Geno's Steaks rebrands to "Steakquon's" to celebrate Saquon Barkley's Madden 26 cover
Lynx forward Alissa Pili's Polynesian roots
As Minnesota Lynx forward Alissa Pili goes into her second year in the WNBA, she said she's grown as a player after putting in work in the off season. Pili is the first Polynesian player in the WNBA and said her love for her culture is a big motivation for her to keep improving on the court.
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USA Today
8 minutes ago
- USA Today
Indiana Fever roster have ESPN's best young WNBA core with Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston
Indiana Fever roster have ESPN's best young WNBA core with Caitlin Clark, Aliyah Boston Roster building in any professional sport is a science that many have tried to study, but only a select few have ever figured out. The WNBA is no different. With roster cuts, a salary cap, and young talent oozing from the collegiate level, roster management has never been harder than it is right now. The Indiana Fever, who feature young stars such as Caitlin Clark and Aliyah Boston, began building through the WNBA draft while also exploring free agency to show the constant balancing act required to find success. Their current roster is young, but it is also very talented. That combination puts the Indiana Fever atop ESPN's rankings of the best young cores in the WNBA. Indiana Fever (3-4) Average age (league ranking): 28.5 (6th youngest) Key players to build on (age): Caitlin Clark (23), Aliyah Boston (23), Lexie Hull (25) It's no surprise to see the Fever here with the brightest group of young stars in the WNBA. With Clark and Boston, Indiana has the No. 1 picks from the 2023 and 2024 drafts -- each of whom went on to win Rookie of the Year in back-to-back seasons as well. When healthy (and both have been extremely durable throughout college and the pros, up until Clark's recent injury), no team has a dynamic duo this good and this young. That's particularly true when you consider how well their games complement each other's, with Clark serving as the WNBA's ultimate heliocentric perimeter creator and initiator, and Boston scoring inside the arc with high volume and efficiency. The two took some time to figure out how to mesh in Clark's rookie season last year, but both were improving their numbers early this season before Clark got hurt. Boston has a sky-high 65.7 True Shooting % (TS%) this season, for instance, while scoring 16.8 points per game. Don't sleep on Hull, either; the fourth-year guard out of Stanford has improved each year of her WNBA career and is tracking for a breakout performance. - Neil Paine, ESPN It isn't overly shocking that the Fever have found their place at the top of this list. They have the last two WNBA Rookie of the Year winners and are arguably the face of the entire league. Caitlin Clark has transcended the WNBA and is barely in her second season. Aliyah Boston is only getting better, and the rest of the Fever are going to be forced to develop alongside Clark, who makes life easier on everyone with the attention she demands from other teams. If the Indiana Fever can avoid major injuries or catastrophic departures in free agency, they are as primed as any team in the league to be contending for titles over the next decade. Contact/Follow us @HawkeyesWire on X (formerly Twitter) and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Iowa news, notes and opinions. Follow Riley on X: @rileydonald7
New York Times
24 minutes ago
- New York Times
Why are international players flocking to the WNBA?
NEW YORK — For a few minutes after a shootaround, Golden State Valkyries coach Natalie Nakase sat on the sideline with French guard Carla Leite beside her. Nakase demonstrated different hand motions and signaled to her 21-year-old rookie guard. Looking to bridge a communication gap as much as possible, Nakase recognized Leite as a strong visual learner. Advertisement 'Sometimes, it's not easy for me to speak,' Leite said. More than any other WNBA franchise, the Valkyries roster is a global tapestry. Leite, who said her English is improving every day, is just one part of that. Golden State's opening night roster featured players from six countries. 'I have to learn French is what I've learned,' Nakase said. French is the Valkyries' unofficial second language. Rookies Janelle Salaün and Leite are natives of France, and guard Julie Vanloo, who is Belgian, speaks French fluently. Vanloo said she is 'available if needed' to translate. Rookie center Kyara Linskens, another Belgian, downplayed her French proficiency, though when asked by Nakase if she could speak the language, Linskens replied: 'un petit peu.' Translation: a little bit. (Perhaps Linskens is underselling her knowledge.) Some Valkyries assistants are even learning to count in French to connect with players. While Golden State is the WNBA's newest and most worldly team, it isn't alone in its international presence. The number of foreign-born players in the league has continued to increase. At the start of this season, the league had 34 players born outside the U.S., up from 25 at the beginning of the 2023 season. Among this season's group, 18 were in their first or second WNBA seasons. A new generation of international players is showing newfound interest in the league — and vice versa. Twelve new roster spots for the addition of Golden State as an expansion franchise were only part of the surge. According to