With two WNBA head coaching positions opening up last week, the offseason discussion has shifted to who might be next in line for the top jobs.

In two surprising moves last Monday, the New York Liberty moved on from coach Walt Hopkins and the Phoenix Mercury parted ways with Sandy Brondello. I would expect the teams to fill these vacancies quickly with free agency approaching in early 2022. Between current franchise openings and the jobs that league expansion would create, there are quite a few names worthy of consideration and discussion.

While the impending retirements of several WNBA stars has led to some imaginative picks (think: Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi), I focused this list on individuals who have substantial coaching experience at various levels and have a strong case for a head coaching job now and into the future.

Sandy Brondello

The Mercury did not renew Brondello’s contract, which expired after their run to the 2021 WNBA Finals. Now, it is hard to imagine the experienced Brondello not being at the top of the Liberty’s candidate pool. Under her guidance, the Mercury won their third WNBA championship in 2014 and compiled a 150-108 record over eight seasons. Brondello has coached in the league since 2005, making stops in San Antonio and Los Angeles before taking over in Phoenix, and has been the head coach of the Australian women’s national team since 2017.

Given her international ties and ability to develop young players, I could see the Liberty taking an immediate interest in the 53-year-old. If not New York, potential expansion teams could come calling in the near future.

Eric Thibault

For those following the WNBA, Eric Thibault’s name on this list should come as no surprise. Thibault has been in numerous conversations for head coaching vacancies over the last three years, including those for the Liberty and Dallas Wings. The young coach has assisted his father, Mike Thibault, with the Washington Mystics for the past nine years.

The most obvious scenario would be for Eric to take over as Mystics head coach when his father retires, but an outside team could very well take a gamble on him sooner. Eric has the experience of a WNBA championship run and a great reputation among his peers; it’s just a matter of time before we see him in the head coach’s chair.

Teresa Weatherspoon

Weatherspoon is likely one of the most sought-after candidates among WNBA teams. For her, it’s a matter of which direction she wants to take her career at this point. A legend in the women’s game, Weatherspoon has served as an assistant coach for the NBA’s New Orleans Pelicans since 2020. Prior to her time in the NBA, she coached at Louisiana Tech, the same program she historically led to a national championship as a player in 1988.

Weatherspoon has 10 years of coaching experience, including five as a head coach. Her reputation as one of the greatest to ever play in the WNBA precedes her, and her ability to relate to players would be a great fit for the Liberty’s young and talented roster or the Mercury’s veteran team that’s approaching the post-Diana Taurasi era.

Olaf Lange

Lange has been with the Chicago Sky since 2019, and after the Sky’s run to the 2021 championship, it wouldn’t be surprising for teams to consider him for head coaching positions. Known as a players’ coach, Lange has nearly 30 years of experience behind the bench, including internationally with the German and Australian national teams and UMMC Ekaterinburg. He led the European powerhouse to five-straight Russian championships and two EuroLeague championships.

Lange is also married to Brondello, the former Mercury coach. Could we see the power couple on the same bench in the near future? It has happened before, when Lange launched his WNBA career as associate head coach to Brondello in 2007. The two have also worked together on the coaching staff of the Australian national team.

Pokey Chatman

The former Sky and Indiana Fever head coach has been patiently biding her time since her departure from the Fever in 2019. Chatman has extensive experience, from the college game at LSU to international play with Spartak Moscow, having led the club to their fourth straight EuroLeague championship in 2010.

As Sky head coach from 2010-16, Chatman led the franchise to its first WNBA Finals appearance in 2014. Chatman’s fingerprint remains on the Sky organization, most notably drafting Courtney Vandersloot and seeing the potential in Allie Quigley. Though Chatman’s time in Indiana was short-lived and underwhelming, the former coach and GM has a proven ability to identify talent, manage players and lead teams to deep playoff runs when in the right situation. She should be one of the top candidates for any WNBA openings in the near future.

Latricia Trammell

Trammell’s reputation has positioned her as one of the most sought-after assistants in the WNBA. Her impressive resume includes over 30 years of coaching experience and two national championships at the NAIA level.

Trammell has spent the last three seasons as an assistant under Los Angeles Sparks head coach Derek Fisher. Her defensive-minded approach is an asset in the competitive WNBA. The Sparks have finished in the top three in defensive rating every year she has been with the team. Under Trammell, Candace Parker won Defensive Player of the Year in 2020, Brittney Sykes was named First and Second Team All-Defense in 2019 and 2021 and Nneka Ogwumike was First Team All-Defense in 2019.

Katie Smith

Following her impressive playing career in the WNBA, which included seven All-Star nods and two championships, Smith began her coaching career in 2014 as an assistant under Bill Laimbeer in New York. Smith took over as the Liberty’s head coach for two seasons after Laimbeer left for Las Vegas. After the Liberty went 17-51 from 2018-19, the organization did not renew her contract and Smith joined the Minnesota Lynx staff as an assistant coach.

With Smith on Cheryl Reeve’s staff, the Lynx have compiled a 36-18 regular season record over the past two seasons and finished fourth in the league standings in 2020 and third in 2021. Smith’s head coaching experience was short-lived, with minimal support at the time, but I fully expect a team to give her another shot soon.

Chasity Melvin

Melvin just wrapped up her second season as an assistant coach in the WNBA with the Mercury. After a twelve-year playing career, her trajectory fits the model of former players transitioning into assistants and, eventually, head coaching roles.

