I was 8 years old when my twin brother had signed up to play youth football. I was not allowed to play, out of fear I might get hurt because I was a girl. Up until that moment, my brother and I had been playing soccer together on a co-ed team since we were five. Both of us were naturally athletic and had great coordination and dexterity. Sports came easily. I held my own with the boys, and was better than most.

As for football, I had already been playing tackle with my brothers and their friends on the street, in backyards and on rock-filled school playground lots. But now my parents were worried about me getting hurt? It didn’t add up. Still, no matter how much I protested or how much my brother advocated on my behalf, they never changed their minds. I was forced to sit in the stands and watch from afar, and my football-loving heart ached with envy with every snap of the ball.

A few years later, the head coach of my indoor soccer team pulled me aside after a game. I was the only girl on the team and we had all been playing together for a while. As my coach knelt gently in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders, I saw it in his eyes even before he said the words. They went something like, I wouldn’t be able to play with the team any more, because it was getting too rough. I stopped listening after that. The all-too-familiar feeling of being told I couldn’t do something because I was a girl had settled into my gut, and my eyes were wet. I didn’t say a word during the car ride home, even when my brother tried to console me. It wasn’t his fault, of course. But he couldn’t understand. He’d never understand.

In writing Hail Mary and listening to players describe how it felt to finally get to play a sport that everyone told them they couldn’t and shouldn’t be playing, I reconnected with my 8-year-old self. I knew how they felt and could imagine how rewarding it was for them to take the football field on game day, to put on their uniforms and to play in front of a crowd. They played because they loved the game. And they played for all the young girls out there who, like me, were told no, this sport isn’t for you.

***

This article has been excerpted from Chapter 5 (“The Troopers’ Reign Begins”) of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League by Britni de la Cretaz and Lyndsey D’Arcangelo. Copyright © 2021. Available from Bold Type Books, an imprint of Perseus Books, LLC, a subsidiary of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

“I did not pose for that,” Gail Dearie, now eighty, said of the iconic photo. “We were having a scrimmage at practice. I had just stood up after the huddle. I was thinking about my route for a play. And a [European] photographer snapped that picture. Apparently, she liked what she got. She thought it was worth trying to send it to Life magazine. The picture really took off. Now, we say ‘it went viral.’ A lot of things happened as a result of that picture.”

In June 1972, Life published a photo spread with a short article about a new women’s football team—the New York Fillies. (The Fillies, however, appeared without the support or blessing of Sid Friedman. They were not under his umbrella of teams, and were owned by someone else.) Life’s writeup of the Fillies was only the second such feature about women’s football in the magazine’s history.

Twenty-nine-year-old Dearie from Red Bank, New Jersey, was one of the players featured in the photos, and one photo in particular stood out from the rest. Dearie is clad in a grass-and-dirt-stained white jersey with the number 84 on the front, her long blond hair falling out of her large gold helmet and down onto her shoulders, and her high cheekbones and full lips distinguishable underneath the thick gray face mask. The full-page photo contrasted beauty and brawn, and it attracted national attention.

In spring of that year, before Dearie became the most recognizable Fillie on the roster thanks to the Life magazine photos, she was working in New York as a go-see model in commercial print media when her husband showed her a wanted ad in a national paper looking for women to join a new professional football team. Dearie was intrigued and decided to see what it was all about. Her main reason for going, she said, was to “put away a slap-in-the-face kind of attitude that some people have about athletic ability and women—not being able to use it fully because it didn’t seem feminine.”

She wasn’t the only one. Nancy Berardino, a seventeen-year-old from Far Rockaway, had also seen the advertisement. Her twenty-four-year old sister, Lynda, wanted to try out for the team as well. Dearie, the Berardino sisters, and Dearie’s friend Carol Brown were among the hundred or so women who showed up to the Fillies callout.

“Some of them had never played football before. Some didn’t know very much about the technicalities of the game,” Brown told womenSports magazine in 1974. “But every woman there wanted to be a professional football player.” The women who showed up for the tryout did so with the hope of proving wrong anyone who didn’t believe they could play football, and also because they loved sports and wanted to take advantage of the opportunity to play.

Dearie stood tall above the crowd, not just for her athleticism but also because of her beauty. In truth, Dearie was the perfect person to dispel the myth that a woman couldn’t be both a good athlete and feminine at the same time. While she turned heads wherever she went in the city, it often frustrated her that her looks were the main thing some people chose to focus on. Like all women, there was much more to Dearie than her outward appearance. She was a mother of two, a wife, a devout Christian, a model, and a part-time college student. She was also an athlete.

When Dearie finally got the opportunity to step on the football field on the day of football tryouts, she turned heads for a different reason—her height at five feet eight inches, athletic ability, and strength made her the perfect wide receiver or tight end. “It was legitimate,” Dearie said, recalling the tryout. “They weren’t making fun of women, if you know what I mean.”

Dearie and Brown made the team, along with forty other women from the surrounding New York City area, ranging in age from sixteen to forty years old. They were promised twenty-five dollars per game, fully funded by Fillies owner James Eagan: a cocky New York City attorney.

Eagan started the New York Fillies because he believed it was a solid monetary investment, and was hoping to make some extra cash on the side. It was certainly not because he wanted to help elevate women’s football. For him it was a business venture, nothing more. He didn’t care about the women’s dreams or aspirations on the gridiron. To Eagan, the women were simply a means to an end.

“They drew 6,000 at three dollars a head in Erie,” the young and slick Eagan told the Philadelphia Daily News before the Fillies debut game. “Can you imagine that kind of crowd in Erie, Pa.?”

Eagan knew very little about football and the game itself, and spent time at practices familiarizing himself with the rules. He brought in Bill Bryant, a former semipro football player, to be the head coach of the Fillies and he hired additional assistant coaches to handle all the technical stuff, like training the team and getting them ready to play their first game in front of what Eagan anticipated to be a huge crowd.

Bryant did his best to teach the Fillies plays on the offensive and defensive side of the ball. “I’m trying to teach these girls the fundamentals,” he told the Daily News. “You have to start at the beginning and some learn quicker than others. These girls are a lot more serious than you think. They’re playing to win.” But when Eagan, who was quick to shave expenses, decided not to purchase medical insurance for his players, all four coaches quit the team in “protest and disgust” the night before their first game.

The fact that the women were willing to play without insurance coverage indicates how badly they wanted to be out there, how deeply they understood what a rare opportunity they had.

***

Baseball may be America’s pastime, but football is Ohio’s. On Friday nights in the early twentieth century, the mill towns would shut down for football games. As early as 1922, Ohio State University built a sixty-six-thousand-seat stadium, a shrine of sorts, which was at the time the largest poured-concrete structure in the world. Before there was the NFL, there was the Ohio League, a loose alliance of independent, semipro teams—not all that different from the women’s football teams under Friedman—from cities including Toledo, Cleveland, and Youngstown. The Pro Football Hall of Fame is located in Canton, Ohio, the same place the NFL was born. In Ohio, parents put their boys in the sport from the time they are in elementary school.

Throughout the entire United States, too, football is almost like a religion. Some people go to church on Sundays to say their Hail Marys; others sit around the television and turn on the football game, hoping to see a Hail Mary of a different sort. Americans worship their teams like they do their gods, and everything else ceases to matter while the game is on. Game day is a holiday, a holy day.

For girls growing up in this culture, forced to always be the spectator—in Ohio and Texas, yes, but also anywhere in America—it was only natural that there would be an overwhelming feeling of missing out. While there may have been other sports that were becoming more accessible to girls in the seventies, like rec league basketball or softball, those sports were consolation prizes. As much as the girls loved playing them, in Ohio at least, football was the sport: lionized by their friends and family, and always off-limits to the girls. If they were lucky, they could scrimmage with their brothers or the neighborhood boys, but that was as close to tasting organized football as they ever thought they could get. The reality of putting on pads and helmets and jogging out onto a real football field, with fans in the stands cheering them on, was one that existed only in their wildest daydreams. Even though girls were gaining ground in other sports leading up to and after the passage of Title IX, they were still shut out of football. And, in Ohio, this meant shutting girls out of the sport that mattered most.

But that didn’t make football matter any less. Just how much football mattered—to these girls, in this state—was evident in the Troopers’ first tryout.

***

More than eighty women showed up to try out for the Troopers in 1970. But Stout only wanted twenty-two: the best athletes, the most committed players, who would put in the work he knew would be required to turn a bunch of rookies into champions. His players practiced five nights per week in Colony Field, a weed-covered patch of grass hidden between US 23 and a rundown section of Toledo.

There were plenty of teams whose coaches believed they were more than a gimmick and viewed them as real athletes. Bill Stout, however, would be the first to go to bat for his players and help them create and envision a league that took them as seriously as they took themselves. He would also continue the tradition of women’s football in the Rust Belt city of Toledo, located near the Michigan border and on the shore of Lake Erie.

Stout was a former All-City noseguard for DeVilbiss High School in Toledo whose pro football dreams had crumbled. Before he began coaching the Troopers, he was a struggling factory worker with a gambling problem. He felt like he was out of options, so he turned to coaching women’s football—which he didn’t take seriously until he saw the dedication and determination of his charges. He was a white man in his late twenties who carried his weight in his belly and wore mutton chops down his cheeks. He almost exclusively wore that very 1970s brand of athletic shorts and a polo shirt, a whistle draped around his neck.

