The 2020 WNBA draft brought both a sense of closure and uncertainty to its 36 draftees. After having their final college seasons cut short, the draft officially brought their amateur careers to a close. And yet because it’s still unclear when or if the upcoming WNBA season will begin, these draftees’ dreams have been put on pause as they wait to suit up with the pros. Below, we spoke with six WNBA rookies about their draft day experience and how they’re handling the present situation.

Your NCAA senior season was cut short. How did you handle that emotionally? 

“It broke my heart because the year before that I broke my hand and I missed the tournament then too. I was so excited for this year. When I found out that we weren’t going to finish our tournament, it shut me down for a while. I thought that I needed the tournament to really push my name up in the draft. I was devastated, for sure.” – Kamiah Smalls, JMU, drafted 28th overall to Indiana Fever 

“I was pretty hurt about it. We didn’t even get to play in our Big 12 tournament. We worked so hard our senior year and in past years to get to that point, and then to not get to finish the season was pretty heartbreaking. I didn’t handle it too well. But then I had to realize that our health is more important than anything, so it’s an understandable situation.” – Sug Sutton, Texas, drafted 36th overall to Washington Mystics

“Our ACC championship happened before the cancelations, and we lost to NC State. We were so close to being the first in Florida State History to win an ACC Championship. It was a tough loss, but it helped me add a bit of fuel to my fire. I was excited for the NCAA Tournament and unfortunately it ended up that no teams got an opportunity to play in it. I still have that feeling where I want to just go hard and get excited and get back out on the court.” – Kiah Gillespie, FSU, drafted 32nd overall to Chicago Sky

“There were a lot of emotions. Our team was poised to make it into the tournament, and it would have been my first experience playing there. On the one hand, you understand there’s a pandemic going on, but on the other hand, it’s your senior year. Everything builds up to that season, and there was no just closure with the way it ended, which made it really sad. Unfortunately with college, you don’t get to retire when you want. You only have four years and then you’re done.” – Haley Gorecki, Duke, drafted 31st overall to Seattle Storm

“We were supposed to play Texas in the Big 12 tournament. At first, there was a decision to continue with the tournament without an audience, so we were preparing for that. Then they just canceled it all together and that was it. We were in Kansas and had family members flying in to see us play so everyone had to cancel their flights and hotel reservations. It was kind of crazy and disappointing, but at the same time, it was a little relieving to know that it wasn’t just us. This was worldwide. So it is what it is. This is happening all around the world, and health is way more important than entertainment and sport.” – Tynice Martin, WVU, drafted 34th overall to LA Sparks

“We played in the Pac-12 tournament before any cancellations and ended up losing to Stanford. Losing in general always sucks. Not being able to go on to play against Oregon in the championship was tough, and I think that if we would’ve known that that was going to be our last game together, we would have maybe approached it a little differently and left it all out there. But it is what it is.” – Japreece Dean, UCLA, drafted 30th overall to Chicago Sky

What were your expectations entering the draft?

“None. I was just praying that I got drafted, just because of how the season went. I know I didn’t perform how I had wanted to. So I was questioning if I would even be drafted. Ahead of the draft, a lot of people doubted that my name would be called.” – Japreece Dean

“I was up and down with my expectations for the draft. because I didn’t have a really good senior season like I did my junior year. I struggled with an injury my senior season. I didn’t really know if I would get drafted or not. So I just left it in God’s hands, and luckily I got drafted.” – Sug Sutton

“Honestly, none. I wasn’t expecting my name to come up on ESPN. I wasn’t expecting the WNBA or anyone to owe me anything from a season cut short. I was just hoping that somebody saw the fight and will in me. Just because I played at a mid-major college, doesn’t mean I can’t hang with the big dogs. It wasn’t about the expectations for me. It was more about seeing who believed in me.” – Kamiah Smalls

“Honestly, I felt like I should have been drafted second round at the latest, but I ended up going late third round, which is still a dream come true, but I was definitely confused about my draft level. Anyway, I’m just excited that I got the experience. A lot of players didn’t get drafted, so I’m grateful.” – Tynice Martin

“Prior to the draft I had received a lot of phone calls from coaches in the WNBA expressing their interest so that made me feel a lot better. I felt like I was being looked at as a real prospect, but I was definitely nervous because of the limited spots on rosters.” – Haley Gorecki

Draft day. You hear you name called. What is that moment like? 

