2026 All-Rookie Team:

Pauline Astier
Azzi Fudd
Flau'jae Johnson
Olivia Miles
Kiki Rice
Sydney Taylor

Dare I say, they know more ball than a certain demographic that insists on dominating WNBA conversations on Social Media 👀

The CEO of State Farm Arena told FOS the entire arena will be open for Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals after the Dream only opened a limited capacity during the first two playoff rounds.

BY COLIN SALAO
OCT 14, 2026 | 03:10 PM

The Atlanta Dream will open the full, 17,000-seat State Farm Arena for Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals, State Farm Arena and Hawks CEO Steve Koonin tells Front Office Sports. 

A Dream spokesperson confirmed. Tickets for both games will be publicly available for purchase starting Friday morning.

The news comes the day after the WNBA rescheduled Games 3 and 4 of the WNBA Finals to allow the Dream to play at State Farm Arena instead of the 3,500-seat Gateway Center where they played most of their regular-season home games. 

The Dream moved to State Farm Arena for their first- and second-round playoff games but only opened the lower bowl, which fits about 8,800, and a small portion of the upper bowl. They averaged about 9,700 fans during those three playoff games at State Farm Arena, which is owned by the Atlanta-Fulton County Recreation Authority and operated by the Hawks.

A Dream spokesperson told FOS last week that the team opened the arena at limited capacity because of the short turnaround to sell playoff tickets. The Dream hosted Game 1 of the WNBA playoffs on Sept. 27, four days after they learned they would have home court advantage and two days after the WNBA announced the final first-round playoff schedule.
Koonin gave the same defense to FOS. 

“The turnaround for their playoffs was so short. I think you’ll see a very different building that is jam-packed for these finals,” Koonin said.

The Dream have sold out the full State Farm Arena in the past, including five times during the 2026 regular season.

If the series goes to Game 6, the Dream will host another game, but the team has yet to announce whether it will be played at State Farm Arena. Game 6 is scheduled for Oct. 29, the same night as a Hawks home game against the Cavaliers. 

The scheduling issue will likely end next year. 
The Dream announced last week that they will host all 25 regular-season games at State Farm Arena starting next year, with the deal running for five seasons, according to Koonin. He also told FOS that State Farm Arena will hold dates for WNBA playoff games starting next season.

“We want to be partners with [the Dream and WNBA]. We want to give them high praise because they’ve done a great job as a league and as a franchise,” Koonin said.

Viewership milestones for 2026 WNBA regular season:

- Over 90M unique viewers across national networks

- WNBA-record 51 telecasts averaged 1M+ viewers

- WNBA-record 9 telecasts averaged 2M+ viewers

- Fans watched WNBA-record 320M hours of coverage

Ahem! But they absolutely do!

I find it hilarious that so many people were butthurt by what Angel did. When I watched and participated in sports I always thought the thinking of “Right, wrong or indifferent what you’re not gonna do is b**** my teammate.” was a normal concept. Should she have got the tech? Probably. Is it funny and welcoming that they used the same excuse Sophie got to defend Angel? Hell yeah. Because I really do think it’s reasonable. And literally all she says is “Don’t do that.”

The moment Joe Lacob walks into the Chase Center and heads for his courtside seats, he and his family immediately feel the enormous energy and wholesome vibe that is the Golden State Valkyries’ “Ballhalla” home crowd game after game, sellout after violet-crazed sellout.

The women’s basketball franchise Lacob always envisioned while owning the Golden State Warriors has come together in no time, and in all the right ways – from relatable players other teams overlooked to leadership from the top down and smart branding complete with a beloved raven “bestie” Violet. Just don’t dare calling her a mascot.

On Saturday, Lacob will be there roaring with the rest of them as his Valkyries begin their quest for a WNBA championship in just their second year of existence. And whatever happens, he is immensely proud of the progress and the loyal support from everyone representing all walks of life who contributes to one of the best home-court advantages anywhere.

“What is truly remarkable is how great our fans are. Our players love it, we love it,” Lacob said. “It’s great, it’s a cohesion, it’s everybody coming together all at the same time and rooting for something that is new and fresh and it’s timely. And people see it and feel it. What’s going on in that arena is fantastic, it’s remarkable, it’s incredibly fun.

