The Connecticut Sun are sending 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones to the New York Liberty in a three-team trade also involving the Dallas Wings, the teams announced on Monday. The news had previously been reported by multiple outlets.

Jones requested the trade to the Liberty after meeting with multiple teams during the offseason, according to Rachel Galligan of Winsidr and Just Women’s Sports. In exchange for Jones, New York will send Rebecca Allen and the No. 6 pick in the 2023 WNBA Draft to Connecticut and Natasha Howard to Dallas. The Wings will also receive the contract rights to Liberty guard Crystal Dangerfield and will send Kayla Thornton to New York and Tyasha Harris to Connecticut.

Jones, 29, was in the final year of her contract with the Sun. Connecticut recently hired Stephanie White as head coach after Curt Miller left the Sun in October to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks.

The Bahamian forward will join a Liberty team with a promising young core led by guard Sabrina Ionescu, who made her first All-Star team last year after New York selected her with the first overall pick in 2020. The Liberty are coming off playoff appearances in 2021 and 2022 after missing the postseason for three straight years. The original WNBA franchise hired champion coach Sandy Brondello away from the Phoenix Mercury before last season.

In 2022, Jones led the Sun to their second WNBA Finals appearance in four years after averaging a team-leading 14.6 points, 8.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game. The four-time WNBA All-Star was named the league’s Most Improved Player in 2017 and the Sixth Player of the Year in 2018 before winning the MVP award in 2021. The 6-foot-6 forward had spent her entire career with the Sun since they acquired her draft rights from L.A. in 2016.

With Jonquel Jones off the books, the Sun plan to use the extra cap space to core forward Brionna Jones by the league deadline on Friday, according to ESPN. An unrestricted free agent, Brionna Jones will not be able to sign a contract directly with another team under the core designation. The 27-year-old was the WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2021 and Sixth Player of the Year in 2022.

Based on the WNBA’s free agency timeline, teams can issue qualifying offers and designate core players until Friday. Free agents can begin negotiating with teams on Jan. 21 and signing contracts on Feb. 1.

The Liberty are likely to court Seattle Storm superstar Breanna Stewart again in free agency. The trade for Jones actually freed up cap space for New York, so Stewart remains a tantalizing possibility.

Stewart met with New York brass as a free agent last year before ultimately signing a one-year, supermax deal with the Storm for Sue Bird’s final season. The two-time WNBA champion and 2018 MVP is a native of Syracuse, N.Y.

The Wings will add the veteran Howard to a young team built around Arike Ogunbowale and Satou Sabally. After making the 2022 postseason and winning their first playoff game since 2009, Dallas replaced Vickie Johnson with first-year head coach Latricia Trammell in the offseason.

The Sun return 2022 All-Star Alyssa Thomas, DeWanna Bonner and DiJonai Carrington to the 2023 roster, along with Brionna Jones. The team is still searching for its first championship after falling to the Las Vegas Aces in four games in last year’s Finals.

The Connecticut Sun are entering a new era under first-year head coach Stephanie White in 2023, and her former player is coming along for the ride.

The Sun hired recently retired WNBA guard Briann January as an assistant coach, the team announced Tuesday, adding her to a staff that already includes White and assistant coach Abi Olajuwon. January played for the Indiana Fever while White was an assistant and then head coach of the team from 2011-16. She also returns to Connecticut after playing for the Sun from 2020-21.

January finished her WNBA career with the Seattle Storm in 2022, which served as a homecoming for the native of Spokane, Wa. White welcomed the opportunity to bring January on her staff after she was hired in November, saying she has wanted to coach alongside January for years.

“Bri is one of the hardest workers and toughest competitors I have ever been around,” White said in a press release. “She leads by example every day through her discipline, passion, competitiveness and humility. Her experience as a player and as a coach will impact our team and staff in so many positive ways.”

January was known as a defensive specialist at guard during her 14-year WNBA career with the Fever, Phoenix Mercury, Sun and Storm. The 2009 sixth overall draft pick won a WNBA championship with Indiana in 2012, earned an All-Star nod in 2014 and was named to seven WNBA All-Defensive Teams throughout her career.

She also brings extensive playoff experience to the Connecticut staff, having appeared in 13 postseasons of the 14 seasons she played. That included three straight trips to the WNBA semifinals in her final seasons with the Sun and Storm.

“It feels like a homecoming since I was fortunate enough to have played for Steph, the Sun organization, and in front of the amazing Sun fans,” January said. “I look forward to the opportunity to help this franchise add a championship to its winning legacy with this team and staff!”

January, 35, served as an assistant coach with her alma mater, Arizona State, for two seasons while still an active player in the WNBA. She said at the time that the experience strengthened her desire to coach, but she stepped away from the Sun Devils in 2019 to refocus on her playing career.