“All me and my family did was scream because we were so excited. It felt like we had just hit the lottery. I wasn’t expecting it, so my reaction, my enthusiasm and my excitement were just through the roof! It had me thinking: Smalls, you did it, you brought your dreams to life. You might be helping another little girl right now feel like it’s possible to go big when you might be seen as small.” – Kamiah Smalls

“Oh, it was unreal. Just to see your name come across the screen after not knowing when it’ll happen. It was very nerve-wracking but it was exciting to have everybody around me be super happy and excited. I think that was the best part about it all, just how genuinely happy everybody was for me.” – Kiah Gillespie

“I just couldn’t believe it. When my name came across the screen, I just jumped up and started running around and screaming. It took me a few days for it all to sink in.” – Sug Sutton

“When it got to the third round, my heart was beating and my toes were curled. They got to number 30 and my name wasn’t called yet. My heart started sinking into my chest. When I finally saw my name, I literally took a deep breath and was able to relax. Right after I was selected, my phone started blowing up with messages and calls.” – Tynice Martin

“As picks were being announced, it was very nerve-wracking because from talking to coaches, I wasn’t projected to go in the third round, it was always early in the second. Then I finally saw my name come across the TV and I just thought, thank God.” – Haley Gorecki

How are you prepping physically and mentally given the uncertainty surrounding the start of the season? 

“Chicago has two point guards on the roster already. I’ve already connected with Courtney Vandersloot, one of our guards, just to get to know her and to pick her brain. I am trying to learn as much as possible and soak in as much as I can. I think it gives me an advantage to already be attempting to figure out the Chicago system and playing style. Physically, I am trying to stay in shape and weight lift at least three times a week. And then mentally, I’m just staying confident. I have to go into this as humble as possible, but I’m also here for a reason.” – Japreece Dean

“My mentality is still the same. I’ve been working hard my whole life. This pandemic isn’t going to slow me down. It’s not going to stop me. You find ways to stay in shape and to make sure you’re just up to par when it’s time. I’m going into this thing with an open mind. I’m a people’s person. I think my teammates are going to love me. I think I’m going to love them. I think my coaching staff is going to love me and I’m just going to give them my all.” – Kamiah Smalls

“I’m super competitive, so I am just ready to get to work. Playing for Seattle is an amazing opportunity for me to learn from some of the best players. Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, and so many other legends are on the team. Once I get to training camp, I plan to just be a sponge, taking in everything I see, hear and learn. Physically I have been working with my trainer over zoom. I also try to get ball handling in and I do a lot of lifting, core and band work just to stay strong.” – Haley Gorecki 

“I’m just keeping myself ready. I’m staying in shape. I run miles every day and I do yoga. And my eating habits have gotten a lot better now that I’m transitioning to my professional career. And then on the mental side, I’ll watch a lot of basketball and film. I’ve been talking to Ariel Atkins. We overlapped at Texas and are now teammates again. I try to pick her brain because we are really close and she is an incredible player.” – Sug Sutton

“I am just trying to stay in shape. I know that I’ll be a rookie all over again. I am mentally preparing for that and trying to scout out the team to see what exactly they need. It’s all business now, and understanding that is the hardest part. Coming from college, especially at WVU where our team was very family-oriented, I have to eliminate that mindset and stick to strictly business. Now I will be playing against and with the big dogs. And they want your spot. This is the same talk that I had with myself freshman year, but like I said, money is on the line now, so it’s a lot more competitive, it’s a lot more cutthroat and I have to understand that going in.” – Tynice Martin

“I won’t really know where I stand until I am able to play with my new teammates and test it all out. But I still have the opportunity to stay in the best possible shape I can and to try everything I can to be at the level my coaches and teammates will need me to be at. In a sense, it’s all about staying ready so you don’t have to get ready when the time comes.” – Kiah Gillespie

Seven-time Olympic gold medalist Katie Ledecky received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, at a White House ceremony on Friday afternoon. 

