Harvard alumna Temi Fagbenle mixes moviemaking, supporting role with WNBA debutants Golden State
Fagbenle returned to the W last year with the Indiana Fever, averaging 6.4 points and 4.7 rebounds as if she had never left. The opportunity to perform on the big screen opened up at the same time.
Former college classmate
Chiwetel Ejiofor
,
Idris Elba
, and
Advertisement
'When I found out that the 'Children of Blood and Bone' books were being turned into a movie, I was like, 'I have to be in this movie,' ' Fagbenle said.
She reached out to Adeyemi, then the film's director
Gina Prince-Bythewood
, whose résumé includes 2000 hoop-romance 'Love and Basketball,' '
Advertisement
'Amazing director,' Fagbenle said.
And, as it turned out, a WNBA fan.
'Of course, I should have known with 'Love and Basketball', right?' Fagbenle said. 'Huge fan of the WNBA. So she already knew me because she's been following the W and seeing Indiana. She was happy that I reached out.'
Setting up the audition was as simple as an email to the casting director. Filming started in February and wrapped in June.
'I felt so lucky for that,' Fagbenle said. 'I did it and just went through the process and I got a role and I'm just so thankful.'
Between then, Fagbenle set out for San Francisco to join the Golden State Valkyries. She signed with the expansion franchise in April and is having a career year — 9.7 points and 5.9 assists — for a team that's been equal parts surprise and success story, winning nine of its first 16 games while attracting the largest crowds in the league.
'It's just been an amazing experience,' she said. 'The energy here of everyone, knowing that there's a new women's team, it's just electric.'
Fagbenle said she was grateful to have so many opportunities come together at once.
'I feel really blessed,' she said. 'It's obviously not without hard work. What's the saying? Luck is opportunity meets preparation. I feel I've gotten those opportunities, but I'm also very prepared. I've been preparing for all these moments, whether it's acting, whether it's being here on this team. I'm just really thankful for the journey in and out of the W.'
Advertisement
Tina Charles and the Sun haven't found much easy in the first season after the team's roster was almost entirely turned over.
Michael Conroy/Associated Press
Sun are snowballing
The Connecticut Sun are 2-15 after losing a franchise record nine straight games. They've lost 11 games by double digits and eight by 20 or more, including
Before this brutal stretch, the team's longest losing streaks were seven-game skids in 2013 and 2015.
The Sun have their worst record through 17 games in franchise history, and it puts them in some bad company. None of the prior eight teams to start 2-15 or worse salvaged winning seasons. In fact, none finished with double-digit wins.
The Sun franchise, going back to its days as the Orlando Miracle, has never finished a season with fewer than 10 wins. It finished on that number in 2013 (10-24), then again in the 2020 season disrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic (10-12).
Last month, when the Sun earned their first and to-date
Rachid Meziane
was encouraged, but also realistic about how long it might take a completely new roster to jell.
'It will take time. I don't have a timeline in my head,' he said. 'We have to continue to practice hard. Maybe it will take one season. I don't know. Because even if we are improving our game, the other teams work too. So they will improve they're game too. So we just have to reduce the gap. When you have a young team like us, we don't have a deadline in mind. Just keep working. It's a long process for us.'
The Mercury have made more 3-pointers than any other team in the WNBA, and no one on Phoenix has made more than Sami Whitcomb.
Ross D. Franklin/Associated Press
Who's hooping?
Sami Whitcomb, Phoenix:
There isn't a hotter shooter in the league. Whitcomb is 22 of 43 (51.1 percent) from 3-point range her past five games, bouncing back after shooting a career-low 29.2 percent last season.
Advertisement
Angel Reese, Chicago:
Four straight double-doubles. Four straight games with 15-plus rebounds. Reese averaged 17.3 points and 17.5 boards over that span, with 4.5 on the offensive glass (if 'mebounds' are your thing).
Appointment viewing
The Commissioner's Cup Final, Minnesota vs. Indiana, Tuesday, 8 p.m.:
The past two Cup finals have been WNBA Finals previews, and in 2022, the Aces beat the Sky and went on to win the title. Minnesota's not only looking to repeat as Cup champions, but it looks like a machine singularly focused on returning to the WNBA championship. Meanwhile, Indiana is hovering at .500 after losing three of its past five, and
Caitlin Clark
has missed the past two games with a left groin injury.