Now, January joins a Sun team coming off six straight postseason appearances under former coach Curt Miller. The Sun have made two trips to the WNBA Finals since 2019 but have come up short both times, including last year to the Las Vegas Aces. Miller left in October to become the head coach of the Los Angeles Sparks, cutting short a four-year contract extension he signed with the team in 2021.

January’s appointment bolsters an improving player-to-coach pipeline in the WNBA, with six former players now serving as head coaches in the league.

What a year it was for women’s sports. We kicked off 2022 with the Winter Olympics, capped by another epic showdown between the United States and Canada hockey teams, and punctuated the year with breakout performances, championship victories and landmark moments across basketball, soccer and the entire sports landscape.

Women’s soccer, in particular, took a giant step forward as the NWSL ratified its first CBA, reckoned with its history of abuse and held those in power to account. The U.S. women’s national team also achieved equal pay after a years-long legal fight, setting the standard for national programs everywhere.

We were here for all of the action at Just Women’s Sports. As we turn the calendar to 2023, we recognize our top stories from the year. Between profiles of star athletes, historical features and critical reporting, our team uncovered stories worth revisiting on the final day of 2022.

Thank you for reading, and we’ll see you in the new year!

Best of 2022

Vivianne Miedema, a nominee for the Ballon d’Or Féminin this year, criticized the global soccer awards ceremony for its treatment of the women’s game.

The Arsenal and Dutch striker called attention to the disparity between the number of men’s players honored at the event versus the number of women. Of the seven awards handed out at the Ballon d’Or, only one represents women’s soccer. Spain and Barcelona midfielder Alexia Putellas won the award recognizing the best player in the international women’s game in 2022 for the second straight year.

“I didn’t feel appreciated as a woman footballer there,” Miedema told BBC’s “Behind the Goals” podcast. “If they want to have women involved, they have to do it in a different way. They had five or six different awards for the men’s game while the women only have one. If they want to make it equal, they have to give the same awards to men’s and women’s football.”

Miedema attended the event in October with her partner, England striker Beth Mead, who finished as runner-up to Putellas. A photo of the two on the red carpet together circulated after the event with a caption describing Mead as Miedema’s “guest.”

The 26-year-old joked about the mistake on Twitter at the time but said on the podcast this week that it reflected the overall lack of respect for the women athletes.

“Waking up the next morning and that picture pops up, that states the issue we had the night before,” she said. “We’ve got the number two from that year, who should arguably have been number one, turning up to the event as ‘my guest.’ That would obviously never happen if [Lionel] Messi and Neymar had been walking next to each other.

“We obviously joke about it, but that shows there are so many improvements to be made. It needs to be organized so much better.”

Miedema is the all-time leading scorer for the Netherlands across both the men’s and women’s teams. Since returning to Arsenal this season from a mental and physical break, she has scored four goals in four games to lift the Gunners to second place in the WSL table and first place in Group C of the Champions League standings.

Before Ashlyn Harris announced her retirement from soccer last month at the U.S. women’s national team’s Players’ Ball, she finished her NWSL career with Gotham FC during the 2022 NWSL season.

Harris’ trade to the New Jersey/New York club alongside wife and defender Ali Krieger last December meant the Florida native and longtime Orlando Pride goalkeeper had to get acclimated to new playing conditions in the Northeast. Harris made eight starts for Gotham before injuring her knee and undergoing surgery in September. The club parted ways with head coach Scott Parkinson in August and stumbled to last place in the league at 4-17-1.

Harris recently told Gotham teammate Allie Long on her podcast, “Mom Goals,” with Krieger that she missed her family and home in Florida as the season wore on.

“The season we had, I was so unhappy here,” Harris said. “I was like, ‘F—k man, why did I pick up and take my family here?’ Like, what am I doing? My whole life was set up there. My whole family’s there. Our life was there. … I was not in a good place.”

Krieger cited the weather and injuries as reasons for Harris’ frustrations.

“I wanted to go home halfway through the season,” said the 37-year-old.

In July, the couple received news of the birth of a baby boy in Philadelphia and, after much deliberation, decided to put their names in for adoption consideration. The next month, the two welcomed son Ocean, their second adopted child together, and realized the blessing of their relocation.

“I told Ali, I’m like, ‘This is why we’re here. Like, we have to do this. This is why we came here,'” Harris said. “It is a total sign in that, like, this is where we’re supposed to be.”

The two will remain in New Jersey/New York through at least next year, with Krieger leading Gotham’s backline on the field and Harris serving in the club’s front office as global creative advisor.

