The WNBA All-Star teams are set, but the lineup for the Skills Challenge and 3-Point Contest are still up in the air. Friday’s competition serves as a precursor to the main event on All-Star weekend, with six players participating in the 3-Point Contest and eight in the Skills Challenge (if the WNBA sticks with the same format as last year).
With the entire league to choose from, here is my wish list for the players I’d like to see compete this weekend in Las Vegas.
3-Point Contest
Kelsey Plum, G, Las Vegas Aces
After struggling in last year’s 3-point contest on All-Star weekend, Kelsey Plum deserves a shot at redemption. Despite being an excellent 3-point shooter who averages 43.2% for her career, she was last in the competition in 2022. Teammate A’ja Wilson even said Plum “stunk it up.” The Vegas guard followed that performance up by winning 2022 All-Star Game MVP, but a good showing in this year’s 3-point competition would further erase last year’s struggles. Plum said she’s “not a rack shooter and more of a game shooter,” but why not both?
Lexie Brown, G, Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks guard was considered a snub in last year’s 3-point contest after shooting 39.8% on the season, thanks to a hot hand in the first half. This year, Brown is even better from beyond the arc, shooting 42% and making 2.3 attempts per contest. An illness has kept Brown off the court since June 14, but if she’s healthy, the guard is a no-brainer addition to this year’s competition.
Karlie Samuelson, G, Los Angeles Sparks
Why not have a little intra-team competition? Brown’s teammate, Karlie Samuelson, would be a perfect candidate. She’s spent the last few seasons fighting for a WNBA roster spot and has found a home this year with the Sparks, shooting an incredible 48.2% from beyond the arc. Samuelson is currently injured, but if healthy enough, she deserves this honor.
DeWanna Bonner, F/G, Connecticut Sun
At 35 years old, Bonner is having the best 3-point shooting season of her WNBA career, averaging 38.2% with 2.2 makes per game. Bonner spent her offseason practicing twice a day to rehab an injury and improve her long-range shooting. Bonner’s desire to find ways to get better after 14 years in the league makes her special, and bringing her into the 3-point contest would be a great way to celebrate the veteran’s season.
Sabrina Ionescu, G, New York Liberty
Another player who is having the best 3-point shooting performance of her career, Ionescu is making 43.9% of her attempts this season, marking a 10% improvement on her average last season. She’s making 3.1 3-pointers per contest, good for second in the WNBA. Ionescu is the reigning Skills Challenge champion, so why not give her a chance to win the shooting portion as well?
Jackie Young, G, Las Vegas Aces
Another intra-squad rivalry would be on display if Young competed alongside Plum, and with the competition being held in Vegas this year, two Aces players would make for an exciting atmosphere. Not to mention, Young has had one of the best career arcs when it comes to 3-point shooting, shooting 25% in 2021 and 43.1% in 2022. This year, she’s an absolute must-guard shooter from beyond the arc, making 48.1% of her attempts.
Skills Challenge
NaLyssa Smith, F, Indiana Fever
The Fever forward participated in last year’s Skills Challenge as a rookie and finished in second place. Smith is having a great second-year campaign in Indiana, leading the team in rebounds per game and ranking second in points per game. Could a skills competition redemption be in her future? It’s certainly a possibility.
Sabrina Ionescu, G, New York Liberty
Speaking of last year’s contest, Ionescu took home the top prize and deserves a chance to defend her title. Having the Liberty guard compete in all three of the weekend’s events is a lot, but she certainly has a case to make the trio of appearances.
Rhyne Howard, G, Atlanta Dream
When it comes to All-Star snubs, no one was more deserving than Howard, who participated in the game last season as a rookie. She’s averaging 18.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.4 assists per game, building on her Rookie of the Year season in 2022. Since we won’t get to see Howard in the All-Star Game, she should at least make an appearance in the Skills Challenge.
Candace Parker, F/C, Las Vegas Aces
This is perhaps the biggest reach on the wish list, but who better to participate in the Skills Challenge than a do-it-all player like Parker? She’s made it clear that she’s nearing the end of her career, so if 2023 is Parker’s last season, it would be a shame for her to go without seeing her compete in some capacity this weekend.
Marine Johannès, G, New York Liberty
Is it really a skills competition without the flashiest player in the WNBA? The French guard does a little bit of everything, and she does it all with style. Johannès is sure to get “oohs and “aahs” every time she steps on the court, making this event the perfect showcase for an exciting player like her.
Courtney Vandersloot, G, New York Liberty
If we are going to have two Liberty guards, why not make it three by adding in the WNBA assists leader? Vandersloot runs the Liberty offense with ease, dishing out 8.5 assists per game. The WNBA veteran certainly has the skills to win this competition, and maybe Allie Quigley would even make an appearance to cheer on her wife. It only seems fair after years of Vandersloot’s support for the queen of the 3-Point Contest.
Satou Sabally, F, Dallas Wings
Other than Smith and Parker, this list is guard-heavy. Enter Sabally, who is the perfect forward for the skills competition. She’s 6-4, but plays more like a guard who shines in the fastbreak and leads the Wings on the run. That makes her a competitive candidate for this event. Plus, Sabally is having the best season of her career, averaging 17.5 points and 9.3 rebounds per game.
Jewell Loyd, G, Seattle Storm
Things are much different for the 4-14 Storm this season, but Jewell Loyd’s talent remains the same. She could easily participate in the 3-Point Contest, averaging 38.8% from beyond the arc and leading the league in 3-pointers made with 3.4 per game. But I’d rather see Loyd show off her complete skill set, like she’s been doing for Seattle all season.
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
Connecticut Sun coach Stephanie White sat before media members and declared Alyssa Thomas the most underrated superstar in the WNBA.
That was a month ago.
Since then, Thomas has put up three triple-doubles in the span of seven days to set a new WNBA record. She’s averaging an MVP-worthy stat line of 14.4 points, 10.1 rebounds, 8.2 assists and 2.1 steals per game while leading the Sun to a 12-5 record and third in the WNBA standings.
“She is a superstar,” White said. “She does so many things for our team, and she puts up huge numbers.”
ALYSSA THOMAS CAN'T BE HUMAN 🤯@athomas_25 is the 1st player in WNBA history to record back-to-back triple-doubles, Thomas is also the 1st player in WNBA history to reach 5 career triple-doubles#MoreThanGame pic.twitter.com/Bqhc5Tmz2i
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 28, 2023
Being under two assists shy of averaging a triple-double is a superstar stat line, and having a WNBA-leading seven career triple-doubles gives you superstar status. That’s difficult to argue with. It’s also difficult to argue with Thomas’ merit when it comes to being an All-Star, and yet it took the player and media vote to get her onto the 2023 roster as a reserve. When it comes to snubs, Thomas’ exclusion from the fan vote and the group of All-Star starters was easily the most egregious.
But as the face of the Connecticut Sun, it’s not exactly surprising. In many ways, Thomas not being an All-Star starter is fitting because she represents a team that is constantly overlooked.
“Maybe it is small market, maybe it’s because it’s not flashy,” White said in June about the franchise. “The great thing is they don’t care. They just want to come out, they want to play, they want to compete, and they want to win.”
The Sun were WNBA finalists a year ago, and have made it as far as the semifinals in each of the last four WNBA postseasons. Yet when this season began, they were left out of most conversations surrounding the top teams in the league. The defending champion Aces entered 2023 as the expected favorites; after them, the Liberty dominated headlines and conversation after stocking up on talent in the offseason.
Less than a year after finishing as WNBA runners-up, the Sun were seemingly forgotten.
It makes sense in theory. Connecticut lost 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones in a trade to New York, and coach Curt Miller left to take over the Sparks. But the Sun are resilient, a quality that wasn’t necessarily accounted for. And the catalyst for that resilience is Alyssa Thomas.
The 31-year-old forward recorded a triple-double in Game 3 of the 2022 WNBA Finals to keep her team afloat after going down 2-0 to Las Vegas. Days later, she registered another, doing everything she could to keep the Sun from being eliminated in what ended up being the Aces’ championship-clinching victory.