Julian Benbow can be reached at
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
New York Times
29 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why has the sale of the WNBA's Connecticut Sun become so complicated?
On the morning of July 2, just hours after the Commissioner's Cup final the night before, high-ranking executives from the Connecticut Sun and WNBA got on the phone to discuss the team's future. The Mohegan Tribe, which owns and operates the Sun, had been considering a sale for nearly a year and had been playing out the process slowly but diligently, weighing its desires against the league's. The tribe had taken the team to market to see if it could sell a minority stake, but it was also open to selling control of the franchise. It had received enough interest that it landed an offer for the Sun at a potentially record-setting price. Advertisement The Sun's leadership presented the offer, a $325 million bid from financier Steve Pagliuca, to the WNBA executives, including commissioner Cathy Engelbert. Pagliuca had been a Boston Celtics minority owner for more than two decades — he sold his shares when the sale closed this month — and had gained an exclusive negotiating window. The tribe and Pagliuca had discussions about how long the team would stay at the Mohegan Sun Arena, but ultimately, the goal was to move to Boston and build a practice facility. The offer did not sit well with the WNBA. While the rest of the meeting between Sun and league executives was placid, a WNBA executive later called Allen & Company, the investment bank running the sale for the Sun, and expressed unhappiness, saying that the Pagliuca deal was an unapproved attempt at relocation. (Allen & Company declined comment for this article.) There has been little contact between the league and franchise leaders since then. Engelbert did not present the sale to the rest of the league's board of governors for approval, multiple sources familiar with the conversation said, striking what could have been a league-high franchise fee with a pocket veto. They and others were granted anonymity so they could speak freely. Front Office Sports was the first to report the agreement and that the WNBA ignored it. The Sun and the WNBA have been in a standoff ever since, while all the Sun's potential buyers have been in stasis. The tribe has two men — Pagliuca and former Bucks owner Marc Lasry — each willing to pay $325 million apiece for the team, more than any WNBA team has ever garnered before in a control sale, and neither was able to get approval from the league. The WNBA, like every other American professional sport, has its board of governors sign off on ownership-control sales and relocation efforts; it has made clear to the Sun that it does not want the team to move unless it's to an approved city. The Sun sale, however it plays out, has become a story of the sometimes divergent interests of a team and the league it plays in. It is a reflection of the intense attention that has flocked to the WNBA in recent years and the financial boon it has experienced, but also of how it is handling its growth, which has been awkward at times. Advertisement It has also touched on the WNBA's relationship with the NBA, which has hovered over the league as it expanded — a fault line to some and a strength to others. Of the six new expansion teams the WNBA added since 2023, four are run by an ownership group that also has an NBA team. Another, the Toronto Tempo, is owned by Larry Tanenbaum, who is a Raptors minority owner but also the chairman of the NBA's board of governors. Though the WNBA and the Mohegan Tribe have rarely communicated since that July meeting, the league has made its leaders aware that it has one clear option to resolve this dispute: They could sell the Sun to the league for $250 million, which would then sell it to Tilman Fertitta and allow him to move the team to Houston, multiple sources said. Fertitta, who is the U.S. ambassador to Italy, owns the NBA's Houston Rockets. He and the city of Houston are next on the list for a WNBA team, which would mark the league's return to a city that once had its first dynasty, the Houston Comets. Houston nearly got one during the latest expansion round in the spring and is still working to get a team. The sales process has left several involved frustrated with the WNBA and the NBA, which has been involved too, and wondering how this might end. Ultimately, the tribe could decide to continue running the Sun rather than selling it at a price it believes is below market value if the WNBA won't let it go to its chosen buyer. They could sue but that doesn't seem to be a likely option at this point. Those with knowledge of the sales process said they believe the league is trying to control the flow of markets into the WNBA and leave open the possibility of getting a much larger expansion fee for a team in Boston down the line. (Multiple sources said they believe that the WNBA is not done expanding and that estimates for a Boston franchise have ranged between $400-$500 million). Letting the Sun move there now would create a shortcut into that market, as well as deprive the WNBA of expansion fees for a much smaller relocation fee, and let that city jump ahead of Houston. Advertisement 'The league is in charge of this. They have more control,' said one person briefed on the sale. 