Vanessa Bryant, family spend time courtside at Sky-Liberty matchup
The post Vanessa Bryant, family spend time courtside at Sky-Liberty matchup appeared first on ClutchPoints.
The WNBA is making a concentrated effort to promote both the Commissioner's Cup and some of the brightest stars the league has to offer. Tuesday's clash between the reigning champion New York Liberty (9-0) and struggling Chicago Sky (2-6) seemed to intrigue plenty of people, including Vanessa Bryant and her children.
Advertisement
The wife of the late Kobe Bryant took her three daughters to Brooklyn's Barclays Center to witness the action live and up close, via the WNBA X account. The game itself was not competitive, as the Liberty earned an 85-66 victory that was even more lopsided than the scoreboard suggests, but the star players collectively put on a worthy performance. And then they mingled with the Bryants.
Sabrina Ionescu led the way, scoring 23 points on 9-of-14 shooting to go along with seven assists, four steals and two blocks. Two-time WNBA Finals MVP Breanna Stewart added 18 points, seven boards, five assists and two rejections in the win. The Bryant family was surely delighted to see fellow Los Angeles, California native Kennedy Burke drop 15 points in 22 minutes off the bench — went a perfect 3-of-3 from 3-point range.
Advertisement
Angel Reese managed to make an impact even in defeat, totaling 17 points, 11 rebounds and two steals. She committed five turnovers, but the Sky star did her best to push the team forward. Unfortunately, Ariel Atkins was the only other Chicago player to score in double-figures.
Vanessa Bryant shows her support for the W
Although she did not witness a barnburner, hopefully Vanessa Bryant is pleased with the state of women's basketball. She has been a big supporter for the league, presenting the WNBA Advocacy Award, which bears the namesake of her late husband and teenage daughter Gianna (nicknamed Gigi), both of whom died in a helicopter crash that killed a total of nine people on Jan. 26, 2020. Gigi wished to pursue a professional basketball career, so obviously the W means a great deal to the entire family.
The Bryants watched the Liberty continue their perfect start to the 2025 season, with newly crowned French Open champion Coco Gauff soaking up the contest alongside them. Female star power emanated all throughout the arena.
Advertisement
Related: Coco Gauff's 'insane' reaction to frenzied ovation at Liberty vs. Sky game
Related: WNBA news: Coco Gauff supports Sky-Liberty fresh off French Open win
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
WNBA's TV ratings drop with Fever's Caitlin Clark sidelined due to injury: report
The WNBA has seen a significant drop in TV ratings while Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark remains sidelined with a quad injury. Clark has missed five straight games after she strained a quadriceps during the Fever's 90-88 loss to the New York Liberty last month. Initially, she was expected to miss two weeks, but the second-year guard has yet to be cleared for Saturday's game against the Liberty, which will mark three weeks. Her absence on the court has not only hurt the Fever. It's hurt the WNBA's TV ratings. USA Today reported Thursday that, according to Nielsen data, nationally televised WNBA viewership is down 55% since Clark was injured May 24. The report said nationally televised Fever games are also down 53%. OutKick clarified those numbers, reporting that of the four previous games Clark played in, two were aired on CBS and ABC. A third was broadcast on NBA TV, and a fourth was not rated by Nielsen because it was broadcast on Amazon Prime. Three of the four Fever games after Clark was injured were aired on either NBA TV or ION. And the Fever's most recent game against the Chicago Sky drew an average of 1.92 million viewers, the WNBA announced Tuesday. Those numbers reflect the third-highest viewership for a game carried by CBS. It was also a big increase over the network's average regular season game viewership. But it was a drop from the season opener between those two teams. Fever head coach Stephanie White said Monday the team is ready for Clark to start "ramping back up," but she did not say if she was cleared yet for basketball activities. White added Thursday that Clark and Sophie Cunningham, who's been sidelined since May 30, had "limited" reps during practice. Clark is averaging 19 points, 9.3 assists and six rebounds in four games this season. Follow Fox News Digital's sports coverage on X, and subscribe to the Fox News Sports Huddle newsletter.