This season, in Jonquel Jones’ absence, Thomas has increased her production in every category except turnovers, as she maintains an incredible 4.1-to-1.4 assist-to-turnover ratio. Since her teammate — and the Sun’s second-leading scorer after DeWanna Bonner — Brionna Jones suffered a season-ending injury, Thomas recorded two of her triple-doubles. Those performances also came after the All-Star snub.
While triple-doubles have become a normal part of Thomas’ game, her teammates want to make sure it doesn’t become yet another thing that is overlooked.
“I don’t want any of y’all to get used to and normalize what she’s doing out there, for real,” DiJonai Carrington said after a loss to New York on June 27. “Like, that’s not normal, especially from a four player. I think people are downplaying it. This woman has had three triple-doubles in the last 10 days. That’s insane.”
Bonner believes that Thomas’ selection as an All-Star starter should have been a “simple” decision. Teammates continue to praise her work ethic, grit and talent, and White continues to hold her up as the league’s underrated superstar.
Because the Sun, at least, know what they have in Thomas.
“Seeing her every day, you know why she is as good as she is,” White said. “Because if you don’t see her every day and you watch her, you’re like, ‘How in the heck does she continue to put up these numbers?’ And it’s because she’s a relentless worker and competitor.”
Thomas may have been snubbed as an All-Star starter, and she may get overlooked, but that doesn’t change the numbers, and it doesn’t change the record books.
“When you have a player that has that will to win, that competitive fire, that just plays their ass off all the time, and knows how to play, too? That’s what you get [from Thomas],” White said. “It’s really incredible that she’s accomplished what she’s accomplished with this triple-double record, and she’s really still young in her career.”
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
When the Las Vegas Aces played the New York Liberty, it was supposed to be the game of the season. Supposed to be a drag-it-out, fight to the finish. Supposed to be a preview of the WNBA Finals to come — and maybe it was.
But instead of a down-to-the-wire contest, it was a blowout. The Aces completely dominated the Liberty with a 98-81 victory. The game was billed as the “Battle of the Superteams,” but it wasn’t a battle, and there weren’t two superteams on the court. There was just one team that was much, much better than its opponent.
Which begs the question, “Can anyone beat the Aces?”
In a single game, sure. The Connecticut Sun already did it, handing the Aces their lone loss of the season. But in a playoff series, it’s hard to imagine anyone stringing together enough wins to stop Las Vegas from repeating as WNBA champions.
Let’s start with the obvious: the roster. The reason the Aces fall into the superteam category is because their starting five is that of an All-Star Game. MVP A’ja Wilson, former MVP Candace Parker, Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, Most Improved Player Jackie Young and All-WNBA First teamer Kelsey Plum. A simple list of those names is impressive, but it’s how they come together that makes Las Vegas so dominant.
The win over New York proves it’s not enough to have stars on the court. The Liberty have their own awe-inducing starting lineup with former MVPs Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, WNBA assists leader Courtney Vandersloot, former Most Improved Player Betnijah Laney and All-WNBA second-teamer Sabrina Ionescu.
Here’s the difference: New York looked like an All-Star team, and Las Vegas looked like a championship team.
The Liberty still look like a collection of stars playing on the court but not playing together, while the Aces are a unit, dripping with team chemistry.
They know how to feed the hot hand — it’s why Wilson, Plum, Young and Gray routinely rotate as the team’s leading scorer in any given game — and how to exploit defensive matchups.
Against the Liberty, Plum’s 18 points led the way, as the Aces focused on guard play and beating defenders off the dribble. Plum and Young were able to break down their defenders with quick first steps, while also using switches on screens to their advantage. The Liberty couldn’t stay in front, which created lanes for attacking and, in turn, opened up the entire offense.
In other situations, the Aces can use Wilson as their anchor and run offense through last season’s MVP. They have options, and they know when to use them.
Big sis @Candace_Parker with the breakout pass to lil sis @_ajawilson22 is what you need on your timeline#PhantomCam x @LVAces pic.twitter.com/FIvoJ1i6TU
— WNBA (@WNBA) June 30, 2023
Then there’s the defense. Becky Hammon has been very vocal about wanting more out of her team on the defensive end, and she’s getting it. The Liberty are averaging 87.5 points per game this season — second in the league behind the Aces — but Las Vegas held them below that average on Thursday night.
Individually, the Aces also contained Stewart and Ionescu to outputs well below their season averages. Stewart scores 22.1 points per game and is nearly impossible to stop, but Vegas held her to 16 points. And Ionescu reached less than half her season average of 15.3, contributing seven points in the loss.
That’s been a theme this season: The Aces hold their opponents to 77.7 points per game, which is second in the league. That, combined with their explosive offense, has Vegas winning their games by a WNBA-leading average of 15.5 points.
Of course, it is possible to beat Las Vegas. The Sun did it, with a 94-77 win in their second meeting of the season on June 4. In that game, two major statistics stand out.
First, the Sun kept Vegas off the glass. Averaging 34.8 rebounds per game this season, the Aces pulled down just 26 in that loss compared to 34 from the Sun. But rebounding isn’t actually one of the Aces’ major strengths. They are 7th out of 12 teams in that category, so keeping them off the boards doesn’t mean an automatic chance at victory. In fact, Las Vegas recorded just 27 rebounds against the Liberty.
The biggest factor in the Sun’s victory was DeWanna Bonner, who scored a career-high 41 points on 5-for-7 shooting from beyond the arc. Four players have scored over 40 points in a game this season — Jewell Loyd, Arike Ogunbowale, Stewart and Bonner — so it’s not exactly a common feat. The Sun needed a superhuman performance to top Las Vegas, and that’s not something that teams can conjure up on a nightly basis.
So, yeah, the Aces are beatable. But just barely.
The Liberty game only served to prove that Las Vegas is by far the best team in the WNBA, and it’s going to take a special string of games for anyone to stop the defending champs from repeating.
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
The confetti had barely settled from the Las Vegas Aces’ 2022 WNBA championship. Yet Becky Hammon already was evaluating ways in which her team could improve.
Sure, the Aces had just hoisted the trophy. But a new season was brewing, bringing with it new challenges and, more importantly for the Las Vegas coach, new opportunities to get better.
When she thinks of that 2022 squad, one weakness stands out: defense.
“Being an average defensive team wasn’t good enough,” Hammon said. “So I’ve challenged them. These women are not average at anything they put their hands in. So why would we settle for anything less than great defense every night?”
This season is different. The Aces hold a 13-1 record heading into Thursday’s superteam clash with the New York Liberty. They started the year with a seven-game winning streak, which included close calls against the Dream (87-92), the Fever (84-80) and the Sun (90-84) – but in each instance, the Aces held off their opponents, and in every case, it was because of their defense.
“A goal of ours is to stay top three of the league defensively,” A’ja Wilson said. “That’s where we need to aim, and we’re trying our best to do that.”
Defense 👉 offense @_ajawilson22 // @JackieYoung3 pic.twitter.com/69lJqFQ93A
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) June 3, 2023
The Aces finally dropped a game on June 8, a 94-77 loss to the Connecticut Sun. Of that game, Hammon said the Sun “kicked our ass,” on both ends of the floor. Las Vegas gave up its highest point total of the season, allowing the Sun to shoot 57.1% from 3-point range. A career-high 41 points from DeWanna Bonner didn’t help.
But after the dismal performance, the Aces bounced back with six consecutive wins, many of them fueled by – you guessed it – defense. The streak included a 96-63 win against the Seattle Storm and a 93-62 win against the Minnesota Lynx in back-to-back games, their lowest point totals allowed this season.
In 2022, the Aces gave up 84.1 points per game, which ranked ninth in the 12-team league. This season, that number is down to 77.4, good for second-best in the WNBA. It wasn’t a major offseason overhaul that led to the improvement but rather a combination of key signings and a change in mindset.
Candace Parker was, of course, the Aces’ most high-profile signing during the offseason, and the 16-year veteran provided an instant defensive upgrade. At 6-4, she makes for a scary defensive combination with Wilson inside, but she also can match up with guards on the perimeter.
While the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year may be nearing the end of her career, she’s still a skilled defender, and her 1.5 steals per game so far this season is her highest mark since 2017.
