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Lexie Brown puts GM talents on display: AU Basketball in Week 3

Lexie Brown (Jade Hewitt/Athletes Unlimited)

Tianna Hawkins enters Week 3 of Athletes Unlimited basketball as the points leader after a dominant second week in which she rose 14 spots up the leaderboard. As for the other three captains this week, Lexie Brown will look to continue her undefeated streak, while Natasha Cloud and Isabelle Harrison attempt to find some balance.

With games resuming Wednesday, here are three storylines to look out for in Week 3.

Will Tianna Hawkins continue her offensive production?

In the second game against Team Russell last week, Hawkins set a single-game scoring record with 38 points, helping Team Brown to a 98-85 victory. Roughly 24 hours later, she outdid herself, recording 46 points on 20-of-27 shooting from the field. She added 10 rebounds to claim her second MVP 1 honors of the week and lead Team Brown to a 3-0 record.

“It’s just having the hot hand and my teammates did a good job of feeding me the ball both tonight and last night,” Hawkins said.

It was a turnaround from Week 1, in which Hawkins averaged 15.3 points per game. In addition to vaulting from 14th on the AU leaderboard to first, she  now leads the league with 25.2 points per game and is pulling down 8.2 rebounds per game.

But Hawkins’ basketball savvy will be put to the test this week. The lone new captain in Week 3, she will need to prove she can put together a good team to remain the league leader. Outside of standout individual performances, AU places emphasis on team wins, giving out 50 points per quarters won and 100 points per games won.

There’s evidence that she may have done so when drafting her roster on Sunday. Destinee Walker set a single-quarter scoring record this season with 18 points, while Jessica Kuster is well-rounded and currently shooting 44.4 percent from 3-point range. Hawkins also selected veteran Sydney Colson and former captain Mercedes Russell, who currently sits seventh on the leaderboard. Hawkins will have to rely on them as much as herself if she wants to make a splash in Week 3.

Does Lexie Brown have a future as a GM?

Throughout Week 2 of the AU season, Lexie Brown showed that not only can she hoop, but she also might just have a career as a general manager one day.

Not many expected the performance that Team Brown turned out in Week 2, but Brown was confident in her team’s abilities from the jump. The squad found a balance that worked for them and helped them go undefeated on the week.

“I drafted them for that exact reason,” Brown said last week. “I played with a team that we were super big, I played with a team that we were kind of big, but I didn’t really have any pick-and-pop players, and I think I play best with that with the attention I draw, to be able to kick out to the shooters. And they just have to have confidence to knock it down.”

Brown will look to repeat that performances in Week 3 with a new team. With eight of 11 players on her roster sitting inside of the top 25 on the individual leaderboard, there will be no shortage of talent.

Team Brown will have to contend with the duo of Natasha Cloud and DiJonai Carrington, who have developed strong chemistry through the first two weeks of the season. Team Cloud has also added Essence Carson, who is averaging 12.5 points per game while shooting 50.8 percent.

Isabelle Harrison will return as a captain this week after going 5-1 through the first two weeks. Notably, she drafted Ty Young and held onto Courtney Williams and Odyssey Sims.

Can Taj Cole make the jump to captain?

Will this be the week that Taj Cole vaults into a captain position? The guard amassed 1,064 points in Week 2 to hold onto the No. 5 spot on the leaderboard.

One of four athletes picked up during the Athletes Unlimited tryouts in Atlanta, Cole has already made a splash in AU. Through the first week of play, she averaged 19.7 points, 5.7 rebounds and five assists per game. Last week, the Connecticut Sun signed her to a training camp contract, indicating that AU can serve as a showcase for WNBA teams looking for roster depth.

Cole followed up Week 1 with an equally productive Week 2, scoring 23 points against Team Russell and dishing out a game-high 12 assists against Team Cloud. Brown and Cole have been a dynamic duo this season, so it came as no surprise that Brown drafted Cole with her first pick on Sunday.

Cole sits 333 points behind Harrison for the fourth and final captain spot, but making the jump is not entirely out of the question. The AU format rewards good performances and consistency, and Cole brings both.

Emma Hruby is an associate editor at Just Women’s Sports.

LPGA Teams Tee Off in South Korea at 2025 International Crown Tournament

US golf star Lilia Vu takes a shot during a practice round ahead of the 2025 International Crown.
Lilia Vu headlines the No. 1 seed Team USA at the 2025 International Crown tournament. (Yoshimasa Nakano/Getty Images)

The LPGA is hitting the green in teams on Wednesday night, as some of the top golfers on Tour link up to represent their countries at the 2025 International Crown in South Korea.

This fifth edition of the match-play tournament will see seven teams from the USA, Japan, South Korea, Australia, Sweden, and China, as well as a mixed World Team taking on the reigning champion squad out of Thailand this week.

Comprised of the four top-ranked LPGA players from each nation, countries earn a team spot in the biennial International Crown based on the combined rankings of their best quartet of golfers — with those overall aggregates also determining tournament seeding.

The US topped all teams to snag this year's No. 1 seed, though the squad suffered a significant availability blow earlier this month when world No. 2 Nelly Korda withdrew from the 2025 International Crown due to injury.

