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Kevin Durant, Elena Delle Donne and Arike Ogunbowale among new investors in Just Women’s Sports

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Just Women’s Sports is excited to announce that it has raised $3.5 million in seed funding, which will help the company continue its mission of building the media platform in women’s sports.

The round was led by Will Ventures, with participation from Kevin Durant and Rich Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures, Drive by DraftKings, OVO Fund, Supernode Global as well as an all-star roster of women’s sports superstars, including Elena Delle Donne, Hilary Knight, Sam Mewis, Kelley O’Hara and Arike Ogunbowale.

In addition to their investment, Thirty Five Ventures will also utilize its network and resources to help amplify Just Women’s Sports through its Boardroom media platform. As a result, Just Women’s Sports founder Haley Rosen will be a featured guest on Boardroom’s “Out of Office” podcast with Rich Kleiman and Kevin Durant.

“In order to grow women’s sports, fans need to see how great the games are, and they shouldn’t have to look hard to do that,” said Thirty Five Ventures co-founder and two-time NBA champion Kevin Durant. “Just Women’s Sports is creating a much-needed platform centered around game and player highlights and analysis that shows fans exactly how good these players are and why they’re worth watching.”

O’Hara has long been part of the JWS family as host of the “Just Women’s Sports” podcast, which features in-depth conversations with some of the world’s top athletes in women’s sports. Additionally, Mewis co-hosts “Snacks” with teammate Lynn Williams, a recently launched podcast taking fans behind the scenes of life atop the soccer world.

Other JWS content includes “Off the Ball,” featuring Olympian and NWSL star Ali Riley, and “The Soccer Show,” a first-of-its-kind digital weekly highlights-driven show covering the FA Women’s Super League through an exclusive premium content partnership with Ata Football. Additionally, later this month Just Women’s Sports will feature “Tea with A & Phee,” the popular podcast hosted by 2020 WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and 2019 WNBA Rookie of the Year Napheesa Collier.

You can also follow Just Women’s Sports on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, TikTok and YouTube.

The funding enables Just Women’s Sports to expand its production of high-quality content and continue to lead the way in promoting equality in sports. JWS will also continue to build out its executive, production and editorial teams. Recent hires have included former Google and Uber Eats exec Ali Braverman as Head of Revenue, former ESPN producer Ashley Braband as Head of Content and Production, and former The Athletic editor Hannah Withiam as Managing Editor.

Read more about what to expect from Just Women’s Sport’s coverage.

2025 Season Breaks 23-Year WNBA Attendance Record

Golden State Valkyrie fans cheer during a 2025 WNBA game.
2025 WNBA expansion side Golden State has played in front of multiple sold-out crowds this season. (Matthew Huang/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

One full month before then end of the 2025 regular season, the WNBA shattered its overall attendance record, with Front Office Sports reporting that the league topped the 2.43 million fan mark last Friday.

The WNBA has sailed past the previous season-high attendance of 2.36 million set in 2002. Even more, it surpassed the record in 41 fewer games than the entire 2002 season, claiming the new mark in a total of 215 games.

Leading the attendance charge are the No. 7 Golden State Valkyries, the No. 6 Indiana Fever, and the No. 2 New York Liberty. Both the Valks and the Fever passed the 300,000 total this week, with the reigning champion Liberty guaranteed to hit that mark on Thursday night.

Though the clamor to see the Fever is not a surprise, 2025 expansion team Golden State is somewhat unexpectedly topping the WNBA demand this season, continuing to break records by selling out every one of the Valkyries' 17 home games so far — fully packing San Francisco's Chase Center to its 18,064-seat capacity.

While this year's additional franchise plus the expanded 44-game schedule would be enough added inventory to significantly boost the league's attendance totals, overall demand is also driving the new record, with the WNBA logging a record-setting 11,000 additional fans per game throughout the 2025 campaign so far.

With 59 games still left on the 2025 regular-season docket, expect a banner year for the still-expanding league, as the WNBA is currently on track to blast through the 3 million attendance mark.

Paige Bueckers Ties WNBA Record in Rookie of the Year Dallas Wings Performance

LA Sparks guard Rae Burrell gives chase as Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers drives to the basket during a 2025 WNBA game.
Dallas Wings rookie Paige Bueckers scored a career-high 44 points against the LA Sparks on Wednesday. (Juan Ocampo/NBAE via Getty Images)

Dallas star Paige Bueckers all but slammed the door on the 2025 WNBA Rookie of the Year race on Wednesday, tying basketball legend Cynthia Cooper's 1997 single-game rookie scoring record by dropping a career-high 44 points in the No. 11 Wings' narrow 81-80 loss to the No. 9 LA Sparks.