Stout enlisted Carl Hamilton to coach the Troopers defense. Hamilton, a stocky Black man who wore a dour expression in photos but had a knack for getting the best out of his players, had played football at Bowling Green University. A high school teammate of Stout’s named Jim Wright, a white man with a full head of brown hair parted to the side, a crooked smile, and a dimple in his right cheek, came on board as assistant coach. The team played most of their home games at Waite High School, a large brick building near downtown. Another woman who would go on to blaze trails for the women who came after her also has a Waite connection—Toledo native Gloria Steinem attended in the late 1940s.

In the Troopers’ first season in 1971, there weren’t many options when it came to opponents in Friedman’s collection of teams. They played only three games that year, one against the Buffalo All-Stars and two against the Cleveland Daredevils. They won all three by large margins. Almost immediately, Stout internalized the narrative that this was a team of winners, that they were champions, and he began to parrot it until his players believed it, too. It didn’t matter that they’d hardly had any competition: his team was the best, and by asserting it he would make it true. Even so, privately, he harbored some doubts as to how successful his team could be. “The brand of football wasn’t that good when we started,” he later told the Toledo Blade. “I never thought people would pay a second time to see us play.”

***

The 1972 season established the Troopers’ core identity: it was the year Linda Jefferson, the greatest halfback in the league, joined their team, giving the offense a jolt. The player—called a “bionic femme,” in an article comparing her to O. J. Simpson of the NFL’s Buffalo Bills—rushed for 1,179 yards in her first season with the Troopers. She averaged an astonishing 41 yards per touchdown run. Meanwhile, the team’s defense, known as the Green Machine, really took shape under defensive coach Hamilton. Now, they were stopping opposing teams in their tracks. “The defensive animal squad is Carl’s pride,” read a poem from their yearbook, which also indicated there’d be repercussions for any points the defense allowed: “Let them score—it means leg lifts and you wish you’d have died.”

Midway through the season the Troopers also acquired Gloria Jimenez, a Mexican American hairdresser who joined the team at the urging of her friend. The two were “young and rambunctious and didn’t have enough to do,” so they decided to go out for a football team. Jimenez had virtually no experience with organized sports at the time. What she did have, however, was five brothers and a lot of enthusiasm. “My dad always used to say, ‘I’ve got five sons and my daughter plays football.’ . . . I had more trophies than all my brothers put together.”

Over the course of her time as a Trooper, Jimenez would be a true gadget player, a jill-of-all-trades who could slide in wherever she was needed. She played defensive end, defensive tackle, middle linebacker, offensive tackle, a little bit of fullback, and she was also the kicker. Jimenez played both ways, she played special teams, she did it all. She essentially never came off the field during a game.

When they went 8–0 in their second season in 1972, the Troopers’ team yearbook declared them “NUMBER ONE” and “the best damn team in the league.” And they were, by a long shot. In games against the Cleveland Daredevils, the Detroit Demons, the Buffalo All-Stars, and the New York Fillies, the Troopers scored 298 points, while their opponents scored just 32. Five of their games were shutouts. Bill Stout got what he wanted; he really was coaching a team of champions.

At least, that was how they rounded out their first two seasons. But their first game of the new 1973 season would be against a new team, the Dallas Bluebonnets (some historical records put this game in the Troopers’ 1972 season, citing that season’s record as 9–0). When the Troopers got down to Dallas and exited their bus, they walked into a real stadium. It felt as if women’s football might just be on an upswing. Goodbye, high school football field, hello home of the Dallas Cowboys.

It’s been over a week since the Chicago Sky beat the Phoenix Mercury 3-1 in the WNBA Finals to win the franchise’s first championship, and the basketball buzz is still lingering.

The 2021 WNBA season felt special. Coming off of last year’s Wubble season — in which several star players opted out, teams played fewer regular season games and social justice issues loomed large amid a world-wide pandemic — this year tipped off on a much lighter note. There were buzzer-beating shots, budding rivalries, star performances, emerging young players, riveting social media exchanges, broken barriers and records, a season-long 25th anniversary celebration and growth in viewership and coverage, to name a few.

It was such a memorable season that I’m already thinking about next spring. So, I made a list.

Here are 10 things I’m looking forward to in the 2022 WNBA season.

1. The Chicago Sky-Phoenix Mercury rivalry

The WNBA Finals series between the Sky and the Mercury was chippy, to say the least. In addition to the physical and competitive play, the teams exchanged words and tweets, Kahleah Copper created a T-shirt and a door that Diana Taurasi reportedly broke in frustration after Game 4 made a special appearance on stage at the Sky’s championship celebration.

While there’s certainly mutual respect between players on both teams, the newly minted rivalry between the Sky and the Mercury is good for the league, which needs more like it on both a team and player level. The competition is also fun for the fans. Everyone is waiting to see where the broken door will show up next.

2. Free agency

The list of high-profile players entering free agency in 2022 is long: Jonquel Jones, Liz Cambage, Angel McCoughtry, Layshia Clarendon, Kahleah Copper, Allie Quigley, Courtney Vandersloot, Jewell Loyd, Sylvia Fowles, Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and Tina Charles. Come February, we could see shake-ups on WNBA rosters across the league.

Will Cambage re-sign with the Las Vegas Aces or go elsewhere after not winning a championship in two seasons? Will the Sky retain their core group of players and try to defend their title? Will Bird retire or play one more year in Seattle’s new home arena? Will Loyd look to sign with a different team and be the go-to player? By the time the WNBA tips off in 2022, all of these questions will have been addressed, and I can’t wait to find out the answers.

3. More WNBA apparel and merchandise

The lack of league, team and player apparel and merchandise has plagued the WNBA for years, despite increasing demand. This season, Nike introduced a triple set of new jerseys for every team that were a hit with players as much as they were with fans.

Quantity, however, remained an issue. With only certain player jerseys available for purchase, fans who wanted the jersey of a different player had to customize it at a higher cost. Grassroots apparel companies began taking matters into their own hands, creating their own WNBA-inspired T-shirts, sweatshirts, sweatpants and other merchandise. And the league may finally be paying attention.

In late September, the WNBA announced a multi-year, nationwide retail distribution deal with Dick’s Sports Goods. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The Athletic that the league is looking to increase the number of licenses it grants and is interested in working more with local artists, designers and lifestyle branding. Ideally, these steps lead to more available merchandise and apparel as the popularity and reach of the WNBA continues to grow. Maybe Nike will even come out with a new set of jerseys for the 2022 season.

4. More games on national television

For the past three regular seasons, the WNBA has added games on national television — 40 more as part of a new deal with CBS in 2019, 13 more across ESPN networks in 2020 and a total of 100 national broadcasts in 2021 — to expand its reach and exposure. And naturally, the bigger slates have had a positive effect.

The WNBA’s viewership during the 2021 regular season grew 49 percent over last year. The playoffs rated as the most-watched since 2014, and Finals ratings were at their highest levels since 2017. The best way for the league to continue to grow the fan base, by appealing to would-be fans, is to showcase the players and teams where they can easily be found on national television. The results speak for themselves.

5. The passing of the torch

The headlines around the Sky this season focused on Candace Parker’s homecoming and her quest to lead the Sky to their first WNBA championship. While Parker’s leadership was crucial to the Sky’s success, including Kahleah Copper’s, it was the 27-year-old who took home the Finals MVP award after leading Chicago with 17.7 points per game in the playoffs.

We’re at the point when Parker, Bird, Diana Taurasi, Sylvia Fowles and the rest of the WNBA’s older generation are set to pass the torch in the next couple of seasons. Copper winning Finals MVP is evidence of that. If you look around the league, there are young stars already carrying that mantle (Jonquel Jones, A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart) and others who are entering the upper echelon (Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd and Napheesa Collier). It will be exciting to see a whole new generation of players take the WNBA by storm.

6. The Atlanta Dream figuring it out

No team struggled with more turmoil on and off the court this year than the Dream did. Former head coach Nicki Collen left shortly before the start of the season to take over the women’s basketball program at Baylor. Assistant coach Mike Petersen filled the void in the interim before stepping down midseason, leaving Darius Taylor to assume the role the rest of the way.

Add in locker room feuds, Chennedy Carter’s suspension and months-long absence from the team, Courtney Williams’ brawl video and an 8-24 record, and it’s easy to see why Atlanta’s season was a disaster from start to finish. Still, there’s reason for hope.

A few weeks ago, the Dream hired Tanisha Wright to take over as head coach. Wright, a former player and assistant coach with the Aces, has the experience and relatability to make a positive impact on a team that is desperate for leadership and cohesiveness. Then on Monday, Atlanta named Dan Padover as general manager. In his three years in Las Vegas, Padover turned the Aces into a league powerhouse, winning back-to-back Executive of the Year awards in 2020 and 2021. He knows how to build a team, and the Dream will need his expertise with seven players on their roster set to hit unrestricted free agency.

With Wright and Padover in place, Taylor acting as assistant GM and young talent in Carter and Aari McDonald, Atlanta has a chance to turn things around in time for next season.