'They want to make sure the league grows in the right way and the right markets.' Though the Sun and WNBA are at odds now, they had worked together early in the process. A potential sale was first mentioned to Engelbert at a playoff game last fall, but the Sun deferred until the league could finish its latest stage of expansion, according to one person involved in the negotiations. The tribe hired Allen & Company, but it was also running expansion for the WNBA. The two sides met in March at the NBA's offices, as expansion was gaining clarity, where Engelbert informed Sun executives that Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia were getting expansion teams. The league also asked the tribe to first talk to the Cleveland ownership group — led by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert — before putting the team on the market. If they could reach a deal, the Gilbert group would buy the Sun and move it to Cleveland, sources said. If that negotiation had been fruitful, it seems likely that Houston would have then been the third city to get a WNBA expansion team. The Mohegan Tribe and Cleveland were not able to reach a deal, however, because of a disagreement about the price, according to sources. When talks with potential expansion groups fell through, ownership whittled its list of suitors from 15 to two. It decided that Pagliuca had the best offer. The Sun hadn't been put on the market explicitly as a relocation opportunity, but Pagliuca and Lasry want to move it out of Uncasville, Conn. Pagliuca wants to move it to Boston, and Lasry intends to put it in Hartford. The WNBA did not appreciate those efforts. It told the tribe twice in writing — in April and June — that it could not sell to relocate the franchise out of market, and that the league would need to be involved in the process for any such deal. The league's rules state that any move more than 75 miles outside of a team's territory needs league approval, though Hartford and Providence both sit in those boundaries. (The tribe's membership agreement with the WNBA allows the Sun to play up to two games a year in Hartford, sources said.) The NBA even needed to sign off on the Golden State Warriors' move from Oakland to San Francisco and on the New York Liberty moving from Westchester Convention Center to Barclays Arena. The WNBA, in a statement earlier this month, said that the nine other cities involved in the expansion process would have priority and that Boston had not applied. Even if Boston did get a team, new Celtics owner Bill Chisholm, the WNBA noted, has already asked to be considered. Advertisement Pagliuca and Lasry have both settled in with $325 million offers — $75 million more than the expansion fees the league drew this spring. But they are also still waiting on a process that is now out of their hands. Multiple sources briefed on the sale said that the WNBA has told interested investors that it could buy the Sun, keep it at the Mohegan Sun Arena for a period of time, and then move it. 'We're all waiting on the league to act, and the league's basic action is, we're not going to do anything unless you take our offer,' said the person involved in the negotiations. The WNBA is not against the Sun moving. It just has to be to a city the league would approve of. Lasry, who had a bid for Austin, Texas, would not be able to move the Sun there either, according to a source familiar with the league's rules. A team based in Uncasville, however, is not worth as much to investors as a team that can move elsewhere. The WNBA's willingness to help expedite the Sun's move to Houston is a recognition of the seeming preference that NBA ownership groups have received during the league's renaissance. The WNBA has a complicated governance structure, with NBA owners in control of 42 percent of the league, WNBA owners in possession of another 42 percent, and another 16 percent held by the investors who participated in the WNBA's 2022 capital raise. The NBA, in actuality, owns a majority stake in the WNBA because 10 of its 18 teams (including new expansion teams) are run by NBA owners, and a number of NBA owners also invested in the capital raise. When the WNBA announced that three NBA ownership groups landed expansion teams this year, one bidder was disappointed but realistic. 'The WNBA is half-owned by the NBA, so why would the end result surprise anyone?' a member of the group said. Advertisement But people with knowledge of WNBA and NBA team operations said that having a partnership between the two franchises can prove crucial to success on the business side. Owning both teams can help with sales, revenue, arena dates and 'is a huge advantage to make the investment work,' said the person briefed on the Sun sale. Lasry and Pagliuca no longer own NBA teams, though Fertitta still does. For now, the Mohegan Tribe still owns the Connecticut Sun and is open to keeping it. There does not seem to be an off-ramp in place for a sale yet. There are no deadlines, but there is a desire to gain some finality before free agency begins this upcoming winter. The tribe wants to maximize the value it gets for the team and does not seem inclined to take less than they can get in the open market, however that payment comes. The WNBA has the right to control who buys the team and where it goes. Lasry and Pagliuca want the Sun — but not in Uncasville long-term. How it ends may depend on whether the Mohegan Tribe and the WNBA find a way to work together. — The Athletic's Ben Pickman contributed to this report. Spot the pattern. Connect the terms Find the hidden link between sports terms Play today's puzzle
Newsweek
an hour ago
- Newsweek
