Latest news with #WNBAAll-StarWeekend
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier on CBA negotiations, trash talk and WNBA All-Star Weekend
INDIANAPOLIS — WNBA All-Star team captains Caitlin Clark and Napheesa Collier met with the media ahead of the WNBA All-Star game Saturday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse. The press conference covered a range of topics during, most notably the ongoing CBA negotiations and Clark's recovery from a groin injury. Here is what Clark and Collier said. Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier on CBA negotiations, progress Collier: "The players, obviously, are taking this really seriously. We have the most participation in league history. I think we had close to 40 players in our league meeting. I think it just sends a really strong message that we're standing really firm on certain areas that we feel really strongly that we need to improve on, and I think we got that message across." Clark: Yeah, I think for myself, that was the best part of being in the room. There's over 40 other players in this league and I'm sure a lot more would have loved to be there if they were in Indianapolis. And I think that's the most powerful thing is all the girls from across the league just being in that room together." Caitlin Clark on her salary vs. State Farm, Gatorade, Nike deals "That's a good question. Honestly, I feel like that's where we're really fortunate is that we have those other deals. And I think that's one of the things we're in the room fighting for. Like Phee said, we should be paid more and hopefully that's the case moving forward as the league continues to grow. That's probably the most important thing that we're in the room advocating for." Better trash talker: Napheesa Collier or Caitlin Clark Collier: "Oh no, I don't trash talk." Clark: "I'm not good, so the bar is low." Collier: "I'll think of it after, like days after, 'Oh, I should have said this.' I can't think of it fast enough." Clark: Phee's too nice. Even when we were picking our teams I think they would've liked it if we were talking trash a little bit more, but yeah, Phee's too nice. She's a mom." Collier: "We're midwesterners. We're too nice." Caitlin Clark on WNBA All-Star Weekend "The weekend has been absolutely incredible. I hope every player in this league, whether you're participating in the game tonight or were in the three point competition and skills competition or were just here to enjoy All-Star weekend, I hope they felt the same and felt the love from the city." "Pacers Sports and Entertainment poured in so much time and money and effort to really make this the best WNBA All-Star (weekend) there's been in this league — and I'm pretty positive it's been that. Obviously, this is my second so obviously I can't speak to the prior ones, but just really fortunate." "For myself, it's still been a lot of fun. Obviously, I'm disappointed that I wasn't able to participate last night and won't be able to participate tonight, but still getting to be around and be a part of everything is really important for myself and for the fans. They've been out in full force, whether they're coming into the game tonight or just enjoying all the festivities that are around our city. "I'm just really happy, not only for Indianapolis and the state of Indiana and our organization, but really just the league overall." Caitlin Clark on the importance of publicly voicing her thoughts on priorities for the next CBA "Absolutely. And I think Phee would tell you a lot of the people in that room, probably half of them were — maybe not half, but a good amount of them were either my age or — we even had rookies in the room, too. We all have a good understanding that this is very important for our future, the future of the league, for the future of our careers." "Obviously there's a good amount of older players, too, that have been in this league a really long time and are excited about the future of where it's going to continue to go and they've been fighting for change at the same time. So I think in the room there was a great balance of these young stars, but also these vets who have been advocating for certain things that we're advocating for for quite some time. That was one of the most powerful parts of it, honestly." More coverage: WNBA All-Star Game live score updates tonight: Is Caitlin Clark playing? Rosters, how to watch Caitlin Clark on the range of emotions over the past week "When the injury happened, it was pretty frustrating considering I knew what the coming days were going to hold. It was dealing with that, then also trying to look at it in the most positive manner that I can and being part of this, that wasn't going to be taken away from me. Sure, maybe I'm not able to play the games, but I can still be here and participate, and I have a ton of friends and family in town who are having a really good time, so I've been trying to enjoy it the best I can." "It all comes back to having a good perspective on everything. Certainly, there's frustration and a little bit of sadness, but at the same time, I've been able to have a great time too." Caitlin Clark on maximizing time off in her recovery "Certainly unfortunate and I feel like there've been quite a few injuries over the course of the beginning of the season for quite a few people. So a lot of people are in the same boat as myself — and even my team has dealt with some injuries tonight, so some people will be on just a couple minutes here and there, and we'll make do with what we have, hopefully to beat Phee." "I'm not going to say I've just been getting around-the-clock treatment. I've been still trying to enjoy this weekend and having a balance of that at the same time and soaking all of this in. Once tomorrow comes around, we'll completely shift my focus to getting as healthy as possible —" Collier: "Licking your wounds from the loss." Clark: "Yeah, whatever. But yeah, prioritizing (my recovery), but also having a good time has been important for myself." Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier on having fun, but still trying to win Clark: "I told my team to have as much fun as possible. At practice, we just shot a little bit and then we shot a half-court shot and we headed out. But that's All-Star weekend. We joke about winning, but at the end of the day, it's not that serious. We're gonna have a fun time. And I feel like, for me, it's a little bit of a unique perspective, because my first All-Star game was vs. Team USA. It was a little more serious to help them prepare for the Olympics. So this one, I would say the actual play is a little more laid back and a little more fun, but it's been cool to see everything that's been going on and how much everybody's enjoying it." Collier: "Exactly the same. I wasn't telling them anything about preparing for the game. We were preparing to be on Stud Budz. (laughs) Like Caitlin said, at the end of the day, we're here for a fun weekend. This is supposed to be our break, even though we play again Tuesday." Clark: "Yeah, we would appreciate a longer break." Collier: "So yeah, just having fun, especially together. It gets so serious, especially online, but we're friends and having a party with 30-40 of your closest people who you play with and against all the time. It's been really, really fun." Get IndyStar's Indiana Fever and Caitlin Clark coverage sent directly to your inbox with our . This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier on CBA negotiations, trash talk and more
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Yahoo
Caitlin Clark 'beyond thankful' for WNBA All-Star weekend, fans in Indianapolis
Caitlin Clark was the focal point of the WNBA All-Star Game, even though she couldn't play. The second-year Indiana Fever star had far and away the most fan votes, served as a team captain and was front-and-center at Gainbridge Fieldhouse cheering on teammates Aliyah Boston and Kelsey Mitchell. She expressed gratitude and pride over the weekend's festivities on social media. "Incredible weekend in Indy!! Our organization gave everything to make this the best WNBA All-Star Weekend yet — and it delivered in every way. Grateful to call this city home and beyond thankful for the incredible fans who brought the energy and made it special ❤️" Clark missed the 3-point shooting contest and the game because of a groin injury suffered earlier in the week. She has missed roughly half the season due to various injuries. This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: Caitlin Clark 'beyond thankful' for 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend, fans
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
I started asking NBA WAGs questions. Now, millions are watching.
Maddy Sells on "WAG Talk" — and getting the scoop on Paige Bueckers's girlfriend. 'How well do you know your NBA husband?' It's a question you may have heard as you scroll through social media, and it's one Maddy Sells is directing at the wives (and girlfriends, aka WAGs) of NBA players as they hang out courtside or loiter near the locker room. Sells — the woman behind the video series WAG Talk — will quiz each WAG about their partner's playing history before revealing who they're coupled up with. In the case of WNBA No. 1 draft pick Paige Bueckers, who got the WAG Talk treatment during WNBA All-Star Weekend last week, the answer is her former UConn teammate Azzi Fudd. Bueckers's interview with Sells hard launched the two players' relationship for the first time, nearly breaking the internet in the process. For Sells, who grew up playing basketball and idolizing teams like the Miami Heat, putting WAGs — a group of women so often subjected to stereotypes — in the spotlight is a response to something she noticed early on through her own fandom: It was men who dominated the conversation, while their partners sat on the sidelines. With WAG Talk, the sports marketing major is handing WAGs the mic and racking up millions of clicks in the process. And with her recent expansion to include not just the NBA but the WNBA and their other halves (like Bueckers and Fudd) too, she's also giving queer relationships their due. In this interview with Yahoo's Kerry Justich, Sells shares in her own words how she's created a brand out of platforming wives and girlfriends — and what it means for the future of sports coverage. I started WAG Talk in February at the Miami Heat Gala. I would see these couples walking the red carpet, and the