7. Young teams taking the next step

The New York Liberty (12-20) and the Dallas Wings (14-18), the two youngest teams in the league, each took steps forward this season. The Liberty made the playoffs for the first time since 2018 and the Wings since 2019. Both teams boast talented rosters and are poised for growth in 2022.

Dallas has no free agents, giving second-year coach Vickie Johnson the opportunity to build on this season’s success with the same group. New York is in a similar position with only two free agents on its roster. In 2021, the Wings and the Liberty lost close games that can be attributed to their youth. As they gain experience and learn from those mistakes, they could start contending with the best in the league.

8. Who’s up next?

The 2021 rookie class struggled to find its footing this season, with Michaela Onyenwere distancing herself enough with an average of 8.6 points and 2.9 rebounds in 22.2 minutes per game to be the clear choice for Rookie of the Year.

Aari McDonald made the most of her 16 minutes per game on Atlanta’s guard-heavy roster, averaging 6.3 points and two assists for the Dream. New York’s Didi Rirchards emerged after the Olympic break, adding a more consistent 3-point shot to her stout on-ball defense. And Charli Collier, the No. 1 pick in 2021, continued to work on her game in Dallas. Still, there’s room for improvement among all of the 2021 rookies, and they’ll have a deep draft class to contend with in 2022.

Rhyne Howard (Kentucky), Naz Hillmon (Michigan), NaLyssa Smith (Baylor), Elissa Cunane (NC State), Ashley Joens (Iowa State), Christyn Williams (UConn), Rae Burell (Tennessee) and Shakira Austin (Ole Miss) are just a handful of seniors with WNBA potential to keep an eye on this college basketball season.

9. Reformatted playoffs

For the past few seasons, WNBA players and fans have been clamoring for a change to the current playoff format — which includes first- and second-round single-elimination games and best-of-five semifinals and Finals series. After every season, the WNBA Board of Governors gets together to review what worked and didn’t work that year. The playoff format may be on the docket this offseason.

While there’s a chance the league is open to turning the second round into a best-of-three series or cutting back on the number of teams that make the playoffs, nothing is certain. Other factors — including player obligations overseas, a crowded fall sports television market and travel issues — continue to pose a challenge. But, based on comments from players and coaches this year, the debate over the playoff format isn’t going away anytime soon.

10. More league-wide growth and positive changes

The WNBA has been trending upwards for the past few years and the momentum has never been more palpable. The question now is, how can the league continue to grow and build on that success?

Travel is one area the WNBA continues to grapple with. Commercial flights during the regular season, which are written into the league’s CBA for financial reasons, will always pose problems. But the league booked chartered flights for teams’ travel between Phoenix and Chicago for the Finals. It was a small step, but perhaps an indication of what might be possible in the future.

Attendance is another area in need of improvement. While overall viewership numbers have continued to rise, in-person attendance has fallen. In 2019, the league averaged about 6,500 fans per game. Average attendance in 2021 dipped to an average of 2,600. COVID-19 and more access to games via streaming services, social media apps and television have certainly played a part. Still, there are positive takeaways. The Sky sold out both of their home Finals games and the Mercury, Aces, Sky, Connecticut Sun and Minnesota Lynx all recorded above-average attendance during the regular season, according to Across the Timeline. In 2022 — two years removed from COVID-19 — those number could continue to rise.

WNBA players also saw an increase in national endorsement deals this season. Rookie Kysre Gondrezick signed with adidas before she even appeared in her first WNBA game; Breanna Stewart inked a signature shoe deal and apparel line with Puma; Parker became the first WNBA player ever to grace the cover of NBA2K, and Jordan Brand signed 11 WNBA players to its 2021 roster. Having Bird and Sabrina Ionescu on a regular rotation of television commercials is also great for the league, though there are plenty of other players who deserve the same attention. The more player endorsements there are, the greater the WNBA’s visibility becomes.

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League. Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

The Minnesota Lynx entered their first game of the 2021 WNBA playoffs with confidence after a resilient regular season.

Battling through injuries and player absences during an 0-4 start, the Lynx reversed course and started climbing in the WNBA standings. They finished the season third overall with a 22-10 record and received a first-round bye, setting up a second-round, single-elimination matchup with the sixth-seeded Chicago Sky.

The Sky took a four-point lead into halftime of the Sept. 26 game and never looked back, pulling away in the second half for an 89-76 win on Minnesota’s home court.

Just like that, the Lynx’s season was over. With it came renewed questions about the WNBA’s playoff format, which features two rounds of single-elimination games followed by best-of-five semifinals and Finals series.

“It has become clear that the current playoff format no longer serves the product the athletes are putting out on the floor every night,” Lynx point guard Layshia Clarendon said days later. “The players and the fans deserve a better playoff experience that honors the hard work put in throughout the regular season. I’m confident the league sees this as well and will act accordingly!”

The single-elimination playoff experience was different for Phoenix Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith. The Mercury came into the playoffs as the fifth seed after overcoming a slow start to win 10 of their last 13 regular season games. They rode that momentum to wins in the first two rounds and a place in the semifinals against the No. 2 Las Vegas Aces.

“Obviously, it’s tough with this format. If you don’t really get a top-four or a top-two position, you gotta play in one of these games,” Diggins-Smith told reporters after the Mercury upset the No. 4 Seattle Storm in the second round. “We made it to a series, we earned a series, and that’s really all it is. It’s not like we won a championship or anything. That’s what we’re after. On to the next.”

Sky tying it up! pic.twitter.com/pWRr52Xbgd

— Phoenix Mercury - X (@PhoenixMercury) September 26, 2021

The WNBA playoffs weren’t always set up this way.

In 2015, the Lynx were a favorite to win their third WNBA championship. Before they could play for the title, however, they had to win two best-of-three playoff series against the Los Angeles Sparks and the Mercury.

Back then, the playoffs featured eight teams split and seeded into Eastern and Western conferences. The conference semifinals and finals series filtered into a best-of-five WNBA Finals, and no team had to play a single-elimination game. Even though Game 1 of the 2015 Finals between the Lynx and Indiana Fever was the most watched on ESPN/ABC networks since 1998, viewership for the first two rounds of the playoffs was down 13 percent over 2014. WNBA playoff ratings overall had taken a hit.

At the end of the season, the WNBA Board of Governors got together to review and discuss all aspects of the league, including the playoffs. They formed a consensus and, in January 2016, the board announced a new playoff format ahead of the league’s 20th anniversary: The top eight teams with the highest regular-season winning percentage would make the playoffs and be seeded based on their overall records, doing away with conferences. The first and second rounds would be single elimination, and teams would be re-seeded after each round. The top two seeds would receive first- and second-round byes.

The goal was to inject excitement into the WNBA playoffs, increase viewership and attract new fans in the 20th year of the WNBA.

The playoffs have remained the same ever since.

“I like this format. I like single elimination for both of the first two rounds. I think it’s compelling television and will help the ratings,” said WNBA analyst Debbie Antonelli. “I thought some players looked tired in Round 2, and we don’t want sloppy play in a crowded sports television market in September and October.”

Crowded sports market is an understatement. By the time the WNBA playoffs begin in September, the NFL is already in full swing, the MLB is gearing up for its postseason and the NBA is getting ready to start its preseason.

Given the fall sports landscape, it’s understandable that the WNBA would want to figure out a way to make the playoffs more appealing to viewers. But have the single-elimination games actually helped with ratings? Not necessarily.

According to Jon Lewis of Sports Media Watch, the second-round game between Seattle and Phoenix drew 311,000 viewers on ABC, making it the most-watched single-elimination game since the Lynx played the Sparks in the first round in 2018 (343,000 on ESPN2).

“So, the single-elimination games have not been overwhelmingly big draws, and the Game 5s in the semifinals — when they do occur — tend to do better,” said Lewis, who also noted that Chicago’s double-overtime win over Connecticut in Game 1 of the semifinals outperformed all single-elimination games since 2016.

But ratings are only part of the playoff conversation. The league has to think about travel schedules, since WNBA teams fly commercial, and team owners have to consider whether they’ll be able to sell enough seats during first- and second-round multi-game series in order to make it worthwhile. Extending the WNBA postseason also means running up against television scheduling conflicts and competing with fall pro sports for viewership.

“How many regular season games from a business aspect of an organization are needed or wanted for our league, for our teams? And then from there, what do playoffs look like with that footprint?” asked Storm head coach Noelle Quinn. “I think that’s the biggest thing that I’m learning — there’s some strategy that goes into it, like there’s a reason why the playoffs have continued to be the way that they are. There are talks about changing it, but within that change, how does that impact the days of our season and could that be changed?”

Proposals for playoff re-formatting include decreasing the number of playoff teams from eight to six, keeping the first-round single-elimination games and making the second round a three-game series or structuring each round as series.

“I think if we keep eight teams in the playoffs, I like the format (as it is),” said Antonelli. “The only way to make it fair to the three and four seeds is to have less teams. I think the decision for the league is eight teams or six teams in the playoffs. Six teams would be half the league — that would seem fair to me. But if we’re going to have eight teams, I love single elimination in the first two rounds because of television.”