Yahoo
3 hours ago
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark's biceps and the bigger conversation around women and muscles
Thanks to a strain that's left her sidelined for weeks, all eyes are on Caitlin Clark's quad right now. But it's the Indiana Fever star's arms that had people talking in the days leading up to her second WNBA season. It all started in March, when 23-year-old Clark was photographed cheering on her alma mater, the Iowa Hawkeyes, during the NCAA Big Ten tournament. 'Okkkkk hello arms!' one commenter wrote, adding a flexed bicep emoji in reaction to the point guard's noticeably muscular appearance. View this post on Instagram A post shared by Bri Lewerke (@brilewerkephoto) Those muscles were on display when Clark's team photo was released in early May, prompting side-by-side comparisons to her 2024 physique. According to Clark herself, she's been intentionally bulking up since last year. 'I try to put on some weight and I've been working hard in the weight room,' she told reporters in August. That ramped up in the offseason, per the Fever's head athletic performance coach, Sarah Kessler, who told ESPN that Clark was in the weight room four to five times a week. Cue the toned courtside pic that got tongues wagging in March — and a lot of body discourse that not everyone is comfortable with. 'Speculating about women's bodies generally and speculation of women athletes' bodies is not new,' Michelle Manno, a sociologist, associate provost for community enrichment at Northwestern University and the author of Denied: Women, Sports and the Contradictions of Identity, tells Yahoo Life. 'What stands out as new to me in this case is that the speculation is positive. … For the most part, we're seeing people applauding [Clark's] effort to get stronger and gain muscles between seasons.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Caitlin Clark (@caitlinclark22) Indeed, adjectives like 'beautiful' have been used alongside 'jacked' and 'ripped' as commenters weigh in on Clark's muscles. One X user hailed her as having the 'peak female athlete form,' while an Instagram commenter wrote, 'Girl you show off those muscles. You worked hard on those. Lookin' great.' According to Mikala Jamison, author of the newsletter Body Type, those compliments are a sign of evolving standards. 'It's hard to overstate how much conversations about women and their musculature has changed,' she tells Yahoo Life. She references a survey done by writer Leigh Peele in 2009 (which Jamison wrote about in 2022) in which 2,000 women were polled on their views about weightlifting and the attractiveness of muscles. The majority of those surveyed indicated that they didn't like the look of muscles on their own bodies and figured men didn't find it attractive either. A majority also said they'd rather be 'too thin than either too fat or too muscular,' and when asked which female celebrity exemplified the 'muscular/bulky' look, many chose Hilary Swank (43%) and Jessica Biel (36%). 'There was this sense that any shade of muscularity on a woman's body wasn't something that, at least per this survey, was desired by a lot of women. And there are a thousand reasons for that in the culture and in media messaging,' says Jamison. 'But that has definitely changed over the years, and you see that in things like more women strength training regularly than ever before.' A growing interest in lifting weights, eating more protein and paying more attention to the benefits of building muscle has roots in conversations about menopause and aging. However, the reaction to Clark's body in particular seems to be an indication that the positive messaging about stronger bodies could be reaching and influencing younger women as well. The focus on Clark's muscles follows a general shift in gears in terms of how female athletes — and their bodies — are being discussed. 'People were talking about this a lot during the [2024] Olympics with Ilona Maher,' says Jamison, referring to the U.S. women's rugby player who won bronze in Paris last summer. 'She was on the cover of Sports Illustrated and she's not a super-slender, super-skinny woman. She's very muscular.' View this post on Instagram A post shared by Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (@si_swimsuit) After nabbing the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit digital cover last fall, Maher donned a bikini again to pose for the pages of the magazine's recently released 2025 print issue, which quotes her as saying, 'I hope people see my photos and understand that strength can be so beautiful and so feminine.' The latest issue has won praise for featuring various female athletes, including fellow Olympians Jordan Chiles and Gabby Thomas. 'How different my and many other women's lives would be if these strong bodies were the center of attention when I was growing up,' one fan commented. 'If you see more different types, sizes and shapes of bodies, it gives any person who is seeing those body types an understanding that there are many different ways that your body could look, or maybe that you want your body to look like,' Jamison points out. But even still, who people praise is dependent on certain standards. 'If I think about athletes like Serena Williams or Brittney Griner, the commentary around their bodies throughout the course of their careers has been pretty uniformly negative,' says Manno. 'So when I see what's happening with Caitlin Clark, I have to think that her race and her gender expression' — i.e., being a white, straight woman — 'are really helping her in this moment.' At the end of the day, the beauty standard for any and all women continues to be a tight line to walk, especially for those in sports, according to Manno. 'A lot of women athletes still navigate this very strong tension between wanting to be strong, wanting to do the things that they need to do to excel at their sport and still be accepted societally as looking, quote-unquote, appropriately feminine enough,' she says.