Alysha Clark also joined Las Vegas in the offseason, and while not as high-profile as Parker, she also is another experienced player with a strong defensive skill set. A two-time All-WNBA Defensive team selection, Clark allows the Aces to play a smaller lineup, either to combat guard-heavy opponents or to bring pressure in the backcourt that speeds up the game.
And 6-3 center Kiah Stokes is making an impact off the bench, playing more minutes – up from 15.3 to 18.5 – and averaging a career-high 1.5 blocks per game. Wilson, last season’s DPOY, points to Stokes as the player that holds the Aces’ defense together.
“Kiah’s the anchor to our defense,” Wilson told the Hartford Courant on June 7. “A lot of people say that it’s me, but I pass that to Kiah 100%. She is just always at the right place at the right time and I trust her, like guards trust us and then I trust Kiah when she’s behind me. So she literally holds it down.”
The offseason additions and Stokes’ increased role takes care of the X’s and O’s of the team’s defensive attack, but a large part of Las Vegas’ improvement comes from approach.
The 40-game WNBA schedule comes with quick turnarounds, and teams often play with just one day between games. The Aces take advantage of their limited practice, devoting even the smallest windows of time to defensive drills.
“Even though we don’t have a ton of time, we’ll just do a quick drill to make sure people are talking and active, and being as physical as we can be,” Sydney Colson said.
The team’s mindset has changed too, with defensive assignments becoming more of a priority. Everyone has turned up the intensity, and Hammon says that early in the season when Kelsey Plum wasn’t shooting well, it was the guard’s defense that kept her in games.
The team is bigger and stronger thanks to additions in the offseason, but if everyone isn’t contributing on defense, then there are breakdowns.
The goal for the Aces? Zero breakdowns.
“Sometimes things change game by game,” Colson said. “But it’s also the MO that we have. We want to be more physical, we want to compete on every possession.”
Jonquel Jones still thinks about what could have been.
The 2021 WNBA MVP spent six seasons with the Connecticut Sun, making the Finals twice and the semifinals another two times. Still, she turns over each missed opportunity in her mind. A tweak here, an adjustment there, and maybe she would have won a title with the Sun.
“Even when you’re reminiscing you kind of think about things that you could probably do to get you over that hump,” Jones said. “It’s in the books now. There’s nothing that we can do to change it, but there’s times where it’s bitter and when it’s really sweet, literally. I’m happy to be able to accomplish what we were able to accomplish. But I still have a sore feeling of not being able to just finish it out and seal the deal.”
That’s part of the reason why Jones sat where she did Tuesday, against the backdrop of a Connecticut Sun press conference while wearing a New York Liberty jersey. A blockbuster trade in the offseason brought her to New York, with the hope that a fresh start could lead to her first WNBA Championship.
Yet the bittersweet taste of her ending with the Sun has tinged the beginning of her tenure with the Liberty.
It’s officially 𝙊𝙁𝙁𝙄𝘾𝙄𝘼𝙇! Libs fam, join us in welcoming JJ to NY!🗽 pic.twitter.com/yEF0XnX6Hj
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) January 16, 2023
The 29-year-old forward is still nursing a foot injury sustained during the 2022 Finals, in which the Sun lost 3-1 to the Las Vegas Aces. And her production so far this season isn’t what the WNBA has become accustomed to seeing. Jones is averaging 9.7 points, 6.3 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, all down from her career averages of 13.3, 8.2 and 1.4.
The injury has played a part, but so has New York’s personnel. There’s a reason the squad has been heralded as the WNBA’s first superteam. The roster includes another MVP in Breanna Stewart, and still more stars in Courtney Vandersloot and Sabrina Ionescu. Then there’s Betnijah Laney, who became a cornerstone of the team in 2021, as well as a bench unit that features an exciting playmaker in Marine Johannès and a former WNBA champion in Stefanie Dolson. Kayla Thornton also has become a key piece of the secondary unit in her first season with the team.
That’s a lot of talent sharing one ball. But a decrease in production and a different role doesn’t take away from who Jones is.
“She’s still very important to what we are trying to accomplish here,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “She’s still getting back into top form, but in our minds, she’s still an MVP.”
The 6-6 Jones isn’t putting up 19.4 points and 11.2 rebounds like she did during her MVP campaign in 2021. But just looking at her current stats does Jones a disservice, according to Brondello.
“She complements the players that we have and we are going to increase her role a little bit and build her up in the right way,” Brondello said.
Jones isn’t the only player who is capable of more than her current role. Thornton was a starter for the Dallas Wings last season, and Johannès could start on a team without Ionescu and Vandersloot ahead of her on the depth chart. And Laney, the fifth starter, is often forgotten when it comes to the superteam narrative. But opponents aren’t forgetting about any of the Liberty players.
“You have to defend all five positions at an elite level,” Sun coach Stephanie White said of the Liberty. “It’s tough because you really have to defend one-on-one because if you get caught in rotations you are vulnerable from a rebounding standpoint. You have to be great in all areas.”
You also have to understand that you can’t stop everyone.
“There are certain players on the floor that we have to live with taking shots and making shots,” White said. “And there are other players that if they make tough shots, you have to live with that too.”
So far this season, Stewart, Ionescu and Vandersloot have been New York’s big three, with Laney, Johannès and Jones just behind Vandersloot in scoring, all hovering around 10 points per game. But every time the Liberty take the floor, someone different can provide a scoring lift.
In Tuesday’s 89-81 win against the Sun, it was Laney with 16 and Jones with 14. Two games earlier, Johannès scored 18 points off the bench, and Thornton had 10. Laney had 17 in an overtime win over the Mystics, and in an early-season win over the Storm, Dolson had 10 points and 5 assists in just 18 minutes of action.
That willingness to take what comes to them and make the most of it has helped propel the Liberty to a 10-3 record. It also has kept New York in the championship conversation heading into Thursday’s superteam clash with Las Vegas.
“You just have to be ready,” Thornton said. “You don’t ever know when your name is going to be called, so you just have to stay ready and not get inside your head. You’ve got to look at what the team needs.”
Editor’s note: This story was first published in the first week of the 2023 WNBA season. The Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty will face off for the first time this season at 10 p.m. ET Thursday.
The Superteam Era of the WNBA officially has begun.
Fans have gotten their first glimpses of the new-look New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces squads. And while 10 other teams – like the Washington Mystics, who topped the Liberty 80-64 to open the season – have four months to make their cases, it’s easy to see why New York and Las Vegas are the favorites to battle it out for the WNBA title.
Here’s how they stack up.
Starting Five
Las Vegas Aces
Candace Parker, F, 6-4: The 37-year-old forward is looking to be the first WNBA player to win championships with three franchises after signing with the Aces as a free agent. She already has rings with the Sparks and the Sky in 2016 and 2021. Parker, who has been candid about being near the end of her professional career, is a two-time WNBA MVP and seven-time all-WNBA first team member. Over her 15-year career, Parker has maintained a reputation as a player who does everything. Last season she averaged 13.2 points, 8.6 rebounds, 4.5 assists, 1 steal and 1 block.
A’ja Wilson, F, 6-4: Five seasons into her career and A’ja Wilson has already won two MVP awards. The South Carolina product has been dominant since her Rookie of the Year campaign in 2018, but the 2022 season was her best yet. Wilson led the Aces to their first WNBA title, averaging 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.9 blocks and 1.4 steals per game.
Chelsea Gray, G, 5-11: After being snubbed for the All-Star game last year, Gray’s second half of the season became a revenge tour. Her play earned the point guard the Finals MVP trophy, as Gray averaged 21.7 points and 7.0 assists per game through the postseason while shooting 61.1% from the field and 54.4% from beyond the arc. Gray showed off her skills as a playmaker for others, and a shot-creator for herself, making over 60% of her contested looks.
Kelsey Plum, G, 5-8: Plum has gotten better every season since she was drafted No. 1 in 2017, and in 2022 she took a major step forward. The guard finished second in the WNBA in scoring with 20.2 points per game while also averaging a career-high 5.1 assists. After coming off the bench in 2021, coach Becky Hammon moved Plum back to a starting role and heavily relied on the guard throughout the season. She played 32.8 minutes per game, which ranked second in the league.