The Team USA standout is the most decorated women’s swimmer in the sport’s history. In addition to her seven Olympic golds, she’s also won a total of 21 gold medals at the World Championships, the most of any swimmer regardless of gender. 

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The esteemed award recognizes those who have "made exemplary contributions to the prosperity, values, or security of the United States, world peace, or other significant societal, public or private endeavors," according to a White House press briefing. 

Ledecky is one of 19 medal recipients chosen by the Biden administration this year. She joins a class that spans the worlds of politics, sports, film, human rights, religion, and science. Her fellow 2024 awardees include Everything Everywhere All at Once actress Michelle Yeoh, pioneering Hispanic astronaut Dr. Ellen Ochoa, and former Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, plus posthumous winners Jim Thorpe, the first Native American to win an Olympic gold medal for the US, and assassinated civil rights leader Medgar Evers. 

"I'm surrounded by so many extraordinary people in so many different fields," Ledecky told Just Women's Sports on Friday. "I feel like I've made a lot of friends today among that group, and their families and their friends."

Olympic gymnast Simone Biles and USWNT legend Megan Rapinoe were among 2022’s class of Presidential Medal of Freedom recipients. Biles and Rapinoe were the fifth and sixth women athletes to be given the honor, making Ledecky the seventh.

Ledecky said she was surprised to learn how recent it has been that athletes in women's sports have been considered for the honor. Billie Jean King was the first to receive the award in 2009. "That kind of blew my mind that it was that recent," she said.

"There are so many great female athletes that I've looked up to for so many years," she continued. "And I know we're just going to keep pushing ahead, and doing our best to continue to get a seat at every table."

Like Biles, Ledecky receives the Medal of Freedom while she's still actively competing in her sport, a fact not lost on the 27-year-old. "My goals in the pool are to continue to push forward and swim good times, hopefully win some more medals. And then secondly to continue to do good things out of the pool, whether that's inspiring young kids to learn how to swim, get into the sport, set big goals in whatever pursuits they're interested in."

"I've recognized I've had a long career now, and it's important to reflect every now and then. But at the same time, I'm still competing and still working hard into the future."

After an illustrious career for both club and country, Gotham FC and U.S. Women’s National Team defender Kelley O’Hara announced today via Kelley on the Street that she will be retiring from professional soccer at the end of this year, making the 2024 NWSL season her last.

"I have always said I would play under two conditions: that I still love playing soccer, and if my body would let me do it the way I wanted to," O’Hara told Just Women’s Sports in the lead-up to her retirement announcement. "I realized a while back that I was always going to love it, so it was the physical piece that was going to be the deciding factor."

The 35-year-old will retire as a two-time World Cup champion, an Olympic gold medalist, and at least a two-time NWSL champion, depending on where Gotham finishes this season. Her legacy as a player is hard to fully encapsulate, and will forever run through some of the biggest snapshots in USWNT and NWSL history. 

In 2012, O’Hara played every minute of the USWNT’s Olympic gold medal run, after having recently converted into a defender. Her soaring goal off the bench in the 2015 World Cup semifinal is the stuff of legend. And her return from lingering injury to play in every knockout match of the national team’s 2019 World Cup win cemented a storybook international career. 

It was O’Hara who scored the overtime goal in 2021 to earn the Washington Spirit their first-ever NWSL championship, and O’Hara who returned to help see Gotham earn a title in 2023 after years spent in the trenches with the club’s previous iteration, Sky Blue. Her 15-year career spanned two professional women’s soccer leagues in the U.S. (she earned her first professional title in 2010 with WPS’s FC Gold Pride), as well as sweeping changes to the sport both on and off the pitch.

