The Las Vegas Aces came so close to winning the WNBA championship last year that A’ja Wilson, the player who did more than anyone to bring them to the brink of the title, could almost feel it. They came so close it hurt.

Now, as the Aces prepare to take the court for the upcoming season, Wilson understands that after three years of near misses in Las Vegas, “close” won’t cut it in 2021. This team should win the championship, and it’s Wilson’s job to make sure it happens.

The Aces finished tied for the league’s best regular-season record last season in a bubble environment held in Bradenton, Florida, but were swept by the Seattle Storm in a best-of-five WNBA Finals series. This year, Las Vegas’ team returns home to Michelob Ultra Arena (formerly Mandalay Bay Events Center), raring to start another title quest.

“I’ve never been this eager before to play,” Wilson says. “I’ve been working so hard this offseason just to get my mind right, my body right. I feel great. I feel very good within myself, and that’s what it’s really all about; I think I lost that in the bubble, and now that I’ve found it, I’ve got the confidence going.”

The 6-foot-4 Wilson earned MVP honors last year with her best professional campaign yet, including career highs in rebounds (8.5 per game), blocks (2.0 per game) and shooting percentage (48.0%) while averaging 20.5 points per game. Wilson then upped her production in the postseason, putting up 20.8 points, 8.9 rebounds and 2.3 blocks.

Taking Las Vegas so far was a heroic task. The Aces were without two of their most important players, as former league scoring leader Liz Cambage opted out of the season and former No. 1 pick Kelsey Plum missed the entire year with an injury.

With Cambage and Plum back in action and some key free-agent additions rounding out the league’s most talented roster, Wilson will have more help this season. But she’s also facing higher expectations.

Runner-up is not an option anymore. This is a championship-or-bust season. It’s on Wilson to ultimately take the Aces there, and she knows it.

“We can’t have the, ‘Oh, we don’t have the whole team’ excuse anymore, because now we do,” Wilson says.

In one of the slickest transactions of the offseason, the Aces inked veteran guard Chelsea Gray, a three-time WNBA All-Star who helped pilot the Los Angeles Sparks to a championship in 2016. Gray averaged 14.0 points and 5.3 assists per game last year.

It was a move designed to give Wilson everything she needs in order to lead the team across the finish line.

All of a sudden, Wilson is working with an embarrassment of riches; the Aces have few discernible weaknesses, including on the sideline, where Bill Laimbeer is back in pursuit of his fourth WNBA championship as a head coach.

Wilson realizes there will be immediate pressure on this “super team” to succeed. “I know the media and everyone is expecting us to be this super team, because we look really, really good on paper,” Wilson says, “but at the end of the day we have to bring it within ourselves, within our locker room. That’s what makes the super team. Like Bill said, you earn that. It doesn’t matter what we look like on paper; if we can’t produce on the court, then it means nothing.”

Perhaps the only negative that has affected the Aces coming into the season is the loss of veteran wing Angel McCoughtry, who tore her ACL in a preseason game. The 34-year-old former No. 1 overall pick averaged 14.4 points per game to emerge as the Aces’ second-leading scorer last season, her first with the franchise.

It’s a hit, but not a big enough one to knock the Aces out of pole position in the championship race. Not as long as Wilson keeps the same approach as the team’s unquestioned leader.

After finding her footing in her first two seasons, she really emerged in Cambage’s absence last year, taking full control of the squad on and off the court.

She’s not going to take a step back in that regard this year. This is now Wilson’s team.

“I don’t see my role changing at all,” Wilson says. “I’m still going to be who I am, the player that I am. I’m also going to contribute and produce for my team as I always do, and I hope I can be an even more vocal leader in the locker room. Bill always says internal leadership is what we need, so I’m going to continue to do that.”

Will it all add up to a championship celebration in October? If Wilson can replicate her MVP effort, it looks likely. And that’s exactly what she intends to do.

“When you have that ‘reigning MVP’ title attached to your name, because I’m pretty sure every announcer is going to be like, ‘reigning MVP.’ It’s just like, OK, it’s over; I had my time, now let me try to go get it again.”

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