Added Quinn: “The single-elimination game for the first round maybe brings some excitement, but the third and fourth seed … I mean, you look at Minnesota and what they did at the end of the year, you look at how Phoenix started playing at the end, it just gives teams a chance to duke it out in the playoffs with a series and creates these rivalries.

“At least a second-round series, I’m kind of leaning towards now as well. Best out of three, whatever it is, I think those top seeds deserve that. And I’m not just saying it because we were in that spot.”

🐐 x 2⃣ pic.twitter.com/sJMdxKbYKF

— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) September 26, 2021

Sue Bird, who may have played the last playoff game of her illustrious career in Seattle’s second-round loss, has been vocal about the WNBA’s current postseason format. She would prefer the WNBA playoffs have no byes, no single eliminations — just toss the ball up and see who comes out on top in the hard-fought series.

“If it’s gonna be eight teams, it has to be series. Because you’re gonna have a player like Arike Ogunbowale and you’re only gonna see her once?” Bird said, referencing the Dallas Wings’ first-round ouster this year.

“You don’t even have a chance to really get going in a single-elimination game. And I get the excitement, so there is that aspect for fans. But I think it’s more exciting to see a player like (Ogunbowale), a young player, an exciting player, whose team finishes wherever they finish — six, seven, eight — and you get to see her three times? Two or three times? That’s also exciting from an entertainment standpoint.”

When the 2021 playoffs end and a new champion is crowned, the WNBA will reevaluate the playoffs along with every other checklist item from the summer. Whether they address the calls for format changes depends on a variety of factors. Regardless of the outcome, it’s hard not to think that single-elimination games limit the amount of quality basketball, reach and exposure of the WNBA.

In a multi-series format, maybe the Minnesota and Chicago matchup would have gone to three games. Maybe Bird would still be bumping up against Diana Taurasi instead of packing up her locker. Maybe the semifinal matchups would look a lot different than they do now, with the Sky and Mercury each one win away from advancing to the Finals. Maybe not. The fun thing about a series is it gives players, coaches, owners and fans more than just one game.

In the end, maybe that’s what everyone who invests time in the league deserves.

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League. Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

Allie Quigley lifted the championship trophy in front of a packed arena in July after winning the 3-Point Contest during the WNBA All-Star Game in Las Vegas. The longtime Chicago Sky guard hit shot after shot from beyond the arc, making it look easy and effortless on her way to claiming the title for the third time.

Quigley’s success in the contest has become so automatic that players joked in Las Vegas that the league should name it after her.

“I’m just not surprised at all by her,” says Sky center Stefanie Dolson. “If she’s not making shots in a game, we’ll have a last-minute shot or a last-chance play to win a game, and we’ll still go to Allie. She is one of the greatest shooters. We always have the most confidence. So even during that 3-point contest, I was like, she’s still got it.”

In her 13th WNBA season, Quigley certainly still has it. Connecting on a career-high 45.4 percent of her 3-point shots during the regular season, she posed a constant scoring threat whether she started or came off the bench. She helped the Sky turn around their season after a 2-7 start to earn the No. 6 seed in the playoffs, where they’ll face the Dallas Wings in the first round Thursday.

It’s hard to imagine that a sharpshooter as calm and effective as Quigley struggled to get a foothold in the WNBA. But there was a time when the 35-year-old wondered if she’d ever find her place in the league, when she lacked confidence in her abilities.

In 2008, when the Seattle Storm drafted her in the second round out of DePaul, Quigley was so excited to hear her name called that she didn’t consider the next steps.

“I didn’t know too much about the team. Didn’t really know much about the coach or the process involved, either,” Quigley says. “You’re a little bit naïve to think, I’m drafted so I’m on the team. Then, the more you look at the roster and you get to camp, you realize, OK, I really have to make this team. And it’s looking like it’s going to be pretty hard to do that actually.”

Landing in the right situation means everything for a draft pick in a 12-team league where roster spots are limited. For Quigley, being in Seattle meant sitting behind veteran players who already had defined roles with the team.

During 2008 training camp, then Storm head coach Brian Agler had Quigley playing backup point guard. It was a position she wasn’t used to after a standout four-year career at DePaul, where she graduated as one of only four players to score 2,000 career points. But Quigley did her best to soak up professional basketball knowledge and be flexible while learning a whole new system in order to stick with the team.

It didn’t work. Just before the start of the season, the Storm waived Quigley. From there, she landed with the Phoenix Mercury as a free agent but was cut the next season. In 2010, she had brief stints with the San Antonio Stars and the Indiana Fever. She returned to Seattle in 2011, appearing in only seven games.

When Quigley showed up for Storm training camp in 2012, her mind was in Europe, where she’d found success playing in Hungary and in the EuroLeague.

“I was contemplating getting my Hungarian passport to play overseas for the year or to try and make the Storm roster,” Quigley says. “I was feeling good about my chances, but the passport was going to help me out with getting better basketball opportunities over in Europe.

“I talked to Brian about it, and he knew the European process and the league, and he said, ‘I think you need to get the passport and we’ll keep you in mind.’ Went and got the passport, was in Hungary for a month or two, and Seattle never called back.”

In 2012, as the WNBA season continued on without her, Quigley played basketball overseas. At the time, she was dealing with confidence issues and questioned whether she was good enough to play in the WNBA.

Quigley comes from a basketball family. She spent her childhood playing with her brothers and sister in the backyard or at the YMCA in their hometown of Joliet, Ill. They grew up loving the game. So it was hard for them to watch Quigley struggle when they knew how hard she was working.

“We Skyped a lot, just talked about like, what are some other things [she] could be doing?” says Quigley’s younger sister, Sam. “Coaches would sit her down and say, ‘You’re doing everything right, you had a great training camp, but we’re gonna cut you.’ And she was like, ‘Wait, I don’t understand.’

“I remember her saying that she sat down with Agler and just said, ‘Why? Can you just tell me why?’ And he gave her some truths and probably some pretty blunt answers of things she needed to improve on.”

While playing in Europe, Quigley focused on ball-handling, reading pick and rolls, learning how to score off the pick and knowing when to shoot or pass. The more experience she gained overseas, the more confident she felt. When she went up against players in the WNBA, she realized she could not only hold her own but flourish.

Others noticed her improvement, too. Pokey Chatman was the head coach of Russian basketball club Spartak during Quigley’s early years in the WNBA. Although her team never played against Quigley, Chatman kept a close eye on the guard. She liked what she saw in her and, as the head coach of the Chicago Sky by that time, she wanted Quigley on her team.

“I was watching her game evolve, not just watching the stats and highlights, and watching her compete and not just be a catch-and-shoot player,” Chatman says. “Her handles were getting better, everything. It was a no-brainer.”

For Chatman, seeing Quigley’s basketball evolution in real time was the difference. It also helped that there was a fit in the Sky’s system.

“I think some people hear that a player bounced around and think, oh, that’s never gonna work,” Chatman says. “I just saw this silent assassin-type mentality, like her emotions very seldom changed. She just knocked down shots. I always said, ‘If you can space the floor, you have a shot to have some success.’ And that was the initiating factor in it — adding someone who had some pro experience, a little bit of grit and a chip on her shoulder, like, ‘Sh—, this is my last go-round, I’m gonna make this happen.’

“And that was the beginning of Allie having a beautiful impact on the Sky program.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Alexandria Quigley (@allie14quigs)

Quigley spent her first season with the Sky on the bench. She averaged only 9.4 minutes per game in 2013 but tried to make an impact whenever she got on the floor. Chatman was still feeling her out as a player at the time, but told her she’d have a bigger role the following season.

In 2014, Quigley’s minutes jumped up to 24.8 per game. She took full advantage, averaging 11.2 points, 2.2 rebounds and 1.9 assists per game on 47.2 percent shooting from the field and earning the Sixth Woman of Year award. In 2015, she repeated the same production off the bench and won the award again.

Her career hasn’t waned since.

Quigley became a full-time starter in 2017 and was voted to her first All-Star Game. Now in her ninth year with the Sky, she’s one of the best 3-point shooters in the history of the league, ranking fifth all-time with a 39.9 3-point percentage.

Quigley’s career renaissance started and very well may end in Chicago. Looking back on her time in Europe, Chatman giving her an opportunity, winning back-to-back Sixth Woman of the Year awards — even her marriage to Sky teammate Courtney Vandersloot — Quigley can’t help but think it was destined.

“Just having been with different teams before that and thinking about giving it up, just to have that chance to be in Chicago and have my family be at every single game, it was perfect,” she says. “It was meant to be, to know that the previous five, six years of struggles were kind of worth it.”

Those who know Quigley best always believed her WNBA career would pan out.

“We weren’t surprised because of all the success she had growing up. I mean, she was phenomenal in many sports,” Sam says. “For us, it was like, we’re not surprised that Allie did this. What we’re most surprised about is her transformation as a person and as a woman. She’s become a professional.”

“Allie probably knew at some point, ‘I’m a great shooter. It doesn’t matter what else I can or can’t do on the court. I’m really good at shooting and people are gonna need that,’” Dolson adds. “And I’m just glad that Chicago took that chance on her and really committed to her being on the team and has stuck with her for so long.”