Indianapolis Star
3 hours ago
- Indianapolis Star
WNBA All-Star is coming up. Here's how to vote for your favorite players
INDIANAPOLIS — WNBA All-Star weekend is just over a month away, and Indianapolis is deep in preparations to host the game. Starting Thursday, fans will have a big part in deciding who will take the court at Gainbridge Fieldhouse on July 19. Fan voting for WNBA All-Star runs from June 12 to 28, and the All-Stars will be announced in early July. Here's how voting for All-Star works. The WNBA selects All-Stars from a combination of fan, player, media and coach voting. Fans account for 50% of the initial vote, while player and media selections account for 25% each. The league will then combine all of those scores, and the four frontcourt players and six guards with the top combined votes will become the All-Star starters. The coaches will then vote to select the 12 total reserves. They are required to vote for three guards and five frontcourt players, then can vote for four players regardless of position. They cannot vote for players on their own team. Relive Caitlin Clark's rookie season with our collector's book The 22 All-Stars will be selected regardless of conference affiliation, and the All-Star game will not be played as a competition between conferences. The 2024 season saw 12 All-Stars, selected similarly to the 2025 process, play Team USA before they headed off to the Paris Olympics. This season will mark the return to two full All-Star teams. The two All-Star starters that have the most fan votes will become the two captains, and they will be part of a draft to pick their respective teams. They will first pick from the remaining pool of eight starters, then from the 12 reserves. ESPN will broadcast the results of the draft during an edition of WNBA Countdown at 7 p.m. July 8. The coaches for the teams will be determined by the two coaches in the league that have the best record through July 4. The coach with the best overall record will be paired with the captain that has the most fan votes. Fans can submit one full ballot of up to 10 players per day, starting June 12 and ending June 28. All active WNBA players on rosters will be able to receive votes. Fans can vote through or the WNBA App. There are three 2-for-1 days on June 14, 20, and 27, when fans' one ballot will count twice. 'So far so good': 2 weeks after ankle injury, Fever's Sophie Cunningham hoping to be cleared The WNBA All-Star weekend is in Indianapolis for the first time in league history. It will be the second straight year that the city has hosted an All-Star weekend, though, as the NBA came to Indianapolis in February 2024. Five players on Indiana's roster have been All-Stars at least once, whether it be with the Fever or on another team. DeWanna Bonner, a 15-year veteran of the league who is in her first season with the Fever, has been an All-Star six times: three with the Phoenix Mercury (2015, 2018-19) and three with the Connecticut Sun (2021, 2023-24). Natasha Howard has been an All-Star twice: 2019 with the Seattle Storm and 2022 with the New York Liberty. Both Kelsey Mitchell and Aliyah Boston have two All-Star appearances in their career, both in 2023 and 2024 with the Fever. Boston was an All-Star starter as a rookie in 2023. Caitlin Clark started the All-Star game as a rookie in 2024, and she has one All-Star selection so far in her young career. Chloe Peterson is the Indiana Fever beat reporter for IndyStar. Reach her at capeterson@ or follow her on X at @chloepeterson67.