“I love walking in there, my wife, my family, we all love walking in there to the tremendous feeling of camaraderie and togetherness. We all as a team of people, fans, players, organization, together we’re making history and we all feel it.”

Owner tries to back up his bold prediction

For decades, Lacob has loved women’s basketball and when he brought a WNBA franchise to the Bay Area at last, the owner had no hesitations about making bold predictions.

He promised a championship within the first five years. And now in the second year the Valkyries are playing for one.

“I’m telling you right now, we will win a WNBA championship in the first five years of this franchise,” Lacob declared on Oct. 5, 2023, when the WNBA announced Lacob’s ownership group had been awarded an expansion franchise.

“I think it just goes to show that with a new team, (you can have success) with a clear vision of what you want and the identity that you want,” center Kiah Stokes said. “Shoutout to the Valkyries organization, because they had this vision from the start, and to be able to see it come to fruition already in year two is pretty amazing and pretty special. We have a great group, it’s really special, and we’re looking forward to the finals.”

Lacob had followed his prediction with the same statement to now-coach Natalie Nakase when he interviewed her to be the sideline leader. She was all in from that moment.

“It’s just a perfect confluence of events and people and experience and timing. It’s just a lot of things that have all come together at the right time,” Lacob said. “I’m not going to sit here and tell you that I am shocked by this, I’m not. I think all the ingredients were there and I made that prediction knowingly and understood what I was saying, now to do it in two years, no one could sit here and tell you that would be something they would predict. No one, not even me."

READ MORE - https://apnews.com/article/valkyries-second-season-wnba-finals-390ff5fc32df50a84e17607632e81892

From Mike Beuoy, creator of inpredictable

https://bsky.app/profile/inpredict.bsky.social/post/3mxna2h5tls22

Last year, we asked you to grade the league’s local announcers. NBC, ESPN/ABC, CBS, ION, USA Network, and Prime Video all posted solid, sometimes record-breaking numbers in their WNBA coverage this season. Given how much the WNBA’s TV audience has grown, we thought it was the ideal time to find out what you think of the league’s national broadcasters.

We asked Awful Announcing readers to evaluate every national TV broadcast crew, assign each a grade from A to F, and share comments. The results are below with a few caveats. We didn’t include ION in the grades because they simulcast the home team’s announcers. Also, while the other networks rotate announcers, analysts, and reporters throughout the season, ESPN/ABC had three dedicated broadcasting trios that worked independently, so we graded them separately.

The rankings are listed below, from No. 7 to No. 1. Each entry lists the network, its primary play-by-play announcer, primary analyst(s), notable substitute broadcasters, and game reporters.

Fener really threw a bag at this season. Their current roster contains 7 WNBA players from this season.

Starters for their first Euroleague game where Lacan - Alleman - Angloma - Meesseman - Geiselsoder.

Fenerbahçe is the one to beat for the next Euroleague title. But with a roster that competitive, it might be a hell of a job to keep everybody happy. My guess is that Betts will enter the starting line up later on this season (in favor of Geiselsoder).

Kiah Stokes was mad. The Valkyries center couldn’t believe Chelsea Gray grabbed a rebound toward the end of Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals. But the Las Vegas Aces’ star point guard did, and Stokes found herself in the same spot she’s been in much of the season.

The last line of defense.

Stokes did what she does; swatting the ball away and time expired in the Valkyries’ 83-81 victory.

“It was just a lot of emotion,” Stokes said of the clinching play. “But that’s what you have to do in the playoffs to just win close games.”

The Valkyries took a 2-0 series lead over the Aces without Stokes scoring a single point. But the 11-year WNBA veteran had grabbed 20 rebounds, prompting head coach Natalie Nakase to dub Stokes the Valkyries’ MVP of the series. Then Stokes put up a double-double – 11 points and 10 rebounds – to help the Valkyries win Game 3 in overtime and secure the second-year franchise’s first berth in the Finals.

Stokes has been the heartbeat of the Valkyries’ playoff run no matter what numbers she put in the box score.

That should not be a surprise. The Iowa native arrived in Ballhalla this season with an impressive history of success.

The 33-year-old center won three WNBA titles with the Aces after winning three NCAA championships at UConn. She also won two EuroLeague titles with Fenerbahçe in Turkey in addition to winning a gold medal with the U.S. National Team at the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship.