Alli3 Quigl3y with 11pts in the 1Q 🔥 pic.twitter.com/YwXD67iHfU

— Chicago Sky (@chicagosky) September 19, 2021

Chatman will always revel in the memory of helping bring Quigley back to the WNBA, and she couldn’t be more proud of the player Quigley has become.

“She deserves it because she’s put in the work. And it’s not just the shooting anymore. That’s what I want people to highlight — she’s not just catch and shoot,” Chatman says. “Of course, she’s a laser. We called her ‘laser.’ But it’s just the evolution of her game to positively impact it in different areas of offensive play. I think it was timing, environment. She just rocked it, and I’m glad she did.”

As the Sky head into the playoffs, Quigley is calm and confident. The days of questioning her skill and place in the WNBA are a distant memory. These days, she has the same belief in herself and her basketball abilities as she does in her teammates.

“We’ve beaten almost every team ahead of us so far. Especially the top three teams,” Quigley says. “So I think we just need to use that confidence, to know that we can do anything.”

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League. Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

Diana Taurasi doesn’t mince words on the basketball court. She’s known to say things — anything — to get a rise out of opposing players, coaches and even referees.

During the third quarter of a game against the Minnesota Lynx last year, the Phoenix Mercury guard made a comment that was caught on camera and became an instant classic. Disagreeing with a foul call, Taurasi pointed her finger at a referee and uttered “I’ll see you in the lobby later” with such Taurasi-esque fervor that a hallway confrontation seemed inevitable.

Within hours, Twitter lit up with video clips, memes and quotes of Taurasi’s now legendary phrase. The moment was even made into a T-shirt. And, in Taurasi’s 17th season, it has only cemented her reputation as one of the funniest and boldest trash-talkers in WNBA history.

“She gets on people. Just some of her combination of words — like, how do you even think of that?” says Mercury guard and teammate Shey Peddy. “Sometimes she might get a technical for it, and I know a few times I’m talking to the ref like, ‘She didn’t mean that. She’s just joking around.’ She can be, uh, pretty ruthless out there. I think that’s what I love about it. She’s got no filter, at all.”

In the same 2020 bubble season, Ariel Atkins remembers Taurasi going on a scoring tear against the Washington Mystics, racking up 15 points in a matter of minutes, when Mystics head coach Mike Thibault shouted something in Taurasi’s direction.

“Of course, she’s talking through the whole game,” Atkins says. “She looks up and says, ‘All right, Mike. Come on, four years ago it would be thirty by now,’ or something like that. And I’m just like, man, the level of confidence she has. She’s, like, mentally different, man. It’s one of those things — some people just have it. Obviously, she has it.”

As hard as Taurasi plays basketball and as steely as her expression is when she’s staring down opponents, she can be just as laidback in other situations, often using humor to lighten up a locker room interview. She is as charismatic off the court as she is ruthless on it. And those who have interacted with Taurasi, whether playing alongside her or against her, appreciate and respect both sides.

“I’d much rather play with her than against her, that’s for sure,” says Atlanta Dream forward Candice Dupree. “She’s a competitor. I always said she almost transforms into this completely different person when she is on the court.”

Dupree loved being Taurasi’s teammate for the seven years she spent in Phoenix. The team joked around a lot, but when it came to the business of basketball, Taurasi knew how to motivate her teammates like no one else. And when she jawed at other players and refs — well, that was just Taurasi being Taurasi.

“I love how she trash talks to players and gets in heads that way, but she can also back it up,” Peddy says. “We all gravitate to her when she’s on the court. She doesn’t sugarcoat things, she’s real. She’s gonna tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear, whether you like it or not. And you need that in your leadership and your veteran players.”

Lindsay Whalen played against Taurasi for years as a member of the Connecticut Sun and the Minnesota Lynx before she retired in 2018. Their matchups were always competitive and physical. But when they played together for Team USA in 2012 and 2016, Whalen marveled not only at Taurasi’s charisma and sense of humor but also at how she approached the game.

“I think the more I got into being her teammate with USA Basketball is when I saw why she is so great, how she handled herself,” Whalen says. “I learned how to be a champion, honestly, from watching Diana.”

Whalen, who won four championships with the Lynx during her career, says she’ll never forget what happened after Team USA won gold in London in 2012. She and Taurasi were standing next to each other in line, waiting for their gold medals to be handed out, when Taurasi turned to her and said, “You know, nobody deserves this more than you. I’m so happy for you.”

“We’re talking about two decades now as the best player in the game and the ambassador, so for her to say that to me is just something I’ll never forget,” Whalen says.

Part of Taurasi’s on-court persona is about exercising her confidence and getting into opponents’ heads. The other part is about winning. It’s a cycle that feeds itself — the more Taurasi talks, the better she plays, and vice versa. It’s a light switch that flips on when the game starts. One moment, she’ll be chatting up a rookie before the tip as if the two of them are old friends, and the next she’ll be in someone’s ear about not being able to guard her.

“I don’t know if it was my rookie year or my second year, I was always shocked that she even knew who I was,” says Atlanta Dream center Elizabeth Williams. “She was like, ‘Oh, hey Liz,’ and I was like, ‘Wait, what?!’”

Williams interacted with Taurasi for the first time off the court during All-Star weekend in 2017 and was surprised by Taurasi’s cool demeanor.

“She can talk to anyone, like it doesn’t matter how old you are, how young you are, who you are, and I think that’s so cool about her,” Williams says. “Then on the court, I mean, she is who she is. You just kind of know. I think people see how she is on the court and think that she’s like that off the court, but she’s really not.”

Myisha Hines-Allen got to know that side of Taurasi during a game her rookie year with the Mystics, and not just because it was Hines-Allen’s birthday.

“I was happy to play against a great player like her, but also at the same time just go against her,” the Mystics forward says. “And her first words when I was in the game … I got switched on to her or whatever, and I was like pressed up on her, not helping or anything, and she’s like, ‘So, you’re not gonna go and help?’ And I’m like, ‘Nope, I’m on you. I don’t care about what everyone else is doing, I’m on you.’”

Los Angeles Sparks forward Lauren Cox witnessed Taurasi’s charm in the bubble last season.

“She’s one of the greatest players to ever play the game, and she’s saying hi to a rookie that she’s never met before — that was really cool,” Cox said.

Mystics guard Sydney Wiese grew up watching Taurasi. When she arrived in the WNBA in 2017, she didn’t know how to separate fact from fiction after hearing about the legend of Taurasi’s on-court personality.

“You just hear her voice. You constantly hear her voice in so many ways, whether it’s to her teammates, the other team, to the refs, to the coaches,” Wiese says.

“I mean, it’s such a dangerous thing to try and talk back to DT. I feel like she feeds off of that. And you don’t want to feed into that fire. I know that she uses her voice to try and get a rise out of people, to try and get into people’s heads. And then if you try and talk back, you’ll feed into another level of her competitively. That’s what I’ve learned firsthand being on the court with her.”

Sue Bird has known Taurasi for over 20 years. The two played college basketball together at UConn, spent time overseas in Russia, won five gold medals as teammates for Team USA, and currently have the longest-running careers in the WNBA. Even though Bird and Taurasi are great friends and they have fun when they play against each other, Bird knows better than to respond to Taurasi’s quips.

“Generally, I don’t talk trash,” Bird told The Athletic in 2019. “But I especially don’t talk trash to Dee. She thrives on that. When I’m on her team and I see people poke the bear, so to speak, I know she’s going to have a big night. So when I’m on the other side, I tell all my teammates, do not talk trash. You’re going to want to. She’s going to push you in ways that’s going to make you want to talk trash. The minute something good happens, you’re going to want to clap and get excited about it.

“I know trying to talk trash to Dee is a lose-lose.”

For every one of Taurasi’s antics caught on camera, there are so many more that are never shared off the basketball court. Dupree has heard Taurasi say things she can’t repeat, even if they made her laugh. Peddy, too. It comes with the territory when your teammate is one of the fiercest WNBA players to ever lace up a pair of sneakers.

Taurasi has long been the greatest WNBA scorer of all time, leading the league in career points at 9,161 and climbing. She’s also first in career field goals, free throws and 3-pointers made. Those records are as much a part of her legendary status as her cutthroat play and unsparing comments.

Taurasi, in the twilight of her WNBA career, hasn’t indicated when she plans to retire. Until that day comes, there will be more Taurasi quips, more antics, more stories, more shots taken, more points scored and, no doubt, more arguments with referees.

But there will only ever be one Diana Taurasi. That’s a given.

June 21, 1997 — The referee tosses the ball up between the New York Liberty and the Los Angeles Sparks. It hangs in the air for a moment as the crowd of 14,284 fans hold their collective breath.

The WNBA has officially tipped off, and women’s basketball will never be the same. When Sparks guard Penny Toler scores the first official basket, the significance of the moment starts to sink in.

Twenty-five years later, the WNBA is still here. And the impact of that first game is still being felt.

***

Over two and a half decades, the league has evolved on every level, from player autonomy to fan engagement and social media interaction to marketing and visibility. And along the way, it has inspired young athletes who grew up knowing that professional women’s basketball is the norm and not a novelty.