media would interview all the players while the wives and girlfriends would stand to the side and listen. There were a lot of really cool women who were not getting interviewed at all, which I felt was such a missed opportunity. Jaime Jaquez Jr.'s girlfriend is Dominique Ruotolo, a Division I track runner, and Kevin Love's wife [Kate Love] is a Sports Illustrated Swimsuit model. There are just so many cool stories to be told about these women, and they didn't really have the platform. So I thought that would be the perfect place to launch the start of WAG Talk. I got about five interviews there, the biggest one being Tyler Herro's girlfriend [Katya Elise Henry]. That video got 31 million views on TikTok. So I was like, OK, people really do have an appetite for this content. A different point of entry for sports fans When I started working with [the media company] Enjoy Basketball, I came in knowing that it was a super, super positive brand. Everything that they do is just to uplift athletes and to be very positive about growing the game. So I wanted to make this series really, really positive and something that I know the women will have fun playing along with. I feel like my audience has been changing with every single video that I post. It's finally become a 50-50 split of men and women following WAG Talk, which is really nice. I think people watch it for different reasons. There's an audience of women who are really interested in fashion and just everything with the WAG-related lifestyle. There are also plenty of women who love sports and want to follow along to see if they can get the questions right about the athlete. The same goes for the male audience. A lot of guys tell me that WAG Talk is their guilty pleasure because they like to see if they can figure out who the player is before the reveal. That's how I wanted to get viewers engaged in this series. There's been a ton of negativity on the content in the past from people who think really negatively about wives and girlfriends of players. But there was kind of a big switch [during WNBA All-Star Weekend], with so much positivity from WNBA fans. I gained a whole new audience. Paige Bueckers's hard launch She was definitely at the very top of my list. I went into the weekend preparing a bunch of different WAG Talk questions for tons of different people, and I was able to get Paige and Natasha [Cloud, of the New York Liberty] on the orange carpet. I honestly wasn't expecting them to say yes to the interview. I never want to make anyone uncomfortable talking about a relationship that they're not ready to talk about. But when I noticed that Paige was really comfortable with it, I was like, 'OK, let's do this.' She was so happy when I said, 'How well do you know your D1 girlfriend?' Her smile just made my day. Other content creators in sports, like Aliyah Funschelle, were around me too. She had interviewed Paige right before I did, so after my interview happened, she looked at me and said, 'Maddy, I think that was the hard launch. You need to go.' I was like, 'Oh, I gotta sprint to my hotel to edit this because this is going to go absolutely crazy.' The response to it has been amazing. The Paige video has 11 million views, and the one with Natasha Cloud [speaking about her girlfriend and Liberty teammate Isabelle Harrison] has 7 million. So there clearly is a big appetite for knowing about these relationships and women's sports in general. These videos have a lot more views than a lot of NBA videos. The importance of WNBA coverage Pride Month is when I first did a WNBA WAG Talk, and it was with [New York Liberty star] Breanna Stewart's wife. And that was very intentional. The WNBA content has really hit the queer community, which is super cool. They just like seeing the LGBTQ community being promoted in sports, finally. I still do want to include the HABs [husbands and boyfriends of women athletes]. As such a big Heat fan, [Miami player] Bam Adebayo and [Las Vegas Aces center] A'ja Wilson are my favorite couple ever, and I've been wanting to do a video with them. But seeing how excited and happy the women are while talking about their [female] partners has shown the world so much positivity when it comes to the queer community. Over the weekend, we went from 48,000 [followers] on TikTok to 73,000. Seeing how powerful the female audience is and just how much they love this switch of WAG Talk going into the WNBA has been really, really cool to see. It just proved how big an appetite there is for women's sports. When you make the content, the audience will come. There are plenty of WNBA fans out there. There needs to be more content being created around it, because these women deserve huge platforms. They deserve to be able to tell their stories. This has been edited for length and clarity. Solve the daily Crossword
Axios
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Axios
Getting ready for Indy's next big bash
