It may come as a shock to some that Arike Ogunbowale went fifth overall to Dallas in the 2019 WNBA Draft, and not earlier.

The 2020 WNBA scoring champion and 2021 WNBA All-Star MVP has since earned the reputation as one of the most impactful players in the league.

“I mean, me being me like in my head, I know what I am going to do in the league, so that’s their loss,” Ogunbowale remembers thinking on draft night, recounting the moment to Kelley O’Hara on the latest episode of The Players’ Pod.

“I was with my parents, one of my brothers, and we were just at the table waiting to get called. I really didn’t know what number I was going to get called, so it was a surprise. The first time I talked to Dallas was the night before the draft,” Ogunbowale says. “I really thought I was going to Minnesota at six, to be honest.”

The 25-year-old has no qualms about how the draft shook out, telling O’Hara that everything turned out as it was supposed to.

“I’m always about everything happens for a reason, so I wasn’t meant to go to those places,” she says. “And I love Dallas now.”

Ogunbowale wasted no time showing why she was a top draft pick, leading the Wings with 19.1 points and 3.2 assists per game in 2019. She earned a place on the WNBA All-Rookie Team with her performance.

“I wanted to dominate,” Ogunbowale says. “After the All-Star break, something just clicked, and I was just going crazy.”

Now entering her fourth WNBA season, the guard signed a three-year, supermax contract extension with Dallas in February.

When asked who her all-time WNBA starting five would be, Ogunbowale rattle doff a number of greats, most of whom are still playing: “(Sylvia Fowles) at the five, I love her. Diana (Taurasi) at the two, Maya (Moore) at the three, Sue (Bird) at the one and Candace (Parker) at the four,” she says.

Ogunbowale cited Natasha Howard as the most underrated player in the league.

“She won championships with Seattle. She doesn’t get talked about enough, but I don’t think they could’ve won without her because she’s amazing, really,” Ogunbowale says.

She didn’t skip a beat when asked which player she would recruit, saying she wants to play with Seattle Storm forward and three-time WNBA All-Star Breanna Stewart.

As for the WNBA’s best trash talker, Ogunbowale agrees with many that Diana Taurasi holds that title. “(She) really doesn’t care what she says to anybody,” Ogunbowale says.

She also likes playing against Connecticut Sun guard Courtney Williams. “That’s my dog, but she’s always chatting,” Ogunbowale says. “I don’t trash talk, but any time I play her, I am talking because she’s just talking. So I’ve got to talk, too.”

For more on Ogunbowale’s WNBA insights, listen to her full conversation with Kelley O’Hara on The Players’ Pod.

The NFL is putting women on the gridiron, with commissioner Roger Goodell announcing plans to launch both a men's and women's professional flag football league at Thursday's Leaders in Sport conference in London.

Looking to have both new ventures up and running in "the next couple of years," the NFL's goal is to introduce the leagues prior to the 2028 Summer Games in LA, where flag football will make its Olympic debut.

"The demand is there. We're seeing colleges in the States and universities internationally also that want to make it a part of their program," Goodell said. "If you set that structure up where there's youth leagues, going into high school, into college, and then professional, I think you can develop a system of scale. That's an important infrastructure that we need to create."

Building that infrastructure also feeds the ongoing NFL goal of growing flag football in order to construct a young fanbase for the gridiron sport at-large, with the league investing in a fan pipeline to support the NFL's future.

In part due to past NFL investments, women's flag football has seen significant growth across the US over the last 25 years, with over 30 states now offering competitive opportunities for high school girls — and at least half of those states fielding it as a full-fledged varsity championship sport.

Even the NCAA is getting in on the action, taking initial steps earlier this year to introduce flag football across all three of the governing body's divisions in the near future.

Though the LA Olympics are three years away, flag football is already charging ahead on the international stage, featuring in the 2022 and 2025 World Games — where the same US talent that the NFL is eyeing for its new league snagged a pair of silver medals.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season is just around the corner, and the Big Ten is celebrating by shouting out the conference's top predicted performers in both the coaches and media preseason polls on Thursday.