Wings' Paige Bueckers Reveals Main WNBA Inspiration Without Hesitation
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. The unveiling of Sue Bird's bronze statue outside Climate Pledge Arena on Sunday was more than a celebration of a Hall of Fame career. For Dallas Wings guard Paige Bueckers, it was another reminder of how one of basketball's greatest leaders continues to shape her own path. Bueckers, 23, has long been clear about who provided her model for success. "She was somebody I aspired to be when I was young and growing up," Bueckers told before facing the Las Vegas Aces. "I followed in her footsteps to UConn, and I'm following in her footsteps again by making it to the WNBA." The connection between Bird and Bueckers goes beyond shared school colors. Bird has served as a mentor since Bueckers' college days, offering advice and perspective during critical moments. Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings looks on against the Indiana Fever during the third quarter at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on August 12, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Paige Bueckers #5 of the Dallas Wings looks on against the Indiana Fever during the third quarter at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on August 12, 2025 in Indianapolis, Indiana. Photo byAfter UConn lost the 2022 NCAA title game, Bird joined other program greats in consoling the Huskies and emphasized that heartbreak is part of every champion's journey. "She's just been there every single time I reached out with questions," Bueckers said. "She has been a huge part of my development—not just as a player, but as a person." Read more: WNBA Punishes Fever's Sophie Cunningham Over Paige Bueckers Comments Bird retired in 2022 as the WNBA's all-time assists leader after a career that included four championships, five Olympic gold medals, and 13 All-Star selections. She has praised Bueckers' poise, versatility, and ability to impact games on both ends of the floor, often pointing to her as a natural successor in the line of elite UConn guards. As Bueckers has transitioned to the WNBA, Bird has publicly acknowledged the challenges but expressed confidence that she has the skill and mentality to succeed. Both players' careers were shaped at UConn, where Bird won two national championships and helped establish the program's dynasty. Bueckers has said Bird's example was part of her decision to play in Storrs, calling her the blueprint for the career she envisioned. Read more: Paige Bueckers Fires Back at Fever's Sophie Cunningham's Referee Comments Seattle has already celebrated Bird with a retired jersey and a street named in her honor. The statue, the first for a WNBA player, is a permanent reminder of her impact on the sport. For Bueckers, the symbolism resonates as she begins her own career. "The way she brings people together... She demands a lot, but she supports you and challenges you at the same time," Bueckers said. "That's something I really admire and something I want to embody as a player myself." Bird's likeness in bronze reflects her place in history. For Bueckers, it also serves as a reminder of the standard she is chasing every time she takes the court. Make sure to follow Newsweek Sports for all Dallas Wings, Seattle Storm, and WNBA news and updates.
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
What does Sophie Cunningham's injury mean for the Indiana Fever?
Yahoo Sports' Jason Fitz and Caroline Fenton discuss what Sophie Cunningham's injury means to the Indiana Fever and their goals for the rest of the season. View more Video Transcript I am sending out my deepest condolences to Indiana Fever fans everywhere because that team and that fan base just continues to get bitten by the injury bug, and the latest Fever guard, Sophie Cunningham, will be out for the remainder of the season due to a knee injury. So she was escorted off the court in the Fever's win over the Connecticut Sun on Sunday with what looked like a knee injury. She was grabbing at that knee and it was confirmed after an MR. Yesterday that she will be out for the remainder of the season, and the Fever cannot catch a break. I mean, Caitlin Clark hasn't played in over a month with a groin injury. Sydney Colson and Aaren McDonald are also out for the remainder of the season. We learned that just a couple of weeks ago, and now, Sophie Cunningham. The Fever don't have a single healthy point guard, and this team revolves around the point guard because it revolves around Caitlin Clark. So you don't have a single healthy point guard and after all. The moves that they made this past offseason, bringing in Sophie Cunningham, bringing in Natasha Howard and DeWanna Bonner, bringing in veteran experience to this team was a clear indication that the Fever were going for it. The Fever were trying to push all of their chips into the middle for a championship. But now it's hard to see this team making a championship run, much less even making the playoffs at this point with how much they've been bitten by the injury bug. But I will say this, if you're one of those people that is saying, Caitlin Clark should come back because they've been injured so much. I have to say I vehemently disagree with you because it would be the worst possible move for the Fever to rush Caitlin Clark back from injury just because they're injured the rest of the roster. Cut your losses, see how many games you can win throughout the rest of the season, and if you make the playoffs great, come back better next year. Close