Jackie Young, G, 6-0: Young started the 2023 season on a high note, scoring 23 points in 26 minutes during the Ace’s first game of the season. Young is looking to build on a 2022 season that saw her named the league’s Most Improved Player. That’s largely because of the addition of a 3-point shot to her game. Young shot 25% in 2021 and 23.1% in 2020, but after dedicating herself to the craft, she shot 43.1% from long range in 2022. Young’s ability to shoot 3s adds another weapon to the Aces’ arsenal.
Attack mode Jack 💥
— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) May 21, 2023
23 PTS // 5 REB // 3 AST // 61.5% FG@jackieyoung3 // #ALLINLV pic.twitter.com/RSIYQ953fe
New York Liberty
Betnijah Laney, F, 6-0: Laney has been in the league since 2015 but had a breakout season in 2020 for Atlanta. She’s been a key piece for the Liberty since 2021, and while she missed most of last season with an injury, she’s back in top form and could end up being the unsung hero of this superteam. With big names around her, Laney likely won’t receive the same type of attention, but she will be impactful. The 29-year-old averaged 16.8 points, 5.2 assists and 4.1 rebounds in 2021. She also brings toughness, a scorer’s mentality and established chemistry with Ionescu.
Breanna Stewart, F, 6-4: The offseason’s most sought-after free agent landed with the Liberty after playing six seasons with the Storm. Stewart wasted no time establishing herself, setting a franchise record with 45 points in New York’s home opener. She already has won two WNBA titles and was named Finals MVP in both instances. When she signed with the Liberty, the UConn product instantly catapulted the team to the top of the WNBA.
Jonquel Jones, F, 6-6: When Jones was traded to the Liberty back in January, the move set off the superteam era. The opportunity to play with the 2021 MVP enticed Stewart and Vandersloot to sign with the Liberty, and it likely motivated Parker to sign with the Aces in order to give her a chance at a title as well. Jones is a versatile scoring threat who plays both inside and beyond the arc. In her last season in Connecticut, Jones led the Sun to the WNBA Finals and averaged 14.6 points, 8.6 rebounds, 1.8 assists, 1.2 blocks and 1.1 steals per game.
Courtney Vandersloot, G, 5-8: The one thing the Liberty needed after signing Jones and Stewart was an elite, pass-first point guard. They got that in Vandersloot, who is third on the WNBA’s all-time assists leaderboard and holds the record for most assists in a single game with 18. Vandersloot played all 12 of her WNBA seasons with the Sky and won a title with Chicago in 2021 before joining the Liberty.
Sabrina Ionescu, G, 5-11: The 2020 No. 1 pick transitioned seamlessly into the league, but last season was telling for the star guard. She plays best off the ball, which is why Vandersloot was such a key addition. Ionescu averaged 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds, 6.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game in 2022, while also posting her lowest turnover mark yet at 3 per contest. Known as the triple-double queen in college, she continues to do a little bit of everything in the WNBA.
Sab with the no-👀 pass 🥶 @Withings pic.twitter.com/8LcuvYBv2e
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 21, 2023
Bench Players
Las Vegas Aces
Key players: Alysha Clark, Kiah Stokes, Riquna Williams
The one knock on the Aces last season was their lack of bench. It didn’t end up mattering, as the team secured a title, and Riquna Williams ended up playing big minutes in the Finals, but Becky Hammon & Co. still bolstered the bench unit in the offseason. They added an elite defender in 10-year WNBA veteran Alysha Clark. The Aces also retained Kiah Stokes, who brings rebounding and rim protection.
New York Liberty
Key Players: Marine Johannès, Kayla Thornton, Stephanie Dolson, Han Xu
Everyone off the bench for the Liberty brings something different to the court, which is what you want from secondary players. Johannès could easily be a starter for another team, and she’s an elite passer and crafty shot-creator. Thornton is an experienced vet who played six seasons mostly in a starting role for the Wings, and Dolson brings experience as well with nine WNBA seasons under her belt. Han Xu is a question mark for the Liberty, as she hasn’t seen much time in their first two games, but her size (6-10) and unique skill set (which includes 3-point shooting) make her a threat off the bench.
Head Coach
Las Vegas Aces
Becky Hammon set the bar high in her first season with the Aces, leading them to the franchise’s first WNBA title. She’s an experienced coach who spent years as an assistant for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs before taking the Aces job. Hammon also played 15 years in the WNBA and was a 6-time all star. The signing of Candace Parker put the Aces in position to compete for the title again, but it didn’t come without controversy. The Aces traded Dearica Hamby to the Sparks in order to make space for Parker, but a WNBA investigation found that Hamby was mistreated during the trade due to her pregnancy. Hammon denied the claims, but she was suspended for the first two games of the season.
New York Liberty
Sandy Brondello, like Hammon, has experience playing in the WNBA as well as coaching. She played professionally from 1992-2004, and she also represented the Australian National team, winning two silver medals in the Olympics. She got into coaching in 2005 as an assistant for the San Antonio Silver Stars, the franchise that became the Las Vegas Aces. Brondello made her name as a coach with the Mercury, coaching in Phoenix from 2014-2021 and winning a WNBA championship in 2014 before taking the Liberty job in 2022.
Team History
Las Vegas Aces
The Aces joined the WNBA in 1997 first as the Utah Starzz, then became the San Antonio Silver Stars (later just the Stars) before moving to Las Vegas in 2018. The franchise had one conference title in 2008, and then the Aces secured the first title last season.
New York Liberty
The Liberty joined the WNBA in 1997 as well but have stayed put in the New York City area (if not always in their current home borough of Brooklyn). The team has won three conference titles, in 1999, 2000 and 2002, but has yet to win a WNBA title.
The polls are closed for 2023 WNBA All-Star voting, and the game’s starters will be announced Sunday. From there, the WNBA’s 12 head coaches will select the 12 reserves, and the two top vote-getters will serve as captains and draft their respective All-Star teams on July 8.
For the first part of the process, media members were tasked with selecting four guards and four forwards/centers on their ballots. Whoever receives the most votes will start in the All-Star Game on July 15 in Las Vegas.
Here’s how I voted.
Guards
Jackie Young, Las Vegas Aces
Young took home the Most Improved Player award last season, and so far this year, she’s been even better. Las Vegas is bursting with talent, but Young has often been the best player on the court for her team and has turned herself into one of the best guards in the league. The Notre Dame product is averaging 21 points, 3.8 rebounds, 3.0 assists and 1.6 steals per game. She’s shooting 50% from beyond the arc, making 2.3 3-pointers per contest, and has also been aggressive on the attack and in transition.
Young has been consistent in her play since she opened the season with 23 points in a win over Seattle. Of all the guards, she was the easiest All-Star selection for me.
Jewell Loyd, Seattle Storm
The Storm may be struggling, but Loyd certainly isn’t. She’s leading the WNBA with 26.2 points per game and leading Seattle with 3.7 assists per game. The 29-year-old guard is a prolific shot creator, and without Breanna Stewart in Seattle this season, she’s taken on a bigger scoring role. Last year, Loyd was one of the league’s top guards, averaging 16.3 points per game. This year, she’s increased that number by 10 points. So far, Loyd has recorded four 30-plus point games, including a career-high 39 in a 109-103 win over Dallas on June 17.
Chelsea Gray, Las Vegas Aces
Last season’s Finals MVP is picking up right where she left off. The Aces rank first in the league in scoring, and their offense starts with Gray. She leads the team and is third among all WNBA players with 6.3 assists per game. Gray can also create shots for herself, averaging 13.6 points per game. Of all those qualities, it’s the veteran’s efficient scoring that makes her stand out to me. Gray is making 51.8% of her 2-point shots, 51.2% of her 3-point shots and 92.3% of her free-throw attempts.
Allisha Gray, Atlanta Dream
After playing her first six seasons with the Dallas Wings, Gray is wasting no time establishing herself with the Dream. The guard is averaging 17.8 points, 5.6 rebounds and 2.9 assists per game, all of which are career-high marks. Gray is also an excellent on-ball defender, meaning she impacts nearly every aspect of the game for Atlanta.