interviews with more than 10 players, executives and coaches, the WNBA's growing global presence, engaged fan bases, increased ownership investment and expected forthcoming salary increases also contribute to its growth. In a heartwarming post-game moment, Carla Leite admits her English isn't great, so teammate Janelle Salaün steps in to translate 🇫🇷 The French duo powered the @valkyries to their second consecutive win! — WNBA (@WNBA) May 24, 2025 'You're seeing more and more international players, more Europeans, wanting to come here and play because it's the most competitive league in the world,' said Cecilia Zandalasini, a Valkyries wing and native of Italy. Since its inception, the WNBA has maintained a global presence, with the number of international players peaking in the early 2000s, when the league had three more teams than it does today. However, as the initial fanfare wore off and the league underwent a turbulent period, the number of foreign players declined. Advertisement At the start of the 2011 season, the league had just 15 foreign-born players due to national team commitments, limited financial incentives, role adjustments and a desire to rest during the summer, which became some of the reasons the WNBA wasn't always the top choice for international players. Some of the world's most decorated European players of the last 15 seasons — Alina Iagupova, Alba Torrens and Laia Palau — never played in the WNBA. Yet, amid a period of transformational growth, international player interest has also increased. The WNBA is broadcast in more than 24 languages this season, up from 16 in 2022, with players tuning in to see packed arenas. (League attendance in 2024 was up 48 percent year-over-year, the highest mark in 22 years.) 'With the (increased) visibility of the league, it does make more sense that more girls would want to aspire to make it to the league,' said Valkyries center Temi Fagbenle, who is American-born but grew up in the United Kingdom. Exposure takes different forms. Fagbenle loved tennis and didn't watch a WNBA game until she was 14. But soon after seeing her first game, reaching the WNBA became her goal. Sevgi Uzun, a Turkish guard who began the season with the Phoenix Mercury, turned pro at 16 and started practicing alongside WNBA players who competed in her native country during their offseasons. Although no Turkish women's basketball players were in the WNBA when she grew up, Uzun, as a developing prospect, received consistent encouragement from WNBA players about her potential ceiling. 'Kayla McBride was the very first one who told me you're different, you can do something,' Uzun said. (McBride first played in Turkey in 2017.) Multiple league executives also cited the 2024 Paris Olympics, in which both France and Belgium pushed the American team, as another demonstration of the high-quality international player pool. Advertisement In recent years, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert has discussed the desire to globalize the WNBA. Over the last decade, the league has had only three All-Stars born outside the U.S. (Australian Liz Cambage, Emma Meesseman from Belgium, and Jonquel Jones from The Bahamas). A younger generation of foreign players has taken notice of the league's global brand. 'People are watching it more and are looking forward to being like, 'OK, this can be a goal,' ' said Mercury rookie guard Monique Akoa Makani, who grew up in Cameroon and France. By seeing Belgian guard Julie Allemand (L.A. Sparks) and French guard Marine Johannès (New York Liberty) make a WNBA impact, Akoa Makani found players she could emulate. 'I used to practice with them when they were pro in my local team, and at the time, I was looking up to them,' she said. 'When I saw them going to the W, I was like, 'We're kind of from the same place, why not (me)?' ' Johannès is among a group of international players who face a unique decision this month: continue playing for their WNBA teams or take a brief hiatus to compete in FIBA's EuroBasket tournament, which runs from June 18 to 29. Johannès sat out the 2024 WNBA season to play for France's Olympic team and will not participate in this month's tournament to remain with the Liberty. However, her New York teammates Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebich are competing for Germany. The Liberty's absences pale in comparison to Golden State, as Salaün, Zandalasini, Vanloo and Fagbenle will participate in the event. Fagbenle, the captain of Team Great Britain, hopes that FIBA and the WNBA will collaborate going forward, so that players aren't forced to choose between country and club teams. 'Two major entities that I would hope would want to work together to figure out a way to make things work for the players who want to play them both,' she said. 'I'm optimistic.' Earlier this month, FIBA announced it was shifting the 2030 World Cup to late November and early December, while the 2026 World Cup is set to take place in early September, creating a potentially significant scheduling conflict for the WNBA. The WNBA may take a brief hiatus just before the 2026 playoffs, although the scheduling specifics will also need to be collectively bargained with the players' association. The league's players, including top American players, may have to make difficult decisions ahead of the most critical time on the WNBA calendar. Advertisement Faced with the decision to stay or leave for this month's EuroBasket, some foreign players have elected to remain with their WNBA teams. Golden State's Linskens and Leite are staying in the U.S. to focus on their first seasons. Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams will stay to compete in her first full WNBA season since 2022, and Storm rookie Dominique Malonga, the No. 2 pick in April's draft from France, will also continue her WNBA season. 'I think my rookie season is important and I wanted to leave it all with the team,' Malonga said. Added Leite: 'I think everybody who is born in Europe is also now having the dream to come to the WNBA, so everybody's just super grateful.' Yet as more international players join the WNBA, an inverse situation is occurring abroad. Over the last 15 years, WNBA greats such as Maya Moore, Diana Taurasi, Candace Parker, Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart and Sylvia Fowles played multiple winter seasons on professional teams in Turkey, China and Russia. However, the era of top Americans playing abroad appears to be fleeting. Unrivaled, the professional 3×3 league that debuted in January, provides players with a high-paying U.S.-based alternative. The result of American stars not going abroad is already being felt, according to first-year Connecticut Sun coach Rachid Meziane. 'I think overseas domestic leagues are going down a little bit because there are fewer good players because the best players in the world are here,' said Meziane, who is the WNBA's first French-born head coach. Uzun spent the past season with the Turkish power Fenerbahçe, and she sees a change, too. 'It affects us, especially in EuroLeague,' she said. 'It does affect the quality of the league and the competition. But if you're gonna ask me individually, is (their presence) more important (than) their mental (health) and (spending time with) their families? I'm glad they can choose that now. They have enough power to choose that and make that decision.' Advertisement Players from different continents now have more options than ever for professional play. But as it relates to the summer calendar, the pull of the WNBA appears stronger than ever before. 'Perception has changed,' said Zandalasini, who returned to the WNBA last year after a five-year hiatus. 'The WNBA is growing so fast, and there are fans definitely coming to every game everywhere, so it's more appealing as a league.' — The Athletic's Sabreena Merchant contributed to this report. (Photo of Carla Leite: Juan Ocampo / NBAE via Getty Images)
Forbes
an hour ago
- Forbes
Why The Golden State Valkyries Will Be The WNBA's Most Valuable Team Next Year
The Golden State Valkyries made their WNBA regular-season debut with an 84-67 loss to the Los Angeles Sparks on May 16, but even before tipoff, the game felt like a victory. A capacity crowd of 18,000 packed into the Chase Center in downtown San Francisco, with many of the fans already wearing the team's purple-and-black color scheme—and eager to return a few nights later for the Valkyries' second game, another sellout. Just over a year and a half after billionaires Joe Lacob and Peter Guber paid a reported $50 million for the expansion franchise, all of the hard work of starting up a professional sports team was paying off. 'Having actual games changes everything,' team president Jess Smith tells Forbes. 'We've been building and building up to this point, and now it's like we're actually launching the product. It's a different phase of the business.' The Valkyries are now 2-5, near the bottom of the WNBA's Western Conference standings, where they are expected to remain all year with a roster lacking top talent as it starts from scratch. Regardless of how this inaugural season plays out on the court, however, the Valkyries have guaranteed themselves success on their balance sheet. According to Forbes estimates, the team has locked in at least $20 million in sponsorship revenue this season and is projected to earn another $35 million from its 10,000 season-ticket holders and various premium ticket packages—figures that dwarf what any other WNBA team can generate. By comparison, the Indiana Fever led the league with an estimated $32 million in revenue last season from all business lines. In fact, the Valkyries' $55 million in revenue—a number that does not even include league distributions from national media and sponsorship deals, or income from merchandise and other ancillary streams—would exceed Forbes' estimates for what eight teams collected last season in MLS, a more established men's league. Although the Valkyries were not included in Forbes' 2025 ranking of the WNBA's most valuable teams, which employs a methodology grounded in past financial performance, league insiders unanimously believe Golden State will be at the top of next year's list, vaulting past the $400 million New York Liberty. And in a women's sports landscape where financial sustainability was not entirely assured a few short years ago, the Valkyries are being held up as a symbol of where the WNBA might be headed. 'The center of the tech sector in the U.S. is the Bay Area, and we didn't have a WNBA team in one of the most progressive markets in the country? It just never made sense to me,' says one league executive. 