Indianapolis has experienced an impressive run of major events over the past 18 months, with Taylor Swift concerts, total solar eclipses, NBA Finals games and, most recently, WNBA All-Star Weekend. But as the dust settles, so will some of the global attention, at least for a little bit. Why it matters: These moments are not just opportunities for tourists. They draw residents downtown and help them fall in love with the Circle City all over again. "Whether it is something that is of particular interest to them, the sheer volume of people that come into this city and are out and about exploring Indy adds such an element of vibrancy," Visit Indy's Morgan Snyder told Axios. "For residents to come downtown, see an activated convention center and downtown core and restaurants busy with visitors, there should be an immense pride in that. Because people coming into our city, loving on our city and spending dollars in Indianapolis makes it a better place to live." State of play: For Downtown Indy Inc. president and CEO Taylor Schaffer, the next big thing to put all eyes on Indianapolis will be the 2026 NCAA men's Final Four on April 4-6. It will be the fourth time Lucas Oil Stadium has hosted the event, but the most recent time was in 2021, when the pandemic led to the entire men's tournament taking place in a "bubble" in Indianapolis and cardboard cutouts of fans filling the stands. What she's saying:"The last time that we actually held a Final Four, really, was 2015. And I just think the event has grown and changed so much," she said. "I think that it's going to look different and feel different for our basketball-loving state than what it felt like 10 years ago." The intrigue: The 2025 Men's Final Four in San Antonio featured events including a three-day music festival, a week of tailgate tip-off parties, a floating pep rally down the San Antonio River Walk and more. The semifinals and championship game had a combined attendance of more than 132,000. Yes, but: Indy is hosting other big events before then — they just don't generate as much outside attention because they're yearly occurrences and often have more contained (or closed to the public) programming. The latest: Next weekend marks the return of Gen Con and the Indiana State Fair, events estimated to bring in attendance of about 70,000 and 100,000 people, respectively. Snyder said the tabletop gaming convention had an economic impact of $77 million last year, breaking an attendance record with its first sellout. It's already approaching another potential sellout this summer. Zoom in: More than 25 events, driving an estimated total attendance of nearly 700,000 people to Central Indiana, are scheduled between August and Jan. 1. 🥁 Drum Corps International: Aug. 7-9, 30,000 people ⛳ LIV Golf Tournament: Aug. 15-17, 45,000 🏈 Circle City Classic: Sept. 27, 20,000 🍜 World Food Championships: Oct. 16-19, 15,000 🧑🌾 FFA 2025: Oct. 29 – Nov. 1, 70,000 🏆 Big Ten Football Championship: Dec. 6, 70,000
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Yahoo
WNBA All-Star Game Performer Arrested On Felony Charge
WNBA All-Star Game Performer Arrested On Felony Charge originally appeared on The Spun. The WNBA All-Star Weekend took place in Indianapolis, Indiana, to rave reviews. While Caitlin Clark was unable to play in the game - or take part in the 3-Point Contest - thousands of fans still flocked to Indianapolis for the special weekend. The 3-Point Contest was won by Sabrina Ionescu, the players wore "Pay Us What You Owe Us" T-shirts before the game and the TV ratings were solid. However, one of the halftime performers from the WNBA All-Star Game has since been arrested. And she has reportedly been arrested on a felony charge. It's troubling. Rapper GloRilla, who performed at halftime of the WNBA All-Star Game at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, was arrested on a felony drug possession charge, according to TMZ. From the report: As we told you, GloRilla's house was broken into this weekend ... by the time cops arrived, the suspects were gone -- but investigators say they encountered weed in their search for the burglars, and the rapper was then charged with felony drug possession. The Forsyth County Sheriff's Office tells TMZ ... deputies responded to a report of a burglary in progress Saturday around 1:30 AM at a residence in the Atlanta suburbs. The sheriff's office says three suspects entered the house when an "armed occupant fired at the intruders." Her lawyers have since spoken out. "When her family members did the right thing and called law enforcement, instead of investigating the violent home invasion and theft at Ms. Woods' home, they instead sought a search warrant when they spotted what they believed was a small amount of marijuana," the attorneys said. "Law enforcement then sought arrest warrants for her even though she hadn't been at her home for some time. No arrest warrants have been issued for the violent home invaders. Ms. Woods is a victim, not a suspect. This is our tax dollars at work, absolutely unbelievable." Police, meanwhile, are standing by their decision. "The homeowner is a victim of a serious crime, and we are committed to bringing the suspects to justice," Sheriff Ron Freeman said in a statement, according to FOX 5 in Atlanta. "At the same time, we must continue to uphold and enforce the law in all aspects of this case." WNBA All-Star Game Performer Arrested On Felony Charge first appeared on The Spun on Jul 24, 2025 This story was originally reported by The Spun on Jul 24, 2025, where it first appeared.