Winning is just what Stokes does. So Nakase relies on her to lead the charge in the huddle and locker room, too.

That message, she says, is to rely on what brought the Valkyries this far.

“Just to remind the team to stay focused, to do what we’ve been doing all season long,” Stokes told Bay Area News Group. “We won a lot of games doing what we’re best at, locking in on defense, and just (knowing) you don’t need to do anything crazy that you haven’t done.”

She and Gabby Williams signed with Golden State in the offseason following a debut season that saw the team eliminated in the first round of the playoffs.

READ MORE - https://www.mercurynews.com/2026/10/14/golden-state-valkyries-kiah-stokes-wnba-finals-uconn-ncaa/

I'm surprised this has not gotten more attention. But finals feature teams with great two way point guards who create turnover on defense, but don't turnover the ball on offense. Burton lead the WNBA in assists to turnover ratio and was tied for 4th in steals and Canada was 3rd in assist/turnover ratio and 2nd in steals.

Watching these 2 go to head is gonna be a joy for fans who appreciate 2 way basketball.

By Shayna Rubin

Sue Bird and Cheryl Miller, two of women’s basketball’s biggest names, will be front and center at the WNBA Finals as studio analysts for NBC.

The two Hall of Famers had predictions and analysis leading up to Saturday’s Game 1 between the Golden State Valkyries and the Atlanta Dream.

“I will make one strong prediction: No sweep,” Miller said in a news conference on Wednesday morning. “There will be no sweeps in this series.”

The Valkyries and Dream land in the best-of-seven series with similar strengths.

Golden State boasts the league’s top defense and held the mighty Las Vegas Aces to no more than 81 points in any game during the semifinal sweep.

The Dream clocked in with the league’s third-best defensive rating (103.5) in the regular season and swept the New York Liberty with a suffocating defense exemplified in Game 1, when they forced the Liberty into 19 turnovers.

“This is exciting for me because these two teams are, in my opinion, mirror images of each other defensively,” Miller said. “So I can’t wait to see which team blinks.”

With two strong defenses going head-to-head, Miller predicted the Dream would have advantages elsewhere to win the series.

“The reason I give maybe a slight, slight razor edge to Atlanta is only because of the scoring power that they have,” Miller said.

The Dream have an arsenal of scorers who thrive off spacing and second-chance opportunities. Angel Reese is a master at creating on the boards.

The Dream averaged 91.3 points per game, a touch behind Las Vegas Aces’ second-highest scoring rate during the regular season (91.5 ppg). Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray are the primary perimeter threats, and Jordin Canada emerged as a potent scorer filling the need effortlessly — scoring on drives to the rim and from 3 — when Gray injured her hand during Game 1 of the semis and missed the rest of the series.

Gray had a minor procedure on her hand between series and her status for the Finals is considered day-to-day.

The Valkyries swept the season series 3-0 against Atlanta, but their last matchup was July 4. Since then, the Dream added veteran DeWanna Bonner, who has balanced their bench as a scorer and added size as a strong rebounder alongside Reese.

The Phoenix Mercury bought out Bonner’s contract on Aug. 24, allowing her to sign with a contender in what could be the 39-year-old’s final WNBA season.

“Adding DeWanna Bonner is so important,” Bird said. “They needed a player that would be a calming force. They needed a player that would give them confidence in those tough moments.”

The Valkyries have stuffed their opponents with their defense and thorough game planning. When it comes to scoring in the clutch, Gabby Williams has emerged as the closer who has come up with big shot after big shot. Bird played one season with Williams; Bird’s retirement year with the Seattle Storm in 2022 intersected with Williams’ first year in Seattle.

Bird is also a big fan of Valkyries head coach Natalie Nakase. As Team USA’s managing director, she helped pick Nakase to join the coaching staff for the just-completed FIBA World Cup.

Bird, a four-time WNBA champion, noted Nakase’s “obsession” with preparation, coaching and winning — her collapse against Dallas in Round 1 and admission that she forgets to eat sometimes a sign (albeit, a scary one) of her dedication.

“Nothing was going to be enough until they won a championship, and that’s how she approaches every day,” Bird said. “That’s how, even with USA Basketball, albeit a different role, that presence was there.