'I'm not surprised at all by their success.' The Valkyries' natural advantage begins with Lacob (net worth: $2.3 billion) and Peter Guber ($1.5 billion), who are also part of the ownership group for the Golden State Warriors—the NBA's most valuable franchise in each of the last three years, worth an estimated $8.8 billion. By the time their expansion bid was selected in October 2023, the WNBA had not added an expansion team in 15 years. But the two billionaire owners had been planning for that day since they and the Warriors helped finance the construction of the Chase Center, which broke ground in 2017, opened in 2019 and now serves as the home arena for both teams. For example, while Chase Center suites include concerts alongside Warriors games in their long-term lease contracts, there was a carve-out provision in case the building was able to land a WNBA team, foresight that is now allowing the Valkyries to sell all of the venue's premium spaces. More broadly, the Valkyries are able to profit from revenue streams that are not available to some other teams around the league, such as concessions and parking, because their owners control their arena. "It's such a joy to oversee the [profit-and-loss statements] here and have an ownership group that also oversees our real estate, after coming from recently being a tenant,' says Smith, who previously served as head of revenue at the NWSL's Angel City FC, which rents BMO Stadium in Los Angeles for its home games. Shared ownership has its perks, but Smith's first job when she was hired in early 2024 was differentiating the Bay Area's WNBA newcomer from its NBA incumbent. Sponsors like JPMorgan Chase, Kaiser Permanente, CarMax and United Airlines were already paying the Warriors top dollar to reach a fan base associated with Silicon Valley innovation and early adoption, but Smith sold them on the fact that the Valkyries and Warriors' season-ticket bases have an overlap of less than 5%, a trend that holds true in many WNBA markets. 'We're not selling them something that's an extension,' Smith says, relaying the sales pitch. 'We're truly selling them a unique audience who happens to play in the same building in a market that's already important to them.' Of course, none of that would matter if the team had not demonstrated strong fan support and signed up those 10,000 season-ticket holders, which is around the same number the Warriors have in the same arena—albeit at a lower price. Smith says a key to building the Valkyries' fan base has been merchandise. Contrary to the prevailing wisdom in men's sports—where a fan might like an athlete or a team, go to a game to see them play and then eventually buy a jersey or a hat—WNBA league officials told Smith early on that the league's audience tends to travel in the opposite direction, buying merchandise before becoming a fan of the team and eventually attending a game. Box Office Ballers: Temi Fagbenle and the Golden State Valkyries have attracted 10,000 season-ticket buyers—around the same number the Warriors have in the same Valkyries focused early efforts on their branding and color scheme, and Smith says that in 2024, before they had played a single game, the team had higher merchandise sales than any WNBA team had had the year before. The figure was more than double what Smith recalled selling at Angel City FC in that team's first year. The Valkyries also lucked out with their timing. Last season proved to be transformational for the WNBA as interest skyrocketed around the rookie season of Fever guard Caitlin Clark, and teams continue to find ways to benefit from the so-called Caitlin Clark effect, with the Valkyries putting tickets to a Fever game in each of their two mini-package offerings this summer. 'The league was growing, but [Clark] obviously was the secret ingredient that took the league to another level,' says Ivo Voynov, the head of sports finance at Citi Private Bank. 'If [Golden State] had done this in 2019, it would be a different story, but on the heels of Clark and Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers, it's a perfect storm.' The Valkyries' owners know more than most about the importance of timing. In the mid-1990s, Lacob invested in the American Basketball League, a women's professional competitor to the brand-new WNBA, and purchased the operating rights to one of its franchises, the San Jose Lasers. In December 1998, midway through the league's third season, it declared bankruptcy and shut down. Prospects for the WNBA look much more promising. The 12 teams valued by Forbes this year are worth an average of $272 million, and as the league expands, the leading contender for the next slot is believed to be a group in Cleveland led by Cavaliers owner Dan Gilbert, which has reportedly offered to pay the WNBA a roughly $250 million fee. That number represents a significant jump not only from the Valkyries' $50 million but also from the $50 million and $125 million that Toronto and Portland reportedly paid last year to join the league in 2026. The valuations, Voynov says, are far more indicative of investors' optimism for the future than of what franchises are currently worth. 'This is still a venture-capital-type investment. We're not kidding ourselves—there's risk to it,' he says. 'And it's hard when you're looking at your investment go from $50 million to $250 million in a span of five years to not start thinking, 'Maybe I should get out—I could take my winnings and then let someone else figure out if this is a sustainable business long term.' 'But the ownership group at Golden State is not doing that, clearly. They're building for the long term—and that's exactly what the league needs.'
