiful thing to watch.<\/p>\n I\u2019ve always been a glamour girl growing up. And anytime I have an opportunity to get dolled up, I\u2019m all for it. I\u2019m like, \u201cIf we gonna do this, do the thing.\u201d I feel like the Leo in me is like, \u201cYou have to be dramatic. You have to go above and beyond.\u201d And my stylist is the perfect person to go above and beyond with me. So yes, we went from, \u201cYeah, let\u2019s just do this dress,\u201d to \u201cOh, let\u2019s do gloves. Let\u2019s do this…\u201d I\u2019m like, \u201cOkay, let\u2019s go for it.\u201d So last night\u2019s look was really just, \u201cLet\u2019s go all out. Let\u2019s do it. If we\u2019re going to show up on the carpet, let\u2019s show up <\/em>on the carpet.\u201d<\/p>\n Becky Hammon literally tripping midgame, busting her ass on the sideline trying to yell at a ref because she fell out of her shoes. I think that is the highlight of my season right now. And for her to put it up on the screen for us to watch, I\u2019m like, \u201cThis is why you\u2019re the best. If you can\u2019t laugh at yourself, what can you do?\u201d<\/p>\n My biggest thing is making sure my team doesn\u2019t get complacent or think that we\u2019re going to have the same run we did last year. It\u2019s going to look very different. It\u2019s going to be a lot harder for us to defend what\u2019s ours. And so for me, I just have to make sure that we\u2019re all of one accord and understand that this second half of the season is going to be hard. It\u2019s going to be tough. I mean, we got the FIBA Women\u2019s Basketball World Cup in September, and then we come back and it\u2019s right into the playoffs. So we really have to buckle in and buckle down and make sure we take care of business.<\/p>\n This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n \u2018 The preceding article may include information circulated by third parties \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n \u2018 Some details of this article were extracted from the following source www.elle.com \u2019 <\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" On the Friday of WNBA All-Star weekend, A\u2019ja Wilson joined Sue Bird and Dwyane Wade onstage at the Chicago Theatre for a live taping of the new TOGETHXR podcast, Everyone Watches Women\u2019s Sports, hosted by Ari Chambers and Sam Jay. The event was presented by J.P. Morgan Wealth Management, and all of the athletes onstage […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2518976,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"jnews-multi-image_gallery":[],"jnews_single_post":[],"jnews_primary_category":[],"jnews_social_meta":[],"footnotes":""},"categories":[25177],"tags":[310910,497364,285977,466866,285684,455513,497363,488699,436397],"class_list":["post-2518975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-celebrities","tag-content-type-feature","tag-contentid-6664c884-2aed-40c5-b07e-a4792cd6e590","tag-displaytype-standard-article","tag-issyndicated-false","tag-locale-us","tag-read_time-9","tag-shorttitle-aja-wilson-not-all-money-is-good-money","tag-sponsored-false","tag-subsection-celebrity-news"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Aja-Wilson-Explains-Why-Not-All-Money-Is-Good-Money.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518975","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2518975"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518975\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2518977,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2518975\/revisions\/2518977"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2518976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2518975"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2518975"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/celebrity.land\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2518975"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nWith regard to personal finance, what do you wish you knew starting out?<\/h2>\n
You said onstage that \u201call money is not good money.\u201d Can you explain what you meant by that?<\/h2>\n
You\u2019ve said social media can make it feel like you\u2019re supposed to be successful immediately, but real success is setting yourself up for life after basketball. What pressure did you feel, and how are you setting yourself up long term now?<\/h2>\n
ESPN\u2019s Life in the W<\/em> series premiered on Friday, and it shows a different, more vulnerable side than we\u2019ve seen of you before. How did it feel to open yourself up to the world on camera?<\/h2>\n
The series also gives a look at your relationship. You and Bam have kept your relationship pretty private, so how did that feel?<\/h2>\n
The series follows the 2025 season, which started off rough for your team. I think sometimes you learn more from losing than you do from winning. What have you taken from losing?<\/h2>\n
What is your leadership style, and how have you developed as a leader?<\/h2>\n
You served an incredible look last night on the orange carpet\u2014everyone is talking about it. How did you develop your personal style, and what makes you feel good?<\/h2>\n
We\u2019re at the midway point of the season. What\u2019s been your favorite moment so far?<\/h2>\n
What are you thinking about for the second half of the season and leading your team through what\u2019s to come?<\/h2>\n