Two-time World Cup champion coach Jill Ellis has been elected to the National Soccer Hall of Fame’s Class of 2023, the organization announced this week. She joins U.S. women’s national team great Lauren Cheney Holiday and retired USMNT stars Landon Donovan and DaMarcus Beasley in the 2023 class.

Ellis served as head coach of the USWNT from 2014-19. She finished her career as the winningest USWNT coach and the first ever to win back-to-back Women’s World Cups, leading the U.S. to titles and winning FIFA Women’s Coach of the Year in 2015 and 2019.

Ellis’ daughter, Lily Stephenson-Ellis, surprised her with the news during the San Diego Wave FC holiday party on Wednesday night. Ellis currently serves as president of the Wave, who became the first NWSL expansion team to make the playoffs in their inaugural season in 2022.

Ellis, 56, was named in the Sally Yates report released in October that detailed systemic abuse in the NWSL and women’s soccer. Yates’ investigation focused on three former NWSL coaches who have been at the center of abuse accusations: Christy Holly, Paul Riley and Rory Dames.

According to the findings, players brought complaints about coaches to Ellis and U.S. Soccer president Sunil Gulati in 2014, Ellis’ first year as USWNT coach.

“In 2014, National Team players reported to Gulati and Ellis that Riley and Dames ‘created a hostile environment for players’ and verbally abused them during games,” the report states. Both coaches remained in their roles until reports in The Athletic and Washington Post in 2021 uncovered specific allegations of abuse.

The Wave released a statement at the time of the Yates report that did not acknowledge Ellis’ involvement.

LSU is one triple-digit win away from tying the all-time NCAA women’s basketball record for consecutive 100-plus-point games, starting off their season with five blowout wins.

But the No. 12 Tigers have also gone up against mid-major teams that have not given them much of a challenge, compared to other teams’ early non-conference schedules in the top 25.

LSU has scored 544 total points in wins over Bellarmine, Mississippi Valley State, Western Carolina, Houston Baptist and Northwestern State. Meanwhile, teams like No. 23 Tennessee (2-4) and No. 19 Texas (2-3) packed multiple ranked opponents into their early slates. The Tigers won’t play a top-25 team until Jan. 30, when they host Tennessee.

LSU second-year coach Kim Mulkey attributed the soft schedule to managing team expectations.

“We inherited a program that won nine basketball games (in 2020-21), and if you think I am going to over-schedule before I know what I have, that would be a terrible mistake,” Mulkey told reporters Sunday, according to Nola.com.

LSU advanced to the second round of the 2022 NCAA Tournament after going 26-6 in Mulkey’s first season at the helm. After losing a number of seniors to graduation, Mulkey loaded up her roster with star transfers in the summer, but she said the non-conference schedule was set before those players were all known. Angel Reese, a sophomore transfer from Maryland, is currently leading the team with 23.2 points, 15.6 rebounds, two blocks and 2.6 steals per game.

“The good thing is we’re building confidence, making mistakes that can be corrected when the SEC does roll around,” Mulkey said.

“The non-conference schedule was done long before we had Angel Reese and all these transfers coming in … we are on the phone now to improve the non-conference schedule.”

LSU begins SEC play in late December, with its toughest test coming on the road against No. 1 South Carolina on Feb. 12. The results of those games, as well as the SEC tournament in March, will be key in determining the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament fate.

Carli Lloyd retired last year as one of the most decorated women’s soccer players in the world, but when she steps into the FOX Sports studio for the FIFA men’s World Cup in Qatar later this month, she’ll be in an unfamiliar position.

“I am a rookie. I am, like, straight out of the rookie books,” Lloyd told Hope Solo on the “Hope Solo Speaks” podcast this week. “I don’t have a lot of reps under my belt. But it’s like anything: In order to kind of figure out if you like something, if you’re pretty good at something, you’ve gotta just go for it.

“It’s a great crew that’ll be going over there with FOX Sports — some legends of the game, men and women — so I’m looking forward to that.”

Lloyd first joined FOX Sports in April as a studio analyst for the U.S. women’s national team’s friendly against Uzbekistan. Since then, she has appeared in studio for the network’s broadcast of the USWNT’s 2-1 loss to England at Wembley Stadium in October, sharing her commentary during the pregame, halftime and postgame shows.

The star forward announced her retirement from soccer last August after 17 years with the USWNT, 134 international goals and 316 caps — the second-most in national team history. Lloyd won two World Cups, two Olympic gold medals and two FIFA Player of the Year awards during her storied playing career.

In retirement, she says she’s focused on living in the moment and taking advantage of new opportunities.

“As always, I’m trying to get out of my comfort zone and try different things, figure out what things I like, what I don’t like, what I want to continue to pursue,” Lloyd said. “It’s no different than my career. Anything that I’m tackling, I’m giving my best effort, I’m being critical of myself, figuring out ways I can improve, how I can be better.”