Despite the Sparks officially eliminating the Wings from playoff contention, Bueckers's efficiency was on full display, tallying the highest single-game performance by any player in the league this season while shooting over 80% from the field.

"People have [seen] the struggles — the injuries, the ups and downs," Bueckers said afterwards. "For people to continue to follow me and still believe in me, it really means a lot."

The 2025 No. 1 overall draftee leads a rookie class thriving in the pros, with the No. 10 Washington Mystics' Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen and the No. 13 Connecticut Sun's Saniya Rivers hot on Bueckers's heels.

On the WNBA stat sheet, Bueckers currently sits fifth overall in points per game and ninth in assists per game, while Iriafen is fourth in rebounds per game and Citron — who recently set a new Mystics rookie scoring record with 537 career points — is fifth overall in clutch points.

Despite the Sun's struggles, Rivers has excelled defensively, becoming the fastest-ever WNBA player to record 30 career blocks by doing so in just 31 games.

Ultimately, while Sparks guard Kelsey Plum's game-winning buzzer-beater ended Bueckers's postseason dreams on Wednesday night, the rookie's heroics continue to shine with the WNBA's end-of-season awards fast approaching.

New York Shoots for Consistency as Liberty Host Chicago Sky

Natasha Cloud and Kennedy Burke celebrate a game-clinching three-point shot from their New York Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu.
The New York Liberty can hold fast to the No. 2 spot with a win over the No. 12 Chicago Sky on Thursday night. (Sarah Stier/Getty Images)

Coming off Tuesday's 85-75 momentum-grabbing win over the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx, the No. 2 New York Liberty will shoot to maintain late-season consistency against the now-eliminated No. 12 Chicago Sky in Thursday's WNBA slate.

Tied with the No. 3 Atlanta Dream at 22-13 on the year, the Liberty could benefit from the lopsided Thursday matchup, potentially adding space above Atlanta in the WNBA standings considering the Dream face an uphill battle against a motivated Lynx side.

"We're focused on the next nine games," New York head coach Sandy Brondello said following Tuesday's victory. "It's all about focusing on us and getting as high a position as we can in the standings."

The reigning champs still have work to do, however, with recent weeks seeing the Liberty post the second-worst 10-game record for any team above the playoff line — complete with three losses to their 2024 WNBA Finals rival Minnesota.

As for Chicago, the Sky are now focused on the future, bolstered by star forward Angel Reese's return from injury as they continue to build under first-year coach Tyler Marsh's system.

"I want to hoop," Reese said earlier this week. "I'm just happy to be out here to play the game I love."

How to watch Chicago Sky vs. New York Liberty in Thursday's WNBA slate

The No. 2 Liberty will host the No. 12 Sky at 7 PM ET on Thursday, tipping off live on Prime.

WNBA Drops Schedule for 2025 Playoffs, Expands Finals to Best-of-Seven Series

The 2024 WNBA Championship Trophy sits bathed in the New York Liberty's signature seafoam green light.
The 2025 WNBA Playoffs will begin on September 14th. (Evan Yu/NBAE via Getty Images)

As the regular season winds down, the WNBA announced this year's postseason schedule on Wednesday, with the 2025 Playoffs officially tipping off on September 14th.

The latest possible finish for the 2025 WNBA Finals is October 17th, with three rounds of play standing between the eight-team postseason field and this year's championship trophy.

Notably, the WNBA is instituting two main changes to its previous Playoffs format in the 2025 schedule.

The postseason's first round — a best-of-three series — will shift from the WNBA's home-home-away format, in which the higher seeds could sweep at home, to a one-one-one structure.

With this change, the league is guaranteeing that every playoff team will host at least one home game.

Additionally, while the best-of-five semifinals will remain the same with its two-two-one hosting structure, the 2025 WNBA Finals will be the first to expand to a best-of-seven series, feeding fans' growing appetite for additional postseason clashes and offering upwards of four title-deciding matchups.

This new Finals format will see the higher seed host Games 1, 2, 5, and 7, giving each team a possible two opportunities to clinch the 2025 championship in front of a home crowd.

All games in the 2025 WNBA Playoffs will air on ESPN platforms, with matchups across ESPN2, ESPN, and ABC.

Currently, the No. 1 Minnesota Lynx are the only team to clinch their 2025 postseason berth.

On the other hand, the No. 11 Dallas Wings, No. 12 Chicago Sky, and No. 13 Connecticut Sun were all recently eliminated from playoff contention.

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