No. 28 Yealimi Noh will compete in Korda's place, with the 24-year-old joining No. 10 Angel Yin, No. 16 Lauren Coughlin, and No. 33 Lilia Vu on Team USA.

Led by another 24-year-old, LPGA Tour debutant No. 6 Miyu Yamashita, No. 2 seed Japan appears to be the team to beat, with the World Team's fourth-ranked Lydia Ko (New Zeland) and fifth-ranked Charley Hull (England) upping the stakes for the No. 7 seed squad.

How to watch the 2025 International Crown

The four-day 2025 International Crown will tee off at 10 PM ET on Wednesday night, with live coverage of each day of competition airing on the Golf Channel.

PWHL Drops Seattle & Vancouver Jerseys Ahead of 2025/26 Expansion Team Launches

The jerseys of all eight PWHL teams hang on display weeks before the 2025/26 season begins.
PWHL expansion sides Seattle and Vancouver won't receive official names and branding until after their debut 2025/26 season. (PWHL)

With the first-ever eight-team PWHL season fast approaching next month, the pro women’s hockey league unveiled the inaugural jerseys for incoming 2025/26 expansion sides Seattle and Vancouver on Tuesday.

The new teams will wear jerseys displaying their city names across the front, following suit after the six founding PWHL franchises debuted without original names or branding during their inaugural 2023/24 campaign.

Per this week's press release, Seattle's colors are "deep slate green and cream with a river blue accent," while Vancouver will sport "pacific blue and cream with an earthy bronze accent."

In addition to "allowing fans to immediately identify with their hometown's newest professional team," PWHL EVP of business operations Amy Scheer explained in a Tuesday statement that "These designs also connect our expansion teams to the league's foundation while they continue building their own traditions and ties to the community."

While the PWHL will reveal the full team identities — complete with names and logos — before the puck drops on the 2025/26 season on November 21st, Seattle and Vancouver will play in their generic branding until next season.

How to purchase PWHL Seattle and Vancouver jerseys

The dark-colored replica home jerseys for both Seattle and Vancouver are currently available for purchase alongside all PWHL merch at the league's online shop.

WPBL Announces 4 Inaugural Baseball Teams Ahead of 2026 Debut Season

A player delivers a pitch during the WPBL tryouts at Nationals Park.
The WPBL is set to launch with teams in four cities in 2026. (Hannah Foslien/MLB Photos via Getty Images)

Women's professional baseball will soon be a reality, with the incoming WPBL announcing its four inaugural teams on Tuesday ahead of the league's November draft.

Kicking off with a coast-to-coast imprint, major sports hubs Boston, New York, Los Angeles, and San Francisco will house the founding WPBL teams, with the quartet of cities tapped "because of their fan support, market size, media presence, and rich baseball histories."

"We are so excited to finally announce the WPBL's first four teams," WPBL co-founder Justine Siegal said in the league's Tuesday press release. "Each of these cities are storied sports cities and we can't wait to connect with the fans who live there and baseball fans across the country."

Originally developed as a six-team venture, the 2026 debut of the WPBL will mark the first pro women's league in the US since the legendary World War II-era All-American Girls Professional Baseball League folded in 1954.

Each of the four inaugural team will feature 15 players, with next month's WPBL draft drawing from the top 100 players coming out of August's open tryouts.

The league's first competitive cycle will include a regular season, a postseason, and an all-star competition held at a neutral venue.

NBA Commissioner Adam Silver Weighs in on WNBA Revenue Sharing Amid CBA Talks

NBA commissioner Adam Silver chats with Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark during Game 3 of the 2025 NBA Finals.
NBA commissioner Adam Silver is pushing for "absolute numbers" in the ongoing WNBA CBA negotiations. (Maddie Meyer/Getty Images)

Adam Silver is back in the headlines, with the NBA commissioner speaking out on the increasingly fraught WNBA CBA negotiations on Tuesday — and pushing for controlled salary increases rather than the revenue sharing model that players overwhelmingly want.

"I think [revenue] share isn't the right way to look at it because there's so much more revenue in the NBA," Silver told the Today Show. "I think you should look at absolute numbers. In terms of what they are making, they are going to get a big increase in this cycle of collective bargaining, and they deserve it."

In response, the WNBPA posted a clip of Silver's interview to Instagram Stories, captioning it with "Don't want to share, @adamsilvernba?"

Tuesday's back-and-forth emphasizes a significant wedge issue within the CBA talks, as WNBA players argue for a salary cap determined by the total revenue generated from all basketball-related activities like ticket sales, media deals, sponsorships, and merchandise — the same model currently used in the NBA.

The WNBA — like Silver — wants salary cap growth to continue on a fixed scale, raising player salaries in the upcoming CBA while controlling revenue distribution at the stakeholder level.

"I think we all agree we're trying to return every dollar we possibly can to the players, but we also want to incentivize investment from owners," WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said when addressing the issue earlier this month.

With less than 10 days remaining before the CBA's October 31st deadline, differences continue to outweigh common ground en route to an unlikely deal.

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