The UCLA Bruins — the Big Ten's singular 2025 Final Four participant — took the top team spot in both surveys, with the Maryland Terrapins trailing just behind as the conference's No. 2 ranked squad.

Rounding out the Top 5 in both polls were the USC Trojans, Michigan Wolverines, and Ohio State Buckeyes.

As for individual athletes, UCLA senior and the reigning Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Lauren Betts clocked in as the polls' unanimous favorite for Big Ten Player of the Year, with the standout center unsurprisingly capturing the top spot in the absence of injured USC star and 2025 Naismith Player of the Year JuJu Watkins.

Also picking up preseason All-Big Ten Team honors in both surveys were fellow UCLA standout Kiki Rice plus four other seniors: Iowa's Hannah Stuelke, Maryland's Yarden Garzon and Kaylene Smikle, and Michigan State's Grace VanSlooten.

A trio of underclassmen also made the cut in both 2025/26 preseason polls, with Ohio State's Jaloni Cambridge — last year's Big Ten Freshman of the Year — joined by a pair of fellow sophomores from archrival Michigan, Olivia Olson and Syla Swords.

The final spot on the All-Big Ten Team lists went to one of the Washington Huskies, with the 18 conference head coaches tapping junior Sayvia Sellers while the media honored senior Elle Ladine.

The 2025/26 NCAA basketball season tips off on November 3rd.

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball is hitting the road, with the offseason league announcing on Thursday that it will make its first-ever tour stop during the upcoming expanded 2026 season when it takes over Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia on January 30th.

"The energy and dedication of everyone who helped bring this tour stop to life, combined with the passion of Philadelphia's sports fans, made the city the perfect stage for Unrivaled," league president Alex Bazzell said in Thursday's press release.

Featuring four as-yet-unannounced Unrivaled teams in a regular-season doubleheader, the Miami-based league will also pack additional activations and events supporting the competition into its inaugural tour stop.

"Philadelphia is the city of firsts, so it makes perfect sense that the Unrivaled League picked our historical city, with unmatched sports enthusiasts, as its first tour stop," said Philadelphia mayor Cherelle L. Parker.

The upstart league's first foray outside of Miami will also mark Philadelphia's first professional women's basketball games since 1998.

"Advancing women's pro sports in Philly has been a goal we've passionately pursued for years," said comedian Wanda Sykes, an Unrivaled investor and a founding member of the Philadelphia Sisters, a women's sports advocacy group. "Unrivaled, this groundbreaking league, is set to elevate the women's basketball ecosystem as a whole, and we are honored that Philly has been chosen as its first-ever tour stop."

How to purchase tickets to Unrivaled in Philadelphia

Unrivaled isn't revealing the four participating teams until sometime next month, but fans can secure their own spots at the Philadelphia tour stop today.

Tickets for the January 30th doubleheader are currently available for purchase online at Ticketmaster.

With just four regular-season matchdays remaining in the 2025 NWSL season, the clock is quickly ticking down for teams making a late push to rise above the postseason cutoff line on the league table — including the No. 10 Houston Dash.

Currently sitting three points outside of playoff contention, a motivated Houston side will look to make a leap against No. 5 Orlando on Friday night, as the defending champion Pride continues reeling from their recently snapped nine-game NWSL winless streak.

"For us, the next couple of matches are finals," Dash head coach Fabrice Gautrat said after last weekend's 4-0 loss to the No. 2 Washington Spirit. "We have to keep approaching it one game at a time like we've been doing, but we definitely have to have a response against the Orlando Pride."

Notably, Houston enters Friday's matchup with new firepower in the midfield, as teen phenom Chloe Ricketts joins the Dash as a short-term signing from the Spirit before she moves to incoming expansion side Boston Legacy FC in 2026.

"[Ricketts] is very lively, has great energy, great attitude, is eager and ambitious," said Gautrat of Houston's Wednesday signee. "She could play anywhere on our front line, to be honest."

How to watch the Houston Dash vs. Orlando Pride

The No. 10 Houston Dash will host the No. 5 Orlando Pride at 8 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage airing on Prime.