Today’s WNBA spans many generations, from 18-year veteran Sue Bird to 21-year-old rookie Charli Collier. What’s unique about this class of players, in the league’s 25th year, is the majority of them started their basketball careers with the WNBA as a real, living, breathing end goal. They could watch women play basketball for a living and think to themselves: That could be me someday.

“My first WNBA memory is going to a Washington Mystics game. It was actually the 10-year anniversary of the league, and I was playing AAU and our whole team went,” says Atlanta Dream center Elizabeth Williams. “I think one of the Miller sisters was on the Mystics at the time. I just remember the whole experience and especially kids my age being excited to even see a pro league.

“I think that was the first time where it was like, whoa, this is actually a possibility for us as female athletes.”

The image of that game stayed in the back of Williams’ mind as she got older and played college basketball at Duke University, with aspirations to make it to the WNBA. Many players of Williams’ generation had similar experiences.

“The first WNBA game I went to when I was little, I think I was eight or nine. I remember the L.A. Sparks and I remember Candace Parker,” says Kennedy Burke of the Seattle Storm. “And I knew then, I was like, oh, this is what I want to do, because I love basketball.”

A little over a decade later, Burke was guarding Parker during a game, “wowed” that the player who inspired her dreams was now her opponent.

Burke’s teammate, Breanna Stewart, went to her first game with her AAU team. They traveled from Syracuse, N.Y. to Madison Garden to see the Liberty play. Stewart hoped that one day, she would be out there, too. Washington Mystics guard Myisha Hines-Allen also went to her first WNBA game at the Garden with her AAU team, and it changed her relationship with the sport. Before that game, she was just playing basketball; afterward, she began watching it all the time.

“For so long, you’d only see men play in the NBA on TV. I’d watch women’s college games, but on the professional level, you didn’t see any women,” says Shey Peddy of the Phoenix Mercury. “So now it was like, OK, I see somebody who looks like me out here ballin’ day in and day out, just on the big stage, on TV. That was the main goal, to be on TV playing basketball in front of all of the fans, to have your family and friends cheering for you one day and, hopefully, have a miracle shot like they did.”

Jessica Shepard of the Minnesota Lynx doesn’t remember her first WNBA game, but she does remember her first WNBA jersey, which came as a Christmas gift when she was in kindergarten.

“My parents got me a [Orlando] Miracle jersey with my name on it,” she recalls. “I mean, they’re not a team anymore, but at the time I probably wore it, like, every day of the week when I was playing basketball. That was my earliest memory.”

Almost every WNBA player has one. Whether it’s a game they watched, a team they followed or a player they admired, the players understand the significance of carrying the league through its 25th year and setting an example for the next generation.

***

A’ja Wilson was born in 1996, the same year the WNBA was officially founded. So the reigning MVP and Las Vegas Aces forward never had a chance to watch some of her role models play in their prime, but that didn’t stop her from identifying with all-time greats like Lisa Leslie.

“I didn’t have the opportunity to watch her play, but she’s definitely someone that I model not just my game but the way to go about it,” Wilson says. “She’s such a lady off the court. She’s so easy to talk to. She’s just an all-around cool person. And I just hope that if I can be half of that role model that she is to me to a young Black girl, that I’m doing my job.”

Wilson wasn’t the only one who missed out on the formative years of the WNBA. Jonquel Jones wasn’t able to watch the league on television while growing up in the Bahamas because games weren’t available in her region. She would hear about Leslie and Parker, but that was it. Instead, she watched the NBA and modeled her game after players like Rip Hamilton and, later, Kevin Durant.

Liz Cambage of the Aces also had a hard time following the WNBA on a regular basis due to time-zone and access challenges in Australia. But when she could watch, she spent most of her time following Penny Taylor and Lauren Jackson, who are also from Australia.

Unlike Wilson, Cambage and Jones, Sun forward DeWanna Bonner was able to watch one of her favorite players regularly.

“I liked Cynthia Cooper. I watched her a lot,” she says. “I think just her leadership and the way she led the [Houston] Comets to four championships at the point guard position. Just an unbelievable player. So she would be the player that I looked up to because of her leadership skills.”

Williams was a Yolanda Griffith fan, drawn to the Hall of Famer’s defense and reliability. Hines-Allen found a connection with Essence Carson, Leilani Mitchell and Cappie Pondexter, but Rebekkah Brunson and Alyssa Thomas have had the biggest influence on her overall.

“Brunson, just how she’s able to rebound — I was amazed by that to be honest with you. Alyssa Thomas, I’m still a huge fan of hers because we’re kind of the same size and just to see what she’s able to do … from every aspect of the game,” says Hines-Allen.

Peddy looked up to Sheryl Swoopes and Cooper on offense and Deanna Nolan on defense. But she felt an even deeper connection to Diana Taurasi when she entered the league. Peddy had watched Taurasi since her UConn days and now, the two of them are teammates with the Mercury.

Dream rookie Aari McDonald still can’t believe it when she sees Taurasi on the other bench, knowing she’s playing against her.

“It’s crazy because I’ve always loved Diana Taurasi. I loved her attitude. I loved the swag she brings to the court,” McDonald says.

Shepard distinctly remembers the moment she walked into the Lynx locker room and came face-to-face with Seimone Augustus.

“I had just gotten [to Minnesota], and Seimone walked in and I was a rather nervous little rookie. It’s surreal. I think, when you’re in it, you don’t realize just how crazy it really is,” she says. “I mean it’s awesome, just to look across and be playing against people that you grew up watching and are on the same stage as them.”

Lynx guard Crystal Dangerfield had always wanted to meet Augustus, too. Growing up in Tennessee, she watched a lot of SEC basketball and became fans of Augustus and Sylvia Fowles. As a rookie in 2020, Dangerfield was playing with Fowles and against Augustus. But the most surreal moments for her are the times she plays against Parker.

“The earliest that I can remember back right now was watching Parker come into the league. I remember trying to get a Sparks jersey and everything. I just remember it goes all the way back to when she was at Tennessee,” Dangerfield says. “Being on the floor with her, having conversations while we were out on the floor is just … we’re at the same level. That’s my peer. Not at the same level playing-wise, but that’s my peer now and I’m competing against her.”

***

When Sydney Wiese was a kid, she had three goals for herself — to play on the varsity team in high school, to get a college scholarship and to become a professional basketball player in the WNBA. The now Mystics guard checked the third and final goal off of her list in 2017, when the Sparks selected her in the first round of the WNBA Draft.

“I heard my name get called, it was like, oh my gosh, this is real. This is a real thing now. Now, what do I do with this?” Wiese says. “That’s as far as I thought. It was one of those moments that you work for your whole life, but when it actually happens — and it’s so cliche — but there were really no words to describe the feeling when I heard my name.”

Wiese grew up in Phoenix, and one of her early memories of the WNBA was meeting Taurasi at a camp at a local high school. Wiese used to watch Taurasi on TV and practice Taurasi’s moves in her driveway during halftime.

“To see her in the flesh, not just in uniform, but to see her as a person, to get a picture with her, to get autographs from the whole team, it’s like you’re standing in awe of these women that you dream to be one day,” Wiese says. “And they’re right in front of you and you can ask them questions. Then you can learn from them and just take it in. It became real for me in that moment when I was a kid, where I wanted to be able to do that someday, too.”

Bonner had a similar experience when she arrived at her first WNBA training camp in 2009, after the Mercury drafted her with the fifth overall pick.

“Coming to training camp the first time and playing with Taurasi, and how hard she worked and led the team,” she says. “I had Pondexter as one of my vets as well, so just some great names there and great leadership. Just how hard they worked on the court was unbelievable to me.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Arike 🇳🇬🇺🇸 (@arike_ogunbowale)

Peddy’s connection to the WNBA was more personal. Peddy’s first WNBA game was in Cleveland, where she and her mom could watch the Cleveland Rockers and Michelle Edwards, who played with Peddy’s mom when they were younger. The experience has stayed with Peddy to this day.

These kinds of stories are common among today’s WNBA players. The long and winding thread of the league has been woven into the fabric of their lives, in one way or another, and it will continue to do the same for generations to come.

“It’s funny how life kind of works like that,” says Williams. “Things come full circle. I’m always humbled to be in this position, to even be in the league. And I’ve been in the league for a couple of years now, so then it’s even more humbling.

“We all kind of play for that little girl that grew up watching the game. So, it’s cool that now there are other girls watching us.”

On the night of the 2021 WNBA Draft in April, Destiny Slocum was sitting on her living room couch surrounded by family and friends as she waited for the televised announcement. She didn’t know exactly when or where she was going to get drafted, but she believed without a doubt that her name would be called.

The confirmation came early in the second round, when the Las Vegas Aces selected Slocum with the 14th overall pick and ESPN captured Slocum’s jubilant reaction.

“I think my entire life, especially coming from a small town like Boise, not many people thought that I would ever go to the WNBA,” said the former Arkansas point guard and first Boise-born player to be drafted into the WNBA. “I think just having that moment of everything that I’ve worked for … was a big thing for me.”

Once the reality set in that she was off to Las Vegas to play with reigning WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and for head coach Bill Laimbeer, Slocum shifted her focus back to where it was before the draft. She would train and work hard to try to make the roster because she knew nothing was guaranteed, even as a draft pick.