Before making the jump into WNBA coaching, Melvin was a 2018 graduate of the NBA’s Player Development Assistant Coaches Program. The Charlotte Hornets then hired her as an assistant for their G-league team, the Greensboro Swarm, making her the organization’s first female coach. After playing a key role in the Mercury’s run to the WNBA Finals this past season, Melvin was named head coach of Mexican club Correcaminos for the 2022 United Cup of Champions. She is a prime candidate for a future head coaching job if she continues down this path.

Vanessa Nygaard

With a growing coaching resume that includes stops at nearly every level of the game, Nygaard is building a convincing case for a lead WNBA position. After a standout playing career at Stanford, Nygaard was drafted by the Liberty in 1998 and began a six-year WNBA career. As an assistant, she’s coached at Cal State Long Beach and Pepperdine before serving on the staffs of the San Antonio Silver Stars and the Mystics. In 2020, she was named Cal-Hi Sports State Coach of the Year after leading the Windward School (Los Angeles) girls basketball program to a 27-6 record that season. Nygaard has also coached for USA Basketball, serving as an assistant on the U17 team that went undefeated and won a gold medal at the 2018 FIBA World Cup.

Currently, the Scottsdale, Ariz. native is an assistant on Laimbeer’s staff with the Aces. In a couple of more years, I think there’s a strong chance we see Nygaard as a WNBA head coach.

Brandi Poole

Between her time in college and the WNBA, Poole has 23 years of assistant coaching experience. She has spent most of those seasons with Connecticut Sun head coach Curt Miller, from 11 seasons at Bowling Green to two at Indiana and the past four with the Sun.

Poole’s experience is one thing, but the time she’s spent learning from one of the best coaches in the women’s game sets her apart. Her ability to scout talent, develop young players and build relationships across multiple staffs has primed Poole for her own opportunity if she wishes to go in that direction.

Stephanie White

A team looking for a seasoned veteran to lead their coaching staff would be hard-pressed not to consider White, who has an extensive coaching record between college and the pros. White spent six years playing in the WNBA before launching an 18-year coaching career as an assistant for three college programs and then for the Sky and Fever. She helped guide the Fever to their first WNBA championship in 2012 and took the helm after Lin Dunn retired.

White left the Fever in 2016 for the head coaching position at Vanderbilt, where she was unable to find much traction in five seasons. After parting ways with the program in April, White has served as a college basketball analyst. But with her deep coaching roots and 10 years of WNBA experience, we might not have to wait long to see her back behind the bench.

Crystal Robinson

Robinson has been a part of the WNBA since its inception and holds over 10 years of coaching experience at the high school, collegiate and professional levels, most recently on Brian Agler’s Wings staff from 2019-20. Following her nine-year ABL/WNBA playing career, Robinson was an assistant with the Mystics before guiding McAlester High School to a state championship in Oklahoma. She’s also served as a collegiate assistant at Utah State and TCU and as a head coach at Murray State Community College.

Given Robinson’s coaching resume, the chances seem high that she returns to the league in some capacity. If she could get in as an assistant and produce a few consistent seasons, she certainly has the credentials to be a future head coach.

Rachel Galligan is a basketball analyst at Just Women’s Sports. A former professional basketball player and collegiate coach, she also contributes to Winsidr. Follow Rachel on Twitter @RachGall.

The Caitlin Clark WNBA era has officially begun, with the star-studded rookie making her preseason debut with the Indiana Fever on Friday. 

Clark scored a team-leading 21 points — including five threes — and recorded a game-high 16 points at the half. But it was Arike Ogunbowale who got the last word for Dallas, knocking down a splashy buzzer-beating three-pointer in front of the sold-out crowd to deliver the Wings the 79-76 win.

"I think there's gonna be a lot to go back and look at and learn from, because a lot of it is kind of different from college," Clark said shortly after the Fever's loss. "Just from, you know, a technique standpoint or you know, scheme standpoint, and what we do is not always always going to be the same. So I think those are the biggest things, but I think overall, I just played really hard and that's always something to be proud of."

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For Clark, the biggest transition challenges lie in WNBA's physicality and talent levels. 

"No matter who steps into the game, you can never really relax, because that’s how competitive the league is," she added.

Fever coach Christie Sides also commented on's Clark on-court adjustment in her postgame remarks. Noting that the team will have to take steps to protect their star as she navigates the W's upgraded athleticism, Sides shared that at one point in the game, Clark was "completely gassed" and called for a sub. 

"We have to do better, we can't let her get to that point," Sides said. "She just won't be able to last and the way people are guarding her — I mean, she's seeing a double team, she's seeing hard hedges, they're being real physical with her. That's how it's going to be for her. And so we've got to make sure we're doing what we can to protect her so she's able to go into fourth at the same level she is in the first."

Clark wasn't the only rookie making their pro debut in Dallas that night. Ohio State ace Jacy Sheldon racked up six points and one rebound in her 13 minutes on the court (plus an unfortunate viral moment), but the breakout performance of the night went to Jaelyn Brown, a Cal grad who went undrafted in 2020 and spent the last few years playing overseas. On Friday, she carried the Wings to the finish line with 21 points in 29 minutes on 7-of-15 shooting.

After the game, Brown attested that she's "ready to compete" in an atmosphere that she "belongs in."

"I just try and treat it as any other game," she continued. "The crowd was amazing, it’s a little different from overseas, a little bit, but it’s the same game. I just [came] out there with a calm composure and did what I can do."

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."