On the field, O’Hara has always been known for a motor that never quits, making the right flank her domain in attacking possession and defensive transition. In recent years, she’s also been celebrated for a competitive fire that raises the level of her teammates, whether she’s in the starting XI or supporting from the bench.

But injuries take a toll, a reality not always seen by the fans watching from home. "I've never taken anything for granted, and I feel like I've never coasted either," O’Hara said of her late-career success in the NWSL despite battling injuries. "I've always been like, 'I gotta put my best foot forward every single day I step on this field' — which is honestly probably half the reason why I'm having to retire now as opposed to getting a couple more years out of it. I've just grinded hard."

Recently, O’Hara has been sidelined at Gotham with ankle and knee injuries, and the situation motivated her to really prioritize listening to her body. "To get injured and come back, and get injured and come back, and just keep doing it, it really takes a toll on you.

"People don't see the doubt that's associated with injury,” she continued. "As athletes we feel a certain way, we perform a certain way, our body feels a certain way, we're very in tune with our bodies. And there's always so much doubt surrounding injury. It’s like, 'Can I feel the way I felt before?' The reality is sometimes you don't."

O’Hara didn’t arrive at the decision to move on from her playing career lightly. But once she began seriously considering making 2024 her final year during the last NWSL offseason, it felt right. "Once I was like, 'Alright, you know what, this will be my last year,' I have had a lot of peace with it," she said. "Truly the only thing I felt was gratitude for everything that my career has been, all the things I've been able to do and the people I've been able to do it with."

She said she’ll miss daily interactions with her teammates and all the amazing memories they’ve created, though she feels lucky to have formed relationships that go beyond sharing a locker room. "You're basically getting to hang out and just shoot the shit with your best friends every day," she reflected. "Which is so unheard of, and I just feel very lucky to do it for so long."

The Stanford graduate also mentioned that the NWSL’s suspension of regular season play in 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic made her realize how much playing allowed her the space to simply be creative every day. The tactical elements of soccer provided O’Hara an outlet for problem solving and made use of her naturally competitive edge.

She’s now gearing up to channel her on-field intensity into her post-playing career full time, which is a new chapter she’s excited to begin. "I don't know if the world's ready for it, like the fact that I'm not going to be putting all of my energy into football all the time," she said with a laugh. 

O’Hara said she would like to stay connected to the game in some fashion, whether it be as an owner, coach, or member of a front office. She’s also interested in the growing media space surrounding women’s sports, having provided on-camera analysis for broadcasters like CBS Sports in addition to starting a production company with her fiancée.

"I just feel like I have a lot of passions, and things that excite me," she says. "And I do want to stay as close as I can to the game, because I feel a responsibility — and I'm not sure in what capacity — to continue to grow it."

A sense of responsibility to grow the game has been a consistent refrain for the USWNT and NWSL players of O’Hara’s era, who ushered in a new age of equal pay for the national team and collectively bargained protections for those in the league. The landscape for new players looks different than it did 14 years ago, in large part due to this pivotal generation.

"I feel an immense sense of pride around that, because I don't know if any of us knew that was gonna happen," she said. "We kind of, as things unfolded, took the next step towards changing what women's football looks like in this country and around the world.

"I'm really grateful to have been part of this era with the players that I was [with], not backing down and pushing and knowing that was the right thing to do."

Whatever the future holds, O’Hara is going ahead full throttle. It’s a piece of advice she’d also give to the next generation of professionals looking to make their own impact.

"Whatever you do in life, do it because you love it, and the chips will fall in place," she said. "If you love something, you're willing to do what it takes. You're willing to make the sacrifices, you're willing to handle the roller coaster.

"To me, it's simple. Don't do it for any other reason but that, and I think you'll be alright."

The Phoenix Mercury center spoke with Robin Roberts about her 10-month incarceration, reflecting on her poor living conditions and shaky mental state ahead of her May 7th memoir.