There are 12 teams in the WNBA and only 144 roster spots available. In some cases, the salary cap limits a team to carry 11 players rather than the usual 12. This is the stark reality for every rookie who enters the league. The competition for a roster spot is extremely tough, especially for players drafted in the second and third rounds.

“I think the one thing about the WNBA is once you’re drafted, it only means so much, right? To me, I say it’s worth a penny of the entire dollar — you still have to make the team,” Slocum said. “You really have to shift your mindset in a lot of ways and get past the draft. Like, you really can’t enjoy draft night because you’re like, all right, now I gotta go and make this roster.”

Slocum arrived in Las Vegas with the mindset that the only way Laimbeer would cut her was because of salary cap restrictions. She would do everything in her power to show him why she was worthy of one of the 12 spots. That meant adjusting quickly to the speed and strength of players at the WNBA level.

“I mean, there’s really no jump. You go straight from college to the pros and that’s what they expect you to do, too,” Slocum said. “They hand you the playbook, you come back and you know the plays when (coach Laimbeer) calls them. Just a lot of responsibility and maturity comes with it.”

The Rook's first official points as an Ace!@DestinySlocum24 // #ALLIN ♦️♠️ pic.twitter.com/Uasi8ZxUUu

— Las Vegas Aces (@LVAces) May 22, 2021

The transition to the WNBA can be overwhelming for draft picks. Many of them have to adapt to bench-heavy roles after being their college team’s go-to player.

Aari McDonald can attest to that challenge. The Arizona point guard shot up WNBA mock draft boards after she led the Wildcats to the 2021 NCAA championship game against Stanford. Even though her team lost, McDonald was the star of the tournament. When the Atlanta Dream selected her third overall, McDonald celebrated with her family and then quickly moved on to the task at hand.

“I thought, OK, Chennedy [Carter], Courtney [Williams], Odyssey [Sims],” she said. “I was like, OK, this is gonna be fun.”

McDonald felt as if she were starting her freshman year all over again when she got to Atlanta. But her teammates, she says, made her feel right at home, consistently motivating her and offering advice that has made her stronger. McDonald has plenty of experienced players to learn from on a guard-heavy team.

Still, because of that depth chart at guard, the Dream’s move to take McDonald with the third pick was puzzling to some. In just the past year, the Dream had drafted Carter fourth overall and signed Sims in free agency. As a result, McDonald has averaged just 13.6 minutes per game this season, and before Carter was suspended in early July, she was playing even less.

“McDonald was surprising, not because she’s not talented but just because (Atlanta) is so loaded at point guard,” said a former WNBA assistant coach. “That one really was confusing to me. I figured they would get something they could use, that could help them. I understand them trying to load up with talent, but, like, she’s just sitting the bench for them because they have so many players who are ahead of her.”

“I’m not gonna lie to you, it’s hard,” McDonald said. “It’s a learning adjustment, but once my number’s called, I’m ready. It’s making me stronger. It’s making me hungry.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Aari McDonald (@aarimcdonald)

Players drafted in the first round aren’t even guaranteed a place on a WNBA team. And if they prove they belong in training camp, their contract still might not fit within a team’s salary cap. For rookies selected in the latter half of the draft, the gap between the college basketball and WNBA levels can be too far to bridge.

Of the 36 players drafted in 2021, only 17 are currently listed as active players. Two first-round draft picks, Shyla Heal and Stephanie Watts, were waived before getting much of a chance to prove themselves. Chelsey Perry, drafted 26th overall by the Indiana Fever, was the only third-round draft pick to make a roster (she was initially waived and then re-signed with Fever later in the season).

The roster turnover among WNBA rookies has left some questioning the scouting and drafting process, and the challenges the pandemic presented this past year.

“Looking at this draft class … you didn’t know who could make an impact right away,” said the former assistant coach. “This is going to sound biased because she’s the one playing the best — I liked Michaela Onyenwere from UCLA. That was my favorite player in this draft. We didn’t know if anyone else would come out early, and COVID didn’t help that at all. I know Rhyne Howard was possibly coming out as well, but she obviously came back. Onyenwere was probably the top one.”

Onyenwere, drafted sixth overall by the New York Liberty, is the current frontrunner for Rookie of the Year. She has started every game this season and is averaging 23.8 minutes, 9.8 points and 2.9 rebounds per game. Onyenwere is the only rookie playing over 20 minutes per game this season, marking a considerable dropoff from last season when seven rookies who appeared in more than 15 games averaged over 20 minutes for their teams.

Curt Miller, head coach and GM of the Connecticut Sun, also had Onyenwere high on his draft board. But without a first-round pick in 2021, he knew she wouldn’t last until the second round. He also figured she would have been drafted earlier than sixth.

“I can only speak for us — it wasn’t the easiest preparation in what we were planning without a first round-draft pick,” Miller said. “I wasn’t as caught up as some of these teams were as far as the star power, the upper first-round picks or how that was all gonna play out. We didn’t concern ourselves as much with that this year as we would have if we had had a first-round draft pick.”

The toughest challenge for Miller and his staff was figuring out the best way to prepare for the draft while dealing with COVID-19.

“You didn’t know exactly who was going to come into the draft,” he said. “We are a staff that loves to be in person, and that was impossible. I love to not only attend games, but we love to attend practices in person. You learn so much more.”

Miller waited patiently as the draft unfolded, watching players slip and scratching his head at some of the players teams picked ahead of him. It became apparent that some teams were picking based on positional needs, while others were going with the best available player. Both strategies helped, he says, when it came time for the Sun to make their pick at No. 20.

DiJonai Carrington was a two-way prospect Miller liked from the start, and the Baylor guard dropped right into the Sun’s lap.

“We thought, behind the scenes and throughout our investigation, there were a significant amount of second-round picks that would be picked before us that would not stick on final rosters compared to our second-round pick, who had a real shot of making our roster because of our salary cap situation,” Miller said.

Indeed, Carrington stuck with Connecticut. Some analysts even predicted her to win Rookie of the Year. But so far this season, Carrington is averaging fewer than 10 minutes per game.

https://t.co/2eJYnozvxi pic.twitter.com/MWG6GtYrRY

— Connecticut Sun (@ConnecticutSun) July 3, 2021

Currently, the top five picks of the 2021 WNBA Draft — Charli Collier, Awak Kuier, McDonald, Kysre Gondrezick and Chelsea Dungee — are barely playing at all. Onyenwere plays the most. According to Miller, she landed in the perfect situation for her to succeed in New York.

When it comes to making it in the WNBA, fit means everything. Miller remembers acquiring Courtney Williams from the Phoenix Mercury nearly halfway through the 2016 season. Drafted eighth overall that year, Williams hadn’t played much in Phoenix. The guard thrived in three and a half seasons with the Sun and was named to her first All-Star team this year with the Dream.

“We traded for Courtney, who was averaging a point per game in Phoenix but thrived in our system,” Miller said. “Right system, right fit, right timing.”

The same questions can be asked this season. Would Onyenwere be playing just as well if Dallas had taken her with one of their top picks? If Collier had gone to New York, would she be thriving? Would McDonald have been better off sitting behind Courtney Vandersloot in Chicago?

To Slocum, landing in Las Vegas didn’t make sense at first. But after watching film and spending more time with the team, her perspective changed.

“I think I fit in the system well,” Slocum said. “My role is to get in there and give energy, pressure guards and knock down shots. For me, it’s been a good transition and a team I feel like I fit in pretty well with.”

Her Aces teammates — especially Riquna Williams, Slocum says — have welcomed her. And while she’s had to adjust to certain aspects of the WNBA game, Slocum’s basketball IQ has been an asset. The toughest lesson for her has been patience.

“I mean, you’re crazy if you’re a basketball player and you don’t want to be on the floor every second. But also, patience [is important] in everything you do,” she said. “I show up every day as if I’m going to play 40 minutes every game. It’s what I do with the minutes that I do have that are valuable. My biggest goal is, when I’m in the game, am I doing everything in my power to help us win?”

McDonald feels the same way.

“The biggest lesson I learned was to stay ready,” she said. “You never know what can happen, you never know when your number is called. But when it’s called, you gotta deliver. You gotta play your game.”

McDonald also thinks she ended up in the right place. She was shy at first but says there’s no way she can be anyone but herself on the Dream, a team that loves to have fun and goof around. McDonald has bonded with Sims, the veteran guard who tells her to just “do what has gotten you here” when she is on the court. It’s a lesson she’s taken to heart in the WNBA, where players have to prove every day that they belong.

“I think that when you’re on a team with similar players, iron sharpens iron,” McDonald said. “We’re making each other better every day in practice. We’re gonna put these pieces together, and we’re gonna fight and we’re gonna scrap and grind it out. And I really like my odds.”

When Ariel Atkins learned she had made her first United States Olympic roster, she didn’t know quite how to feel. The 24-year-old Washington Mystics guard erupted in laughter and then fell into tears.

All of the early mornings she spent in the gym before the sun came up, the double workouts she did with her trainer, the baskets she shot until her arms felt like string beans, the late nights of watching film — those moments flashed before her like an old, familiar movie she’s seen at least one hundred times.