Gray is aggressive when both driving to the rim and attacking the glass. She’s the third-best rebounder among guards in the WNBA and has recorded two double-doubles this season. This is the best season of Gray’s career, and she is certainly worthy of making her first All-Star appearance.
Forwards/centers
Brittney Griner, Phoenix Mercury
I expected Griner to take some time getting reacclimated to the WNBA after she returned home in December from wrongful detainment in Russia, but that was not the case. She opened the season with 18 points on 7-for-9 shooting from the field and four blocked shots. Since then, the Mercury center has been consistent on both ends of the floor. She’s averaging 20.1 points per game, which is sixth in the league, and 2.5 blocks per game, which is first.
Until getting injured in an 83-69 loss to Seattle on June 13, when she played just nine minutes and scored two points, Griner had scored at least 18 points in every appearance.
Alyssa Thomas, Connecticut Sun
Connecticut coach Stepahnie White calls Thomas the “most underrated superstar in the WNBA.” While Thomas may fly under the radar, her impact on the court cannot be overstated.
Thomas does everything for the Sun. She averages 14.8 points, 10.5 rebounds, 8.0 assists and 2.1 steals per contest, leaving her just two assists shy of averaging a triple-double for the season. She recorded the fifth triple-double of her career on June 20, with 15 rebounds, 13 points and 12 assists in an 85-79 win over the Storm. Thomas is also efficient with her decision-making, averaging just three turnovers per contest.
Satou Sabally, Dallas Wings
Injuries plagued Sabally in the first few seasons of her career, but now the Oregon product is healthy and playing her best basketball. Sabally is a versatile scorer who, at 6-foot-4, can get points from inside or outside, off a post-up or off the dribble. She’s averaging 20 points (up from 11.3 last season), 10.4 rebounds, 3.2 assists and 1.5 steals per game. Sabally is one of just three players in the WNBA averaging a double-double on the season. The forward should be a shoe-in All-Star selection.
Nneka Ogwumike, Los Angeles Sparks
The Sparks have battled injuries so far this season, but with different lineups nearly every night, Ogwumike has been the consistent bright spot. In her 12th season in the WNBA, Ogwumike is averaging a career-best 19.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game, nearing a double-double. She is also averaging a career-high 3.6 assists per game, showing off her ability to read defenses and find open shooters. Ogwumike also has six double-doubles so far this season.
A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces
The reigning WNBA MVP has continued her dominance for the Aces, leading her team to a league leading 11-1 record so far. Wilson has led her team in either points or rebounds in 10 of those 12 games. She’s averaging 18.6 points and 9.3 rebounds per contest, while also making a difference on the defensive end with 2.2 blocks and 1.3 steals per game.
Wilson has been held to single-digit scoring just once this season, with eight in a win over Minnesota on June 18. But in that game, she proved her ability to impact the Aces in multiple ways, recording season-highs in rebounds (14) and blocks (four).
Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty
It’s taking the WNBA’s newest superteam time to develop chemistry, but through the growing pains, Stewart has been one of the league’s best players. In her first home game for the Liberty, Stewart recorded a double-double with 45 points and 12 rebounds, setting a new franchise record. She’s averaging a team-high 23.9 points, 10.8 rebounds, 2.1 blocks and 1.7 steals per game, while also dishing out four assists per game. Stewart is second in the WNBA in scoring and first in rebounding.
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
Sophia Smith wants more.
She always has. More wins. More goals. More soccer.
It’s why she told her parents when she was 12 that she needed to leave her local club, and drive three hours round-trip every day to play for Real Colorado. Why she once scored seven goals in a half, and then got into an argument with her coach when he took her out.
It’s why she left Stanford after just two seasons, to join the NWSL.
It’s why at 22, she’s regarded as the future and the present when it comes to United States women’s soccer. Why in her third year in the NWSL, she won the 2022 league MVP and Championship game MVP awards.
It’s why Sophia Smith doesn’t like scoring goals, she needs to score goals. The same way she needs food and water. Smith needs to feel the ball hitting cleat, and then see it hitting net.
From the time she started playing soccer, scoring was her focus. Even when coaches at the youth level tried experimenting with positions. If Smith was on the field, she had her eye on the goal. It didn’t matter if she was playing defense, or even if she was wearing gloves and a keeper’s jersey on the opposite side of the field.
Every time she scores, Smith goes through the same progression of emotions. First, she feels relief. Like she can finally exhale. Then she smiles. Soccer, after all, still brings her joy. But those emotions don’t last. She sighs, she smiles, and then Sophia Smith goes back to being determined. Now, it’s time to score again.
That’s why her Michael Jordan-esque shrug celebration in the 2022 NWSL Championship game caught her parents off guard. It was so different from her usual post-goal routine. But like everything Smith does, it came with a purpose.
This time, she was sending a message to those who didn’t think she deserved to win NWSL MVP. The ones that thought someone more seasoned should take home the award. Now wasn’t the time for Smith. Not even after she scored 14 goals for the Portland Thorns in the regular season. Not after she became the youngest player to lead the USWNT in scoring over a calendar year, all but ensuring herself a starting spot on the 2023 World Cup team. Not yet.
But with one goal — that ended up being the game-winner — and one shrug, Smith put the doubts to rest. Now is the time.
Her time.
“That’s that,” she said after the game.
And it was. For once, when she scored, Sophia Smith didn’t want more. She didn’t need more. At that moment, she had done enough.
***
Kenny and Mollie Smith still live in the same Windsor, Colo., home where Sophia and her two older sisters grew up. There’s a small and slightly faded Portland Thorns flag in the front yard near the entrance, but other than that, not much evidence that their youngest daughter is one of the best soccer players in the world.
Instead, the house is full of memories. Pictures of the chubby-cheeked Smith trio as little girls. A yard with a replica of the crab-shaped sandbox they played in, this one being used when the Smith’s two grandchildren come over.
Kenny can point to the spot in the yard where the girls tired themselves out on a trampoline — “Every parent should get their kids one,” he says emphatically. The basement where they used to play Polly Pockets is now full of furniture and bits and bobs that Sophia, Gabrielle and Savannah have left behind between their various moves. The home has crisp white walls and a sectional couch that can seat the whole family. “SportsCenter” plays at a low volume in the background.
Visitors to the Smiths’ cul-de-sac home are offered food, bottled water or iced tea when they walk in the door. Stories and photos are at the ready. And when the girls come home, the house feels complete. People used to tease Kenny about having three daughters and no sons, but he was quick to set the record straight. He’s lucky to have them, he says. Both then and now.
Gabrielle still lives close by, and the Smiths have a playroom for her two young kids. Savannah, who followed her father’s footsteps and played college basketball, now lives in California. And Sophia, the youngest, splits her time between Portland playing for the Thorns or wherever the U.S. women’s national team is posted, and living with her boyfriend, former Stanford and current Arizona Cardinals football player Michael Wilson.
When Sophia — or Sophie, as her family calls her — was born, the Smiths were already experienced parents. But as she grew, they were baffled by their youngest daughter. She made her bed every day before school, lined up her collection of cleats and sorted her toys from smallest to largest. Today, Sophia’s room is a time capsule of her life. Her Stanford championship ring sits in a box by her bed, and on her desk bulletin board, she’s pinned the card from the 2020 NWSL draft that reads: “With the first pick, the Portland Thorns select Sophia Smith.”
To an outsider, the room is spotless, marked by Sophia’s intense organizational skills. But Mollie says Sophia would be disgusted to see its current state — a few boxes on the floor of her closet and a stack of miscellaneous objects on her desk. These things will be cleared out the next time she visits, barring the few items her parents can convince her to keep. Among them are a crate full of her favorite pairs of cleats and sweatshirts from each college she visited.
Growing up, Sophia was a mini adult. Partly because her soccer career demanded it, partly because she wanted to keep up with her sisters, and partly because she was born with the mindset that she could do anything.
When Sophia was 2, the Smiths moved into their family home. One day, sod was delivered for their yard, but a mixup and a holiday weekend meant no workers arrived to lay it, so Kenny and Mollie had to do it themselves. They put their three girls down for a nap and began landscaping. Every few minutes, one of them poked their heads in the door to check on the girls.