“And I think when you’re around her … she’s just a coach that really understands who she is and does a tremendous job of communicating that to her players. The buy-in that she’s gotten from the Golden State Valkyries, from that roster, from that franchise, I think that really speaks to her ability to communicate.”

https://www.sfchronicle.com/sports/article/sue-bird-cheryl-miller-see-valkyries-dream-wnba-22477129.php

Izzy Borlase admits she can't really fathom what's unfolded for her this year as she looks to etch her name alongside some of Australia's greatest female basketball players.

In 2026, the 22-year-old guard has become the youngest WNBL MVP in the last 15 years, made her FIBA Women's World Cup debut with the Opals, and is now on the precipice of winning the WNBA championship.

In her debut season in the American league, she's found some glittering form, scoring 23 points for the Atlanta Dream in their semi-final sweep of the New York Liberty.

Borlase knows that securing the title would put her in an exclusive club with several Australian basketball legends, including Lauren Jackson, Penny Taylor and Cayla George.

"Anytime I'm being mentioned in the same conversation as some of those players, it's just super special," Borlase told AAP.

"They've shown the pathway for us and what girls from Australia can do when they come over to America, and it's pretty cool that they got to get to the pinnacle in the WNBA in winning a championship."

Borlase won't be the only Australian in the best-of-seven championship series beginning on Saturday (Sunday AEDT) as sharpshooter Miela Sowah is on the Golden State Valkyries roster.

Sowah hasn't featured in the playoffs yet, but her Opals teammate sees her presence as something that can help her and also inspire the next generation.

"It's huge. When you're seeing Australian girls playing in the WNBA finals. It allows you to dream about what you could do," Borlase said

"We (Australian players) catch up every time we can when we play each other, and that bit of connection from home is super special ... (because) not many people truly understand it until you're here.

READ MORE - https://www.canberratimes.com.au/story/9368872/special-borlase-dares-to-dream-in-wnba-finals-debut/

A name that has been quickly forsaken in the wake of Washington’s success is Jamila Wideman. Wideman flew into the nation’s capital as the team’s alongside head coach Sydney Johnson, positioned to direct Washington’s future from the front office as general manager.

She excelled in that expectation.

Wideman drafted Sonia Citron, Kiki Iriafen and Georgia Amoore in the 2025 WNBA Draft. She stockpiled three more first-round picks for the 2026 draft. She cut loose Brittney Sykes, a pivotal player in recent Mystics history who, nevertheless, was the antithesis of Washington’s precise roadmap. Wideman carefully molded the pillars of Washington’s temple, and on the first day of free agency in April, she was released.

Wideman’s departure has been oft-cited as a difference in vision between her, Johnson and Michael Winger, Monumental’s president of basketball. The exact rift is unclear.

What’s known is that much of Washington’s success was set through chess moves of Wideman herself. She condemned the 2025 Mystics to an early offseason when she traded away Sykes, but that gave Citron, Iriafen and Shakira Austin the freedom to develop into ball-dominant players. She took the public blow of missing the playoffs in the interest of her team’s future, but isn’t here to bear the fruits of her labor.

Read More - https://www.swishappeal.com/wnba/88747/washington-mystics-season-review-expectations-overachieve-future-bright-general-manager-fired-jamila-wideman-draft-shooting-turnovers-playoffs-wins-sydney-johnson-winger-citron-iriafen-austin-betts

The Fever's best three person lineup last year was CC, KM and Timpson. Seems clearly because Timpson improves the Fever's defense next to CC and KM. A net rating of 10.7 with 0.6 extra rebounds, 1.2 extra steals and 1.1 extra blocks with this lineup per 100 possesions.

The Fever's worst three person lineup last year was CC, KM and Sophie. A net rating of 0.1 with -2.2 fewer rebounds, 0.6 extra steals and -0.8 fewer blocks with this lineup.

CC and KM are together on both the Fever's best and worst 3 person lineups, the difference between these two seems to be the level of defensive support they get on them. Sophie in addition to supporting abhorrent political causes does not fit at all with CC and KM.

Stephanie Talbot

Stephanie Talbot started 43 of the 44 games she played this season. Despite that, she finished the season with averages of 4.0 points and 2.6 rebounds per game. In 44 games, Talbot was held to single-digit points 41 times, and there were eight games where she didn't make a single field goal. Her wing defense was useful, but her complete lack of scoring upside was an issue.

