PHOENIX -- THE MORNING after A'ja Wilson hit the game-winning shot in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals -- the basket that gave her Las Vegas Aces a 3-0 series lead and became the defining image of Wilson's already storied basketball career -- Aces coach Becky Hammon texted her superstar a graphic comparing an elk and a deer.

Hammon had used the comparison for Wilson weeks earlier, but Wilson, like most people, wasn't aware of the difference between the two. But when you see the bigger, stronger elk, said Hammon, who grew up in the Black Hills of South Dakota, you realize it's in a class of its own.

Hammon is prone to using analogies for Wilson -- "You run out of adjectives," she told ESPN. "That's why I start using animals and mountaintops and everything else to describe her."

"I've been

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