While talking about the game comes easily to her, Lloyd said she’s still learning the nuances of live television, such as being clear and concise with her comments in the on-camera “time crunch.” In Qatar for the World Cup, which begins Nov. 20, there’s the added element of analyzing games in the midst of widespread human rights abuses and other controversies, for which FIFA and the host country have come under intense scrutiny.

“It’s a challenging one. There’s a lot of talk about a lot of different topics around this World Cup, and I think the beauty of football is that it brings so many different people together – different cultures, different backgrounds. It unites everybody,” Lloyd said.

“And so my hope is that, despite everything that’s going on and how different this is … it is a beautiful tournament and it’ll be exciting, games will be good.”

The Indiana Fever will hire longtime WNBA assistant Christie Sides as their head coach, Just Women’s Sports and Winsidr analyst Rachel Galligan first reported Thursday.

Sides has over 20 years of WNBA coaching experience, including three seasons as an assistant coach with the Fever from 2018-19. Most recently, she was an assistant coach on Tanisha Wright’s Atlanta Dream staff last season, helping the team improve from eight wins in 2021 to 14 and a near playoff spot in 2022. Previously, she spent six seasons with the Chicago Sky, who won their first Eastern Conference championship in 2014 and made four straight WNBA playoff appearances with Sides on the sidelines.

In between WNBA coaching stints, Sides served as the associate head coach for Louisiana-Monroe from 2019-21 and for Northwestern in 2017. Overseas, she helped lead Spartak Moscow Region to consecutive EuroLeague Championships alongside head coach Pokey Chatman in 2008 and 2009.

Sides beat out other finalists Brian Agler, Vickie Johnson and Katie Smith for the job, according to Howard Megdal of The Next Hoops.

The Fever are in the midst of the longest active playoff drought in the WNBA, having not appeared in the postseason since 2016. Indiana has won just 11 games combined in 2021 and 2022, finishing as the last-place team each season. After firing head coach Marianne Stanley nine games into the 2022 campaign, the Fever opted not to retain interim coach Carlos Knox for the 2023 season.

Despite the recent turmoil, Indiana enters the new year with a wealth of young talent on the roster after a successful 2022 draft. NaLyssa Smith (No. 2 pick), Emily Engstler (No. 4), Lexie Hull (No. 6), Queen Egbo (No. 10) and Destanni Henderson (No. 20) all return after promising rookie campaigns.

The Fever also have the best odds of landing the No. 1 pick in the 2023 draft — and the rights to presumed top prospect Aliyah Boston — during the WNBA Draft Lottery on Nov. 11.

Christine Sinclair is returning to the NWSL champion Portland Thorns on a one-year contract, making 2023 her 11th season in the league, all with the Thorns.

The veteran announced her return at Portland’s championship parade on Tuesday night, three days after the club won a record third NWSL championship with a 2-0 win over the Kansas City Current and on the same day that her memoir, “Playing the Long Game,” was released. The Thorns later confirmed that Sinclair’s option has been exercised for the 2023 season.

“So, I’m announcing it here: I’ll be back next year!” Sinclair said to a chorus of cheers from the Thorns fans in attendance.

“To win a fourth one of those,” she added, pointing to the NWSL trophy. “And f–k Seattle.” (OL Reign, previously the Seattle Reign as one of the NWSL’s original clubs, are longstanding rivals of the Thorns.)

Sinclair, 39, has been a part of all three of the Thorns’ championship teams, starting her career with the club for the NWSL’s inaugural season in 2013. This season, the captain scored five goals across 12 starts and 14 appearances for Portland, which led the league in overall goals scored with 49.

Despite not starting in Portland’s semifinal win over the San Diego Wave on Oct. 23, Sinclair re-entered the starting lineup for the championship game and helped establish the Thorns’ attack, which had 18 shots to Kansas City’s nine.

Sinclair was one of the 22 NWSL players to be granted free-agency status when an independent arbitrator ruled in favor of the NWSL Players Association earlier this month. The NWSL and NWSLPA had disputed the interpretation of a clause in the league’s new collective bargaining agreement, with the league arguing that any player with a pending year option on their contract was not eligible for free agency unless their team declined that option. The NWSLPA made the case that all players with at least six years of service and an expiring contract were eligible.

As a result of the ruling, Sinclair joined NWSL stars Tobin Heath, Debinha and others in the free agency pool.

Now locked up for at least one more year, Sinclair will compete for another NWSL championship as well as a 2023 World Cup title with Canada. The all-time leading goal-scorer in international soccer history helped Canada win its first gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021.