But in between those moments of supervision, Sophia woke up. And like the little adult she thought herself to be, Sophia decided to make a snack. Half a corn dog, the remnants of her lunch, sat on the counter. Sophia had seen her parents use the microwave before and must have thought, “How hard can it be?” She climbed up the counter and smashed her chubby toddler fingers on the buttons.
When Mollie came inside minutes later, the house was full of smoke. Their brand-new microwave had melted at the bottom into a teardrop shape, and nestled into the burnt glass was a charred stick.
“We had just moved in and already had to get a new microwave,” Mollie says with a laugh.
Obstacles never mattered to Sophia. Whether it’s defenders on a field or a steep counter, she’s always been determined to conquer them and get what she wants.
***
Sophia started playing soccer because her sisters played soccer, and much of her childhood was spent wanting to be like them. Gabrielle and Savannah are four and five years older than Sophia, so she spent a few seasons watching before she was able to compete.
But those years on the sidelines were formative. At halftime, she would kick the ball with other little siblings, but when the game was going, Sophia was watching.
“I was locked in,” she says.
Gabrielle and Savannah stopped playing soccer in middle school, but this time, Sophia didn’t follow suit.
“We all quickly realized that this is something that I was good at and something that I loved more than anything else,” Sophia says. “This is what I was meant to do.”
In first grade, Sophia’s coaches would give their players stickers when they mastered a new skill, and she amassed quite the collection, but Sophia didn’t need prizes to motivate her. As soon as they got home from practice, she would drag Mollie or Kenny into the backyard.
Eventually, they had to get her a rebounding net so Mollie could avoid further injuries.
“It was terrible playing goalie against her,” Mollie says with a laugh. “I was always ducking, because every time I stuck out my arm or hand, I’d end up hurting it.”
Mollie wasn’t alone in her failed efforts at defending Sophia. Even then, she was strides ahead of her peers. By the time she was a preteen, dominating the local competition wasn’t enough for her. The best players were in Centennial, competing for Real Colorado, an hour and a half drive away from Windsor.
The program, led by Lorne Donaldson, who now coaches the Jamaican women’s national team, is responsible for producing several elite soccer players. In addition to Sophia, Donaldson coached Jaelin Howell and Mallory Swanson.
Playing for Real was never the plan, but when the opportunity arose, Sophia knew it was right for her development.
She doesn’t set goals. At least not in the traditional sense. The awards she won in 2022 weren’t on a vision board, and neither was Stanford or the NWSL. She doesn’t waste her time with the minutiae of greatness. Those steps are impossible to predict, anyway.
“I don’t think I could have pictured a year like last year where everything just went right,” Sophia says.
Instead, she focuses on the big picture. One massive goal with no real end point — being the best.
When Sophia hoisted the NWSL Championship MVP trophy, then-coach Rhian Wilkinson stood next to her star player and prophesied Sophia’s ability to stand alone atop the list of great American players.
“She has that in her,” Wilkinson said.
Sophia knows it, too.
There was no “ah-ha moment.” No red, white and blue confetti dancing in her mind. Sophia had a Fathead poster of Mia Hamm in her room growing up, and Donaldson says that is the closest comparison he can find when people ask who Sophia plays like. But she didn’t fall asleep looking at the poster and dreaming of being better than one of the greatest players in U.S. history.
“There was no exact moment where it clicked,” Sophia says. “As I progressed, and with the success I’ve had, the environments I’ve been in, the players I’ve been exposed to who are the best in the world, who have won World Cups, Olympics, done all of that — it made me realize that I can keep getting so much better.”
Real Colorado was one of the first steps to greatness.
No one told Sophia she had to do it. She figured it out herself, like she always does, and presented the idea to her parents. It was a sacrifice for everyone. For Sophia, it meant leaving school early in order to avoid rush hour, and putting her organizational skills to good use tracking assignments from the car. Mollie got a new job that gave her the flexibility to take Sophia to and from training sessions. The team practiced four or five times a week — not enough for Sophia, who often coaxed Kenny or Mollie into driving her on off days to get extra workouts in.
“I’ll never complain,” Mollie remembers her saying. “I’ll never complain one time. Can I please go down there and play soccer?”
“She understood the commitment,” Mollie says. “And she never did complain.”
***
When the USWNT played Jamaica in the Concacaf W Championship last July, Donaldson tried to warn his players about Sophia.
About her speed, her skill, her hunger to score. They knew she was talented, but they also knew Donaldson had spent years coaching the American star. Perhaps, they thought, he was exaggerating.
It took Sophia just eight minutes to score two goals.
Perhaps he wasn’t.
“Everyone kind of looked at me like, ‘Oh, Jesus Christ. You were more than right.’ And I just shrugged my shoulders,” Donaldson says. “Because I have seen it. I have seen it not once or twice or 10 times. I have seen it hundreds of times.”
SOPHIA SMITH YOU ARE A STAR. 🤩
— Attacking Third (@AttackingThird) July 7, 2022
What a touch and finish from the 21-year-old @ThornsFC phenom. 💪 pic.twitter.com/x6DGuy6TQ3
Donaldson’s first impression of Sophia at 12 is the same first impression she gives now.
“She hates to lose, and she loves to score goals,” he says.
Coaching Sophia is part of his professional highlight reel. Coaching against her?
“Terrible,” Donaldson says. “It’s like a father coaching against his daughter.”
Donaldson is one of the few people in Sophia’s life outside of her immediate family that still call her Sophie. To her boyfriend, and everyone who met her at Stanford, she’s Sophia. To her coaches, and everyone who reads her name on a roster, she’s Sophia. She even asked her grandparents to call her by her full name.
But to Donaldson, she will always be Sophie. He’s watched her grow the same way Mollie and Kenny have. He’s proud of her the same way they are. And he’s fought with her the same way a parent would.
In her early days playing for Real Colorado, the team traveled to Portland to play back-to-back games on a Saturday and Sunday. It was February, rainy and miserable. The conditions didn’t impact Sophia, who scored seven goals in the first half of game one.
Donaldson told Sophia that she wouldn’t be playing in the second half. She’d already done enough.
She pushed back.
Donaldson’s halftime talk to the team went out the window, and instead, he spent 15 minutes arguing with Sophia about whether or not she should keep playing. Donaldson started with the obvious.
We need you for tomorrow’s game, he said.
Sophia responded. She wouldn’t be tired. She could play another half and play tomorrow.
So, Donaldson moved on to a new tactic. He lied.
I know the opposing coach, he said. It would be disrespectful to put you back in.
Sophia had an answer for that, too. It wasn’t her problem. Why was he coaching in this league if he couldn’t handle it?
Donaldson pivoted again.
What if the other team does something stupid, he asked. What if they get mad and break your leg?
If they were going to target her, Sophia retorted, they would have already done it.
No matter how many counterarguments she came up with, Donaldson held firm. Sophia didn’t go back in the game. And she hasn’t forgotten.
“To this day, she hasn’t forgiven me,” Donaldson says with a laugh. “I think she just wanted to see how many goals she could score. She wanted to hit double digits.”
Donaldson couldn’t be mad at Sophia, not even then. That hard-headedness made her great. Players need to be coachable, but they also need to push back. He encouraged her fire.
“I always tell my players, ‘When you are on the field, you have to be a b–ch. Once you get off the field, you can go back to being nice.’ The more of a b–ch you are, the more games you win,” he says.
Sophia’s ability to know when to stoke the fire and when to put it out is part of what makes her an elite goal scorer.
There’s a formula. It starts with natural instinct. Donaldson says you’re either born with it or you’re not. Sophia was. Good technique is a must, but it can always be improved. Instinct can’t. Neither can a sixth sense for the goalkeeper. A true goal scorer can sense where the keeper will be in relation to the net, how they’ll react, and the proper angles to counter their moves.
They also have to be fearless.
Sophia has that, too.
Growing up, Sophia was a bit of a daredevil. She liked to stand at the top of the stairs, yell to whoever was walking by and fling herself onto them.
“No fear,” Mollie says. “She was just expecting, knowing that we would catch her.”
Once, when she was 6, Sophia balanced on her family coffee table to play Wii Dance. It was a glass table with a wooden rim, and Sophia perched herself on the edge of it, stomping her feet. Then, she stepped back and crashed through the glass.