Sure, the Aces didn't necessarily need much from their fifth starter, but it shouldn't be tough to upgrade so that they can get the occasional offensive production there. Ideally, the Aces have a small forward who plays defense and hits open shots. Talbot got you steals, but she also shot 29.9 percent from deep. There was a time, early in her career, when Talbot was a strong 3-point shooter, but she's now shot under 30 percent in three consecutive seasons. It's just really hard to see a world in which the Aces can justify bringing Talbot back in 2027.

Kierstan Bell

Kierstan Bell was a really intriguing player coming out of college. She averaged 22.8 points per game in her final year at Florida Gulf Coast and when the Aces selected her at the end of the first round, the hope was that they were getting a microwave bench scorer. Five years in and it's probably time for the Aces to give up on this experiment.

Bell has played just 10.2 minutes per game in her career. Her career 3-point percentage is 26.0. In 2025, she averaged a career-high 4.2 points per game. Vegas had a net rating of -3.7 with her on the court this season and +9.4 with her off the court. Bell seems like a great locker room presence, and it'd be great to see her bloom this late in her career, but it should be obvious at this point that Vegas won't be the place where that happens. Bell should sign with a non-contending team, where she can hope to get more consistent run and a chance to actually have the ball in her hands.

Cheyenne Parker-Tyus

Veteran forward Cheyenne Parker-Tyus joined the Aces in 2025, but her pregnancy limited her to just two games. Still, excitement was high for her to be a big part of the 2026 roster. Even with NaLyssa Smith starting at the four, Parker-Tyus was expected to see plenty of minutes as the team's top backup big. This was someone who made the All-Star Game in 2023 and who was an intriguing big with some stretch upside.

The stretch upside was there in 2026, as she shot 52.9 percent from 3-point range. The problem was she only took 0.5 3-pointers per game and only played 11.2 minutes per contest. The team had a solid +5.1 net rating with Parker-Tyus on the floor, but she just wasn't out on the court enough to really make much of an impact, and it's notable that while the Aces offense had no fall-off with Parker-Tyus on the floor, the defense was a decent bit worse. It's just hard to see this as a pairing that continues on.

https://fansided.com/wnba/3-las-vegas-aces-who-won-t-be-back-next-season

E! will present Live from the Orange Carpet: WNBA Finals live on Monday, Oct. 19 at 6 p.m. ET / 3 p.m. PT from Chase Center in San Francisco, ahead of game two of the WNBA Finals between the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries.

Lilly Singh will host the coverage, joined in a panel by comedian Wanda Sykes (The Upshaws), WNBA legend and Naismith Basketball Hall of Famer Tina Thompson and WNBA player stylist Brittany Hampton. USA Sports’ WNBA court side reporter Terrika Foster-Brasby will also contribute to the coverage, interviewing players as they arrive at the venue.

“Audiences can expect engaging conversations highlighting the athletes, trailblazers and tastemakers who have helped redefine professional women’s sports, as well as the personalities and stories shaping the league’s influence both on and off the court,” the company says.

The program is a significant expansion on the red carpet format that E! pioneered, with a focus on the fashion and culture around events like the Academy Awards, the Emmy Awards, and other cultural events. For Versant, it is also an example of how the company is hoping to spread its franchises across the portfolio. The WNBA Finals are arguably the biggest sports event in Versant’s USA Sports portfolio.

Both the orange carpet show and the game will be simulcast across USA, E! and CNBC for maximum impact.

“When entertainment is having a moment, Live from E! is there and we’re thrilled to expand that expertise to USA Sports for one of the WNBA’s biggest nights,” said Val Boreland, president of entertainment for Versant. “With Lilly and Wanda and this incredible lineup of talent, Live from the Orange Carpet: WNBA Finals will bring E!’s signature live event coverage and pop culture lens to celebrate the players and cultural influence that make the league so electric both on and off the court.”

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/tv/tv-news/versant-e-red-carpet-coverage-wnba-finals-1236730232/

For those who don’t speak French: Rachid is following the Sun to Houston next year!

