setting the screen, correcting the record.
Choosing six frontcourt players and four backcourt players for the WNBA All-Star Game is never an easy task and casting a media ballot in 2024 feels almost daunting. To separate the cream from the very elite crop, we did not consider players who led the league in turnovers or personal fouls for games. Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston of the Indiana Fever were early cuts.
Every year, a WNBA team or two loses its home arena during the playoffs: the time of year a team needs familiarity and consistency most. In 2021, the No. 5 Phoenix Mercury will play their first-round single-elimination game against the No. 8 New York Liberty on Thursday (Sept. 23) at Grand Canyon University (GCU) Arena because of what the team is calling a “scheduling conflict” at the team’s home arena. But there is more to this recurring theme of disrespect.
In celebrating the WNBA’s 25th season, the league on Sunday (Sept. 5) revealed during halftime of the hotly-awaited matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and the Chicago Sky (ABC) “The W25” — or the 25 best players in the league’s storied history. Here are the players who made the exclusive list.
Accurately naming the two teams playing against each other is as basic as it gets in terms of duties related to televising a basketball game. When it comes to coverage of the WNBA, however, the task apparently isn’t so simple.
Emerging as a force to be reckoned with against gender identity discrimination, Layshia Clarendon, the WNBA’s first openly trans and non-binary player, has been nominated for the Muhammad Ali Sports Humanitarian Award. Yet, in the same breath that we celebrate the joy of gender euphoria for countless people challenging the gender binary, we must band together and fight the intentional harms caused to our transgender, non-binary and gender non-conforming siblings. In short, we are at a time where federal and state legislation has waged war against transgender and non-binary Americans. This prompted us to look into where states housing the 12 WNBA teams stand in terms of LGBTQ protections and anti-trans legislation.
And Candace Parker — 2016 WNBA champion, Finals MVP, two-time league MVP (2008, 2013), reigning Defensive Player of the Year, 2008 Rookie of the Year and five-time All Star — is the perfect case in point. Parker recently returned from an ankle injury and, in just 17 minutes, helped the Chicago Sky snap a seven-game losing streak. The impact of her presence off the court may be even greater.
The WNBA features a logjam of talent that has pushed some of the country’s best players out of the league, and expansion is the only solution. Yet, history illustrates the need to proceed with caution when growing a women’s professional sports league. Of the four teams the WNBA added on this day in 2000, just two remain.
Like Lindsey Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson before her, Seimone Augustus was a key figure in helping the Minnesota Lynx win four championships in seven seasons. She deserved to retire in Minnesota, where she built her legacy and helped turn the struggling Lynx franchise into a dynasty. Her retirement press conference was filled with wisdom. And on her way off the basketball court, she showed uncommon selfishness toward younger players seeking to become one of the 144 lucky women to claim a roster spot in the WNBA. But the biggest question looms: Which superstars get to retire where they built their legacies and which do not?
Jennifer Rizzotti is celebrated for her accomplishments at all levels of the game, from AP National Player of the Year for the UConn Huskies in 1996 to president of the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun in 2021. But her professional journey with the Mohegan Tribe’s Sun had chillier beginnings.
After long-time NBA executive Rick Welts announced his decision last week to step down as president and chief operating officer of the Golden State Warriors, the career retrospectives poured in. It’s too bad, however, that the normalized erasure of the WNBA runs so deep that the league, now in its 25th season — and Welts’ award-winning contributions to it — were erased from the myriad articles detailing his career.
Curating a support system that holds her accountable and practicing self-discipline on and off the court, A’ja Wilson, the WNBA’s Most Valuable Player in 2020, is wise beyond her years and hungry to better herself and those around her. But her journey of self-mastery defies many of the expectations placed on Black women and professional athletes.
Twenty-five years since its inaugural tipoff, the WNBA is still here: “impossible shot after impossible shot after impossible shot.” In the runup to this historic season, the WNBA has provided The Hard Screen with a first look into the ways the league will pay homage to the past and WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert discusses how the 2021 season is an investment in the league’s next 25.
Now that Atlanta Dream co-owner Kelly Loeffler has been voted out of the Senate seat she was never voted into in the first place, does this mean she returns to WNBA ownership as if nothing ever happened?
In advance of the Tuesday, Jan. 5, special election that will decide which senators represent the state of Georgia and which political party controls the U.S. Senate for the next four years, your friendly reminder that there would be no runoff election without the players of the WNBA, who kicked Atlanta Dream co-owner and Sen. Kelly Loeffler in her political ambitions by campaigning for her rival, Rev. Raphael Warnock.
Kristen Wiig appeared on SNL in a ‘Vote Georgia’ hoodie, presumably to urge voters in Georgia to cast their ballots in the Senate run-off election on Jan. 5. By doing so, she underscored the far reaches of the WNBA players’ influence.