Her little sweatsuit was sliced like it had gone through a shredder, but Sophia was unharmed and unphased.
“She’s not afraid to take chances,” Kenny says. “She’s never worried about making mistakes.”
***
Sophia Smith being named to the USWNT’s 2023 World Cup roster was a foregone conclusion. To most people, at least.
Kenny and Mollie planned to go watch her play in Australia and New Zealand — “If she makes it,” they said back in April. But they don’t make travel arrangements in advance. The family doesn’t take anything for granted. To them, nothing is official until Sophia excitedly forwards them an email, or screenshots her invite and shares it with the group chat, like she does every time she’s tabbed for a national team appearance.
Last year, in addition to all of her NWSL accolades, Sophia Smith led the USWNT in scoring and was named the U.S. Soccer Female Player of the Year.
Sophia excelling on the soccer field is all but expected now, but for the Smiths, these moments never lose their shine.
“It’s always exciting, because it’s her dream,” Mollie says.
There’s a picture of young Sophia Smith and former USWNT star Abby Wambach that circulated the internet last year. The Smiths can’t remember the exact circumstances of the moment. They think it was a Colorado Rapids game where members of the USWNT made an appearance, but the details don’t matter. What matters is that Sophia saw Abby Wambach and insisted on waiting in line for a photo, no matter how long it took.
“She was going to stay there until she met her,” Mollie says with a smile.
well @AbbyWambach, you were a big reason this moment happened for me. you inspired me to follow my dreams. thank you. 🙏🏽 https://t.co/NLNIonyW5y pic.twitter.com/54azfKYIGK
— Sophia Smith (@sophsssmith) December 1, 2020
It’s a memory that reminds the Smiths of just how far Sophia has come, and in a short amount of time.
“It feels like yesterday that we were driving her back and forth to Denver,” Kenny says.
But here she is. About to play in the World Cup for the first time.
It’s been three years since Sophia turned pro, and three years since she made her first senior national team appearance.
The USWNT is experiencing extreme turnover. The 2023 World Cup roster has just nine players who have appeared in previous World Cups, and the few that are on the team — established stars like Megan Rapinoe and Alex Morgan — are much closer to the end of their careers than the beginning. But Sophia is just getting started.
That’s why many have taken to calling her the “future of U.S. women’s soccer,” a moniker that Sophia rejects. She may be the future, but she’s also the now, and she’s ready to prove it.
“I don’t love ‘the future’ saying because I feel like I can do this right now,” she said on a CBS Sports show in April. “I know I’m young, but I don’t think age really has anything to do with it.”
There’s that fire.
It hasn’t gone away. It’s evolved. Sophia’s game has, too.
So far this NWSL season, she has seven goals but also five assists through 12 matches, compared to three assists in a full 20-game season last year. In goals, Sophia is second in the league; in assists, she is first.
When she was younger, Sophia says she felt like a failure if she didn’t score during a game. Now, she’s still scoring, but she’s contributing in other ways as well.
“She can supply, she can be the facilitator now,” Donaldson says. “Which is good. At this level, she’s going to be marked heavily. So she has to find another way to impact the game.”
Sophia is about to turn 23. That’s where the future of U.S. women’s soccer comes in. Because the Sophia that’s about to play in the 2023 World Cup is more than capable, but she’s nowhere near as good as she will be.
“Whatever team she is on, no matter how talented, she is always going to end up being the best player on that team,” says Michael Wilson, Sophia’s boyfriend. “History has shown that. She just wants to be the best at whatever she does.”
***
Every time Sophia comes home to Windsor, people want to see her. Even if they only knew her tangentially growing up, Sophia being home is big news. It’s not every day that your town produces a soccer star.
But Sophia rarely wants to see anyone. She’d rather stay in the house she grew up in. Organize her room. Make coffee with the espresso machine she gave to her mom. Play with her niece and nephew. Call Michael. Take care of the people who’ve always taken care of her.
“She always wants to do the right thing,” Wilson says. “Both on the field and off the field. She’s extremely genuine and has pure intentions. I don’t think you get that from a lot of different people.”
Growing up, Sophia missed out on a lot of teenage milestones in order to play soccer at a high level. She had to quit basketball after her freshman season, she missed dances and sleepovers. But none of that bothered her. Missing moments with her family does.
When she gets on a plane, Sophia takes a video scanning the first class cabin because Mollie likes to see the luxury. She does the same for her sisters when she checks into a fancy hotel. Her niece is trained to look out the door for packages because “Auntie Sophie” sends her toys from Amazon almost weekly. And as a Nike athlete, Sophia ships half of the gear she gets to her sisters.
“They’re people I can trust,” Sophia says of her small circle. “They’ll always have my back. Always support me. Regardless of what I’m doing.”
Family is atop Sophia’s pyramid of priorities. She knows who she is with them.
Sophia is also firm in her identity on the field. She’s playing soccer at the highest possible level, scoring goals, and now facilitating. She’s a proven winner and a tenacious competitor. She’s an MVP and a World Cup participant.
All of that is clear.
But off the field and outside of her bubble, Sophia worries. What else fits into that pyramid? She wonders if she’s doing enough to find herself.
During the pandemic, Sophia discovered a passion for reading. She likes romance novels, her favorite being “Archer’s Voice” by Mia Sheridan, and she will read anything by Colleen Hoover. Sophia loves skincare and shopping. She likes a good cup of coffee — oat milk vanilla lattes are her favorite — and breakfast burritos. She’s still hunting for a good one in Portland.
But often, she feels that it isn’t enough. Often, she wants more.
“My whole life has been soccer,” she says. “When you hear my name, soccer is attached to it. But it’s like, ‘OK, what do you like to do outside of soccer? What are your hobbies? What are your goals in life?’ That’s something that I’m really trying to work through.”
These are the questions she talks about with her inner circle. In her childhood home, or over acai bowls with Michael.
He takes a different approach.
Michael imagines a long career for Sophia where she plays soccer until “she’s 35 at least.”
Then, he says, she will have 65 years to figure out who she is outside of the sport.
“To be the best in the world, you have to put every ounce into it,” Michael says. “Then, when you are done with that, you can figure out the rest.”
Sophia sees a clear division between who she is as a soccer player and who she is off the field. But perhaps there can be some crossover.
That’s what Donaldson sees when he thinks of Sophia’s life after soccer. He thinks of her every time he’s in Jamaica, teaching kids about soccer as a tool to help them out of poverty. He thinks about her when he sees racial divides within our world. He thinks about her when he’s coaching kids who want to be like Sophia, the way she wanted to be like Abby Wambach.
“She’s going to be one of the greatest spokespeople in the future, for female athletes especially,” Donaldson says. “The way she treats kids, the way she looks at life. She’s from a mixed family — her mom is white, her dad is Black — she sees people as people. She doesn’t see people as being separated or segregated.”
***
When the World Cup is over, and Donaldson no longer has to worry about Jamaica playing Sophia and the United States, he wants to sit down with his former player. Just to talk. Not about soccer but about life. He will ask her questions, and maybe she will have answers, maybe she won’t. Maybe her first World Cup will have opened her eyes.
It will change her life. As a soccer player, definitely; as a person, maybe. She might leave Australia and know herself better. And she might not — both are OK. Because Michael is right. She doesn’t need to know, not yet. But she wants to, and when Sophia wants something, she makes it happen.
Kenny and Mollie keep Sophia’s room ready for her in Windsor. Anytime she wants to come home, it’s there, just how she left it. Growing up, she changed it often. An interest in interior design spawned from hours spent playing “The Sims” with Gabrielle and Savannah, and Sophia always had a new idea for her room.
Kenny pulls back the door to show a blank white wall. Sophia used to keep all of her name tags and passes from every camp, tournament and college visit posted on that wall. He’s not sure when she took it down. But at some point, Sophia decided she didn’t need it any more. That part of her life is over, and she doesn’t waste time on the past. She also doesn’t waste time on the future. She’s said as much.
She wants to contribute to the USWNT, now. She wants to score, now. She wants to know who she is, now.