"The mattress had a huge blood stain on it. I had no soap, no toilet paper," Griner told the ABC News anchor in last night’s 20/20 special. "That was the moment where I just felt less than a human." 

She also detailed some of her lowest moments during that time, saying with tears in her eyes that she went so far as to consider taking her own life on more than one occasion. However, the thought of Russian officials not releasing her body back to her family made her reconsider.

"I just didn't think I could get through what I needed to get through," said Griner.

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In February 2022, Griner was arrested and charged with drug possession and smuggling by a Russian court after Sheremetyevo International Airport police found vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. The cartridges were prescribed by Griner’s doctor for chronic pain back in Arizona, where medical marijuana is legal. In the interview, the two-time Olympic gold medalist said she had a "mental lapse" while packing, and never intended to bring the cannabis products with her when she returned to play for UMMC Ekaterinburg.

"It's just so easy to have a mental lapse," Griner said. "Granted, my mental lapse was on a more grand scale. But it doesn't take away from how that can happen." 

She was later sentenced to nine years behind bars after her Russian attorneys advised her to plead guilty the following July. Griner was then sent to a remote penal colony where she was forced to spend her days cutting cloth to make military uniforms. From there, it only got worse.

"Honestly, it just had to happen," she said when asked about her decision to cut off her signature long locks. "We had spiders above my bed making nests.

"My dreads started to freeze," she added. "They would just stay wet and cold and I was getting sick. You've gotta do what you've gotta do to survive."

Shortly after Griner’s initial arrest, the U.S. State Department classified her case as wrongfully detained, escalating its urgency within the government and calling even more attention to the situation. On December 8th, she was freed in a prisoner exchange negotiated by the Biden administration.

While she told Roberts she was "thrilled" when she got the news, she was also very upset about having to leave fellow wrongful detainee Paul Whelan behind. She also continues to carry guilt about her arrest, saying "At the end of the day, it's my fault. And I let everybody down."

Griner’s memoir, Coming Home, hits shelves on May 7th.

"Coming Home begins in a land where my roots developed and is the diary of my heartaches and regrets," Griner told ABC News in an exclusive statement. "But, ultimately, the book is also a story of how my family, my faith, and the support of millions who rallied for my rescue helped me endure a nightmare."

Longtime USWNT fixture Carli Lloyd took to Instagram Wednesday morning to announce that she’s pregnant with her first child. 

"Baby Hollins coming in October 2024!" she wrote. The caption framed a collaged image of baby clothes, an ultrasound photo, and syringes indicating what she described as a "rollercoaster" fertility journey.

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In a Women’s Health story published in tandem with Lloyd’s post, the Fox Sports analyst and correspondent opened up about her struggles with infertility and the lengthy IVF treatments she kept hidden from the public eye.

"Soccer taught me how to work hard, persevere, be resilient, and never give up. I would do whatever it took to prepare, and usually when I prepared, I got results," Lloyd told Women’s Health’s Amanda Lucci. "But I found out that I didn’t know much about this world. I was very naive to think that we wouldn’t have any issues getting pregnant. And so it began."

Lloyd went on to discuss her road to pregnancy in great detail, sharing the highs and lows of the process and expressing gratitude for the care and support her family and medical team provided along the way. She rounded out the piece with a nod toward others navigating the same challenges, encouraging people to share their own pregnancy journeys, painful as they may be.

"My story is currently a happy one, but I know there are other women who are facing challenges in their pregnancy journey. I see you and I understand your pain," she said. "My hope is that more and more women will speak up about this topic, because their stories helped me. I also wish for more resources, funding, and education around fertility treatments. There is much to be done, and I hope I can play a role in helping."

The 41-year-old New Jersey native retired from professional soccer in 2021, closing out her decorated career with 316 international appearances, the second-most in USWNT history, in addition to 134 international goals. A legend on the field, Lloyd walked away from the game with two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals, and two FIFA Player of the Year awards.