Who Is Jackie Young? Meet the Defensive Weapon of Las Vegas Aces on Their Three-Peat Mission

From being the very first rookie for the Aces to getting two WNBA championships with them, the girl named Jackie Young from Indiana has surely come a long way. She has been a younger sister to A’ja Wilson, a defensive menace for the team, and still added some great numbers in the frontcourt. Making her way to the top leaders of the Aces, where did the story of this immaculate hooper begin?

The Las Vegas Aces are about to embark on a journey that not many have done. After a thirst for back-to-back WNBA championship titles in the last couple of years, they are now hungry for more. Boasting a stellar roster with four players in the top-10 player ranking in WNBA preseason of ESPN, it just might be a possibility for the reigning champions. Talking about the power rankings, Jackie Young proudly stands there in the seventh position. It is not luck that has brought her here today.

What is the story of Jackie Young before the WNBA?

Young’s journey began in Princeton, Indiana. Born as a middle child to a single mother– Linda Young– Jackie always knew her responsibility. However, basketball was also a big part of the family. Other hoopers in her family are the older brother Terrence and younger sister Kiare. As a high schooler at PCHS, she led her team to great heights. Winning the Class 3A state championship, she became the third-ranking scorer in Indiana. She was also 9th in the nation with an average of 34.9 points per game.

On top of these, she was a ranker across the board as she also averaged 9.5 rebounds, 5.0 assists and 3.8 steals per game. She swept the record for scoring as a junior with more than 1000 points in a season. As a result, Young broke another record before her college recruitment. She scored a total of 3,268 points in her career with the Princeton Community High School. Consequently, almost all the major recruiting services tagged her as a top-10 recruit for colleges.

Traveling almost 300 miles away from her home, Jackie Young chose to be with Fighting Irish in South Bend. While her career at Notre Dame only lasted for three seasons, she was successful in making a name for herself. In her very first season, Young grabbed the ACC All-Freshman team. Next year, she bagged the trophy with a game-tying shot and a steal. With an assist to Arike Ogunbowale, the Fighting Irish won their second-ever NCAA DI women’s basketball championship title. After her junior year, Young chose to head into the 2019 WNBA draft.

To financially support her family, she made a move to the W one year in advance. She said, “I knew if I had the chance to leave early, I was going to.” Surprisingly to her, she became the first overall pick in that draft. She also became the only second Notre Dame alum to be drafted as a first-overall pick after Jewel Loyd. The new face of Las Vegas Aces who had picked A’ja Wilson in the previous year, welcomed her as their first pick in 2019.

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In 2017, A’ja Wilson, who recently signed a huge deal with Nike, brought a national title to Columbia, South Carolina. As a result, the No. 22 of the Aces became the first overall pick in the 2018 WNBA draft. After that, the team again took the lottery pick and brought Young to their roster. Since then, the team has not exactly looked back. A’ja Wilson did not skip a beat to be not just a vet but to be a sister to the incoming talent. She said, “Jackie was kind of like our first rookie that we had. We already were pretty much established, in a sense, so I wanted to make sure that I could be that vet that I didn’t have for her and answer all the questions that she needed, making sure that she was comfortable.”

At the same time, Young has also defined being in the professional league as something of a dream. She told the New York Times, “It was always a dream of mine to play in the W.N.B.A., and it came down to making a decision for my family. I knew I needed to help my family, and that’s what I’ve worked for my whole life.”

There is no denying that Jackie Young has created success for her in every step of basketball. But with the Aces, she has done something incredible. Since 2019, she has made a trip to the playoffs every season. She has also tried to snatch the prestigious WNBA title in 2020, only to lose to the Seattle Storm. However, they went on the finals trip again in 2022 and won the championship and repeated the same in 2023 to become the only second team to have a consecutive win. Re-signing with the Aces, today she earns $252,450 per year according to Spotrac, one of the highest-paid players in the team.

Surely, Jackie Young has achieved a lot in her life. And although it all started out of a need to make her family financially strong, her net worth of $1 million is proof that she is also enjoying her ride. Adding double-digit scores to her team and being the third highest in the leaderboards, the 26-year-old guard in Aces is a symbol of hard work, relentlessness, and excellence. And most definitely, an essential ingredient to push Las Vegas in the 2024 WNBA season for a three-peat tourney.