But there’s a spot right between the present and the future. That’s where she is. She’s Sophie and Sophia. The future of U.S. women’s soccer and the present. The answered questions and the unanswered questions.
It’s like when she scores a goal. The instance between relief and refocus. The Jordan shrug.
And though Sophia Smith will always want more, the Jordan shrug of life is not a bad place to be.
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
Last season, Sierra Enge watched the San Diego Wave take on Angel City FC in September as a fan. She turned on the TV and cheered for both the Wave and the attendance record that the teams were hoping to break.
For Enge, it was an important night in women’s soccer. The sellout crowd of 32,000 fans shattered the NWSL single-game attendance record, and Enge watched her hometown team — one that several of her friends played for — secure a victory over their in-state rival in their first game at Snapdragon Stadium.
“I was like, ‘Wow.’ It just shows how much women’s sports are growing and how much San Diego is just supporting the growth of it,” Enge said.
That moment was big.
This one is bigger.
Enge, who grew up in San Diego County, is now playing for her hometown team and experiencing the rivalry with Angel City firsthand.
The Wave played in Los Angeles earlier this season, coming away with a 2-0 victory on April 23. On Saturday, the two clubs square off at Snapdragon Stadium for their second regular-season meeting of the year. San Diego is coming into the game on a five-match unbeaten streak and in first place in the NWSL standings, while Angel City is looking to find its footing after dropping to 11th.
“I’m just excited to be a part of it,” Enge said of the rivalry. “I feel like just the attendance and the hype around this game last year was so incredible. And then when we played Angel City earlier this season on the road, you can just tell that there’s kind of a different energy around the game.”
From growing up in Cardiff, a beach community located 22 miles from San Diego, most of Enge’s soccer memories and experiences are based in California. Before being drafted 13th overall by the Wave in January, the midfielder played college soccer at Stanford. There, Enge remembers batting Santa Clara in “emotionally driven” matches. She says Stanford didn’t have a clear rival like San Diego does with L.A., but the battles with the Broncos in California were always intense.
“Any time you play against a rival it’s just fun because you know all the girls on the team so well, and it’s that way with Angel City,” she said. “The better you know a team, sometimes the more fired up you can be.
“It’s one of those games where you are a little bit more nervous before, and the first five minutes of the game are probably a little bit chaotic, but after that it is just a great environment.”
Enge has added motivation every time she takes the field for San Diego. Growing up, she never dreamed that her hometown would have a professional women’s soccer team. But San Diego has always been a hotbed for soccer talent, and even now, several of her teammates played with or against her at the club and college levels.
“Southern California in general is just such a hot spot for soccer,” Enge said. “And the ability to be able to challenge yourself every day and play against better players and get yourself out of your comfort zone is something that I think is pretty unique at the youth soccer level. It’s definitely something that you don’t get all over the country.”
Like most aspiring soccer players, Enge spent her formative years watching the U.S. women’s national team. Back then, she didn’t know of any other ways to play professional soccer. Then, she learned about the NWSL and started following the best players in the country.
When she was drafted by the Wave, Enge received a warm welcome from Alex Morgan, another California native and a player she had long watched and admired.
Enge has made a point to soak up every bit of advice Morgan gives her, from how to be a professional to how to stay patient during the challenges of a rookie season. The 23-year-old has started all five regular-season matches she’s appeared in so far for San Diego, playing a full 90 minutes in four of them and scoring her first NWSL goal last month.
hometown kid bags her first @NWSL goal 💙
— San Diego Wave FC (@sandiegowavefc) May 21, 2023
LFG @sierraenge!! pic.twitter.com/tkXt1nrjab
“I’ve been trying to learn as much as I can from her, because she excels in every aspect of being a female athlete,” Enge said of Morgan.
“Honestly, if you would have told me 10 years ago that I would be teammates with Alex Morgan, I would have said, ‘There is no way.’ But it’s been such a special experience.”
Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.
Aliyah Boston took two dribbles. She pivoted. She pivoted again. Then, finding a sliver of space, she stepped through and scored.
The intricate move looked like the footwork of a WNBA veteran, not a rookie playing in her fourth professional game. But Boston isn’t like most rookies. She isn’t like most players.
She’s the kind of player that can go up against 2022 Sixth Woman of the Year Brionna Jones and execute a patient, high-level move to score. The kind of player that, so far, has replicated her efficient shooting numbers from college against the top basketball players in the world.
Through four games, Boston is averaging 15.8 points on 66.7% shooting.
“Aliyah is special, man,” Indiana Fever coach Christie Sides said Tuesday.
It’s why the Fever selected her first in the 2023 draft, and why Boston is going to be a key part of Indiana’s growth as the team looks to improve on last season’s 5-31 record.
And it’s not just Boston. The Fever have a core of young stars, including second-year player NaLyssa Smith, who is averaging 14.8 points and 12.0 rebounds through the first four games of the season.
Boston and Smith make for a dynamic duo in the frontcourt. They helped Indiana snap a 20-game losing streak with a 90-87 victory over the Atlanta Dream on Sunday. Then they led the way as the team took the Connecticut Sun to the brink on Tuesday in an 81-78 loss.
Against Atlanta, Smith had 23 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists, and Boston finished with 13 points and 7 rebounds. In the loss to the Sun, Smith once again recorded a double-double with 14 points and 15 rebounds, while Boston had a season-high 20 points.
The two are learning to lean on each other, and their on-court chemistry is already strong.
“Having someone you can rely on for big buckets at the end of the game, that’s huge,” Smith said. “The more we gel, and the more we play together, it will be harder to guard us and stop us.”
Aliyah Boston with her first 20-point game. 🌟
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 31, 2023
20 PTS | 4 REB | 4 AST | 2 BLK | 8-12 FG pic.twitter.com/3bBqqmkd6E
Following the loss to Connecticut, sitting side by side, Smith and Boston remained in good spirits. Playing the Sun so closely, just days after their first win against Atlanta, felt like a big step.
“Just based off us playing them our very first game to now, I think there was a lot of improvement,” Boston said, referencing the Fever’s 70-61 opening day loss to the Sun. “So it feels good. I mean, it would feel better if we came out with a dub, but we look at what we need to improve on and see the areas where we did well.”
Sides agrees with her players. This could be a turning point for the Fever, she said, but they have to keep executing and improving every day.
In her first season as head coach, Sides has the tough task of building up a team that went a combined 17-73 over the last three seasons. Before topping the Dream, Indiana had tied for the longest losing streak in WNBA history.
But Sides, who spent 2022 as an assistant with Atlanta, likes the pieces she has – young players like Boston, Smith, Queen Egbo, Lexie Hull and Grace Berger, plus veterans like Kelsey Mitchell and Erica Wheeler.
Berger also was selected in the 2023 draft at No. 7 overall, and Sides sees her as a key component to the Fever’s future. The Indiana graduate played six minutes in the first half against the Sun, running the offense and recording a bucket on a hesitation blow-by.
“She’s going to be a good player,” Sides said. “But with rookies it just takes time. I have all the confidence in Grace when she goes in. She is going to keep getting better and getting more minutes.”
Grace Berger made the entire defense disappear. 😈 pic.twitter.com/jIiaTslVvj
— Indiana Fever (@IndianaFever) May 30, 2023
Rebuilding the franchise is no easy feat, but it’s one with a clear blueprint. Every game, every practice, every individual workout is a step in the right direction.
“We just go to work,” Sides said. “We stop talking, and we teach, and we go to work. That’s all we can do. And they’ve got to get the experience.”
Tuesday’s game was yet another experience the team needed: A close loss. The Fever kept within striking distance throughout the game, never letting the Sun pull away. It allowed them to have the final possession, down 3, with a chance to go to overtime.
Hull missed the shot, but the play was well-executed, Sides said. That’s something she’s seen major growth on over the first four games. When Sides calls a timeout, the Fever do exactly what she asks when they go back on the court.
That seems like a small thing, but the learning process is about taking those small things and building on them.
“When you’ve lost as much as some of these players have, you have to teach them how to win again,” Sides said. “You have to learn to win. There is a way to win. You have to have a sense of urgency, fight from the beginning, execute, do the little things … So that is what we are working on every day, and they are putting in the work.”