Five-time WNBA All-Star Angel McCoughtry joins Caroline Fenton and Jason Fitz on Yahoo Sports Daily to preview Atlanta’s Finals matchup with Golden State and explain why Angel Reese reminds her so much of herself. McCoughtry also breaks down DeWanna Bonner’s immediate impact, the Valkyries’ rapid rise and why both teams should embrace every bit of physicality and trash talk.

Next May, the Houston Comets will rise from the dead after 19 years. The WNBA’s first dynasty, revived under new ownership, will play in a newly refurbished 18,000-seat arena, finally raising the jerseys of two of the greatest players of all time to the rafters, and take its place in a league that’s spent the past couple of decades transforming from an NBA side project into a mega-business.

First, though, the Comets need a locker room. And a practice court. And a weight room, a dining area, medical exam rooms, hydrotherapy pools. As of mid-August, less than nine months before the new Comets tip off for the first time, the players’ area of the Toyota Center in downtown Houston doesn’t even have bathrooms. Describing the process of bringing back the Comets as a sprint is a little like calling their original superstar Cynthia Cooper pretty good at basketball.

The original team folded in 2008, after its then-owner failed to find a buyer willing to pay $10 million. Then, in 2017, billionaire Tilman Fertitta bought the Houston Rockets and started dreaming of adding a WNBA team to match. When the W announced expansion plans in 2022, Fertitta, who runs the restaurant-casino-hotel empire Landry’s, saw his chance. His lieutenants spent years perfecting the bid, emphasizing the city’s storied history and the potential to build a billion-dollar franchise. They were “caught a little bit off guard,” according to President of Business Operations Gretchen Sheirr, to be passed over in favor of Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia. The prep work stopped.

Then, this past spring, opportunity arrived. The Connecticut Sun’s owners, the Mohegan Tribe, had put the team up for sale, and it was becoming clear that the WNBA had a specific destination in mind. League executives blocked two $325 million offers, one that would have kept the team in Connecticut and another that would have moved it to Boston. Instead, they quickly approved a $300 million bid from Fertitta, now President Donald Trump’s ambassador to Italy.

New WNBA teams generally have a couple of years to prepare. The new Comets got less than 12 months. Despite the pressure, Sheirr, who’s worked for the Rockets since 2001 and once sold tickets for the original Comets, radiates optimism. Sitting in her office wearing a cherry-red blazer with white cargo pants and white sneakers, construction noise reverberating through the windows, Sheirr can hardly control her excitement. “You know how long it takes to plan a wedding?” she asks. “However long you give yourself to plan a wedding. You want to be engaged for three years? It’s going to take you three years. You want to be engaged for three months? It’s going to take you three months. We have less than a year to launch a WNBA team, so it’s going to take us less than a year to launch it.”

The new Comets are leaping into the Pacific Ocean. The level of play is higher than ever, and so are the revenues. A new generation of players, led by Caitlin Clark, have become some of the most in-demand celebrities in the world. Houston, meanwhile, is inheriting a roster that won barely a quarter of its games last season. The ticketing office has to fill 18,000 seats for a team that may not win much. Keeping up with the most financially successful teams will require colossal corporate partnerships and marketing deals in tandem with success on the court.

The old Comets were piranha in a koi pond. They won the first four WNBA titles with three of the best players of all time on their roster: Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes and Tina Thompson. In 1998 they won 90% of their games, a record unlikely to ever be broken.

“Nobody’s expectations are any higher than the expectations that we have for ourselves,” says Sun President Jennifer Rizzotti, who will lead the basketball side in Houston. As a player, Rizzotti won an NCAA title at UConn and two WNBA titles with the original Comets. Now she’s looking forward to building the new Comets’ first roster while she looks for a place to live in Texas. “Not only are you paying a lot more for a franchise these days, but your expectation is that there’s more opportunity on the revenue side than there ever has been,” she says.

From the outside, it can look like the WNBA has been swallowed whole by culture-war fights, most notably this summer’s uproar — instigated by an Indiana Fever benchwarmer but stoked by the media — over the hypothetical scenario of a trans woman playing in the league. Egged on by a handful of internet provocateurs, multiple fans were arrested for throwing sex toys onto the court during games, a stunt that had begun in 2025 as part of a campaign for a cryptocurrency memecoin but later became part of the anti-trans protests. Fox News devoted 206 individual segments to women’s basketball in less than two months, many of them including a disclaimer that the hosts have no interest in discussing the sport. “Absolute chaos,” the Wall Street Journal dubbed this season, in an article that didn’t quote a single player, coach or front-office employee from any team.

Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and other league executives have largely stayed quiet on the matter, upsetting many fans who see an opportunity to take a progressive stand. A memo from Engelbert to players in early August called the question of trans athletes in women’s sports “complex and nuanced” without endorsing specific eligibility criteria. In late August, Engelbert finally spoke publicly but still stopped short of taking an official position on the issue, saying “people are trying to use the league to sow divisiveness” and adding “that’s what happens when you have made it as a legitimate sports media and entertainment product.” Many pundits on all sides erroneously named the whole debacle as the reason why Engelbert announced last month that she’s retiring at the end of the year. The basketball had never been better, but all anyone wanted to talk about was a player who didn’t exist.

Around the league, though, the protests and counterprotests and stunts and commentary are treated like a minor annoyance, an aggravating yet benign side effect of assuming a bigger stage and much, much bigger valuations. WNBA revenue has surpassed where the NBA was at the same point in its existence, even when adjusted for inflation, and a $281 million media rights deal has put its games and drama in front of millions more people. The season will expand from 44 to 50 games in 2027; by 2030, the league will have 18 teams. For decades, owning a pro women’s basketball team meant playing in rinky-dink arenas, flying coach between games and paying salaries that started at $66,000. Suddenly, competing in the WNBA requires best-in-class facilities, charter flights, and large teams of trainers and physical therapists; nonbasketball offerings like rooms for nursing mothers and makeup studios are becoming increasingly standard. All this to say, the W is treating the screaming activists like one more symptom of its resounding success.

Renderings of the Comets’ remodeled space, stripped of the team logo and colors to preserve the suspense ahead of a November unveiling, show a locker room with plush carpet and cushy chairs, an elegantly lit “vanity area” and a dining space that will have a designated pickup zone for each player’s go-to smoothie or snack. The cinderblock walls that lead from the locker room to the main arena will be lined with life-size photos of great moments in Comets history, then redecorated to display Rockets memorabilia during the NBA season. And though the trend in the WNBA is to build standalone practice facilities, the Comets don’t have time for that. Instead, they’re kitting out a bare-bones court and storage area into a professional-quality practice space and weight room.

On this characteristically scorching mid-August day, none of that exists in Houston. Carving out space for the Comets required rearranging the Rockets’ facilities too, so neither team has a locker room at the moment, less than two months before the men’s squad starts preseason play. A tour of the renovation zone gives the sense of controlled chaos. As soon as one crew hangs a sheet of drywall, another swoops in to paint it. Another group takes a lunch break sitting in the players’ shower stalls, which don’t yet have plumbing, much less tile. Leah Mastaglio, the vice president of arena operations, wears a hard hat with a “Dumpster Fire Response Team” sticker.

For all this, the vibes around the Toyota Center are exuberant. Everyone involved seems almost giddy that they’re the ones who get to bring back the winningest team in WNBA history at a key moment in the league’s growth. Team executives know everyone around the league is watching what they do, watching to see whether Fertitta’s $11 billion can build a WNBA juggernaut and electrify the fourth-largest city in the country or not. The Comets, in turn, have their eyes on the most successful existing franchise, one just two years older than they are. As Cooper, the four-time MVP from the original Comets dynasty, puts it: “We want our own Ballhalla.”

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An interesting read...

Edit:

Fever is in a big dilemma. On one hand, this tandem(CC & KM) is probably never going to win a championship. This is an opinion I've had since 2024. I've never seen a starting backcourt without at least one of them being an elite or above average defender, win a championship, and I don't believe CC and KM will be changing that. While on the other hand, having CC be the only player on the team that can create her shot on the team is not also ideal.

The only solution is taking a punt on Chennedy Carter on the minimum lol, while using the would be Kelsey supermax(she's definitely not taking less)money to replenish the team's defense.

I honestly don't see a way forward to a championship. Doubling down will just make the Fever be the Damian Lillard era Portland Trailblazers in the NBA. Exciting regular season team, but fail every year in the playoffs.