“It was just one of those, like, surreal moments, because it’s definitely something that you want and strive for,” Atkins says. “Me being on the U.S. national team is top tier. It’s always the best of the best, it’s always been the best of the best, and it’s a very hard team to make.”

Atkins called her parents and thanked them for supporting her, for being there from the beginning. She sent text messages to friends, family members and mentors. That list included her high school basketball coach, Cathy Self-Morgan. Atkins thanked Self-Morgan for pushing her to get better and for being a special person in her life. The text ended with: “We’re going to the Olympics coach!!!”

The way Atkins responded to the news is the essence of who she is. She wanted all of the important people in her life to know that they had made it, too.

“Growing up, that’s just who she’s been. She’s always had, I guess, a maturity about herself that’s just beyond her age,” says Lashonda Atkins, Ariel’s mother. “I know my mother-in-law used to look at our family photo albums and she would say, ‘She’s gonna be the glue.’ She was always pointing at her saying she’s always the strong one. It’s just who she was.”

To Atkins, it’s always been about the people in her circle and the people in her community. Basketball is secondary. It’s also the reward of those human connections. She did not travel the road that got her to her first WNBA All-Star Game and first Olympics alone.

“(I’m) just super thankful for my circle and my support system,” she says. “They really pushed me to be just a better human overall.”

***

Atkins was in third grade when she first met Self-Morgan at a fifth-grade basketball camp.

“I told her it’s for fifth graders and she said, ‘No, I can do this,’” Self-Morgan recalled. “She proved to me that first day she could do it. Any time I challenged her after that, she could do it. She might look at me kind of with her head cocked sideways, but she’d turn around and she would get whatever job done.”

Self-Morgan coached for 42 years at Duncanville High School in Atkins’ hometown in Texas. She knew Atkins was special and had the potential to make it to the WNBA someday, even the Olympics.

When Atkins was a junior, they were losing to a team at a tournament in Houston by 15 points. Self-Morgan remembers the team laughing at them, and at halftime, she “chewed out” the players hard. It got their attention.

As soon as she turned her back to walk out of the locker room, she heard a voice hyping up the team, holding them accountable. It was Atkins. They ended up winning the game by ten.

“She always lifted up people around her first,” Self-Morgan said. “It got to the point where I would ask her to talk to teammates. When she graduated, I lost an assistant coach.”

As a freshman at Duncanville, Atkins averaged just 3.2 points and 1.8 rebounds. But her game continued to improve year after year, thanks in part to her personal trainer and mentor, Lajeanna Howard. Howard had also played for Self-Morgan at Duncanville. She was coaching college basketball at the University of Louisiana Monroe when Self-Morgan called her to come back and work with the high school team, specifically Akins.

Howard and Atkins connected instantly. They’d get to the gym at 5 a.m. and stay there for hours, sometimes pulling double workouts. Even as a freshman, Atkins didn’t complain. She just put her head down and went to work. And it paid off.

By the time Atkins was a senior, she was averaging 17.9 points, 5.8 rebounds, 4.8 steals and 3.9 assists as the starting guard. She led Duncanville to a 35-1 record and the Texas UIL Class 5A state title game that season, drawing the attention of many top college programs. A 2014 McDonald’s All-American, Atkins was ranked third overall and first overall at her position by ESPN.

Atkins ended up at the University of Texas. The campus was relatively close to home, but the transition from high school to college was a challenge for Atkins. Basketball was harder, the culture was different, academics were tough. At one point, Atkins even thought about transferring and reached out to the people she trusted most for guidance.

“There’s a lot of different adjustments, especially coming from Duncanville in any college program, because you’re so used to being phenomenal,” said Howard. “And you have to adjust to coaching, the setting, not having the people around you that you’re accustomed to having around.”

Self-Morgan doesn’t typically support transferring. She’s an old-school coach who believes that players should push through the hard times because they’ll be better off for it on the other side. But she knew Atkins was struggling, so she decided to look into the situation and reach out to another school.

“The culture at Texas was just different,” Self-Morgan said. “The seniors were the top dogs and the freshman needed to sit down and be quiet. And when Ariel sees things that aren’t right, she’s not going to sit down and be quiet. So that year, in my opinion, she just kept watching as a spectator and being suppressed, and not being able to be who she was and is.”

“I think college was the first time that I was really away from my family,” Atkins said. “I’m a huge family person. I have a really big family. I’m always with them when I’m home or with an aunt, uncle, grandma, grandpa. To not have them with me and to go through those transitions was really tough.”

Atkins eventually changed her mind about transferring and decided to stick it out the rest of her freshman year. She didn’t know it at the time, but doing so would only make her stronger. Especially because WNBA legend Tina Thompson joined the coaching staff as an assistant the following season.

From that moment on, everything shifted.

***

It wasn’t the first time Atkins and Thompson had met. When Atkins was younger, she played in an AAU tournament in Dallas. She was very shy back then and doesn’t remember speaking to Thompson, but she remembers being in awe. Now, Thompson was one of her coaches.

“Anytime somebody approaches me as a human first, I immediately am intrigued and interested in what they have to say, because a lot of times, as athletes, people really approach us as basketball players, as athletes first,” Atkins said. “And even from (Tina’s) first day coming in to (the University of Texas) and just meeting all of us and everything, she approached me as a human more so than anything. And I think that was my first, like, (real) introduction to her.”

The more Atkins grew to trust in Thompson, the more she took her advice and life lessons to heart.

“It’s easier to follow someone who has gone through it before,” she said. “They’ve walked it. So when they talk, you can believe it.”

Unlike a lot of WNBA players, Atkins didn’t really think about making it to the pros. She was always focused on getting better and making it to the next level; basketball was fun and putting in the work made it more enjoyable, but it didn’t go beyond that. It didn’t register with her that her game was evolving to the point where WNBA scouts were starting to take notice.

To her family, friends and coaches, however, Atkins was always destined for the WNBA. Self-Morgan says she knew from the first moment she met Atkins as a third grader. Howard had seen Atkins’ potential, too. And when Thompson arrived at Texas, she told Atkins she had what it took to get there.

“I think it sunk in when she was young, playing in the driveway, because she always said it. Whenever she did some move on her dad and made him look bad, she’d say, ‘Yeah, that’s the WNBA there for you,’” said Lashonda.

Her senior year at Texas, Atkins averaged 14.9 points and 5.5 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. At 5-foot-8, Atkins had size and strength, and she could score, defend, help out on the boards and put in maximum effort on the court. There was no more avoiding the WNBA’s interest in her. The Mystics scooped up Atkins with the seventh overall pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft.

When she arrived in Washington, the WNBA’s East Coast fan base wasn’t familiar with the guard from the Big 12. Atkins saw it as an opportunity.

“She’s a driven type of person. Whatever she sets her mind to, she’s focused and she’s willing to work for it. She knows she has to work hard,” Lashonda said. “She endears people to her. She knew fans didn’t know her, but she wanted to work hard and show them who she is. She wanted the fans to get to know her.”

Atkins did just that, averaging 22.5 minutes, 11.3 points, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals per game as a rookie. That didn’t mean the transition from college to the pros was easy. Atkins considers it her biggest basketball lesson to date. She had to figure out how to separate herself and give her team more.

“Like, how do you find your uniqueness? How do you (set) yourself apart?” Atkins said. “I think that’s been, for me, one of the toughest things to do, because I don’t need to step outside of myself. You just need to be yourself a little more.”

That team-first approach has endeared Atkins to those around her, even the most legendary players.

“Ariel’s an utmost professional. She’s one of the most selfless players that I’ve played with in a long time,” said Mystics and U.S. teammate Tina Charles. “She’s equipped with a lot of things that many players her age don’t have, that I didn’t have. So it’s really great to see her maturing into the woman that she is on and off the court.”

Ariel Atkins got the moves 💃 pic.twitter.com/tG2eF6r3jE

— USA Basketball (@usabasketball) July 18, 2021

***

Atkins has never been afraid to use her voice. She’s been active in her community since she was in high school and her mother taught her the importance of giving back. And as her platform has gotten bigger over the years, she’s realized the opportunity she has to speak louder than ever before — particularly when it comes to social justice.

“I think it’s something the WNBA has always done, ever since I became aware of it, even going back to the Minnesota Lynx when they wore the shirts during their warm-up, and then the league fining them for that,” Atkins said. “This league just has a history of women speaking up and speaking out about not only what they believe in, but speaking up for people whose community they’re a part of.”

During the 2020 bubble season, the Mystics walked out of a scheduled game against the Atlanta Dream in solidarity and protest the day after Jacob Blake was shot by police in Kenosha, Wisc. Atkins spoke for her team, telling the Washington Post: “These moments are so much more bigger than us. … If we do this unified as a league, it looks different. … We matter.”

“I had the opportunity to speak and it wasn’t planned or anything by my team, so like, I guess I was the person for the job,” Atkins said “I really call that a God moment because… I was very angry. I didn’t really know what I wanted to say, but I know how I felt, so I was just hoping to hone everything that our team was talking about and what we were all feeling that day and before that day and even to this day, and try to portray that out into the world or whoever was listening at the moment.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by ARIEL ATKINS (@iamarielatkins)

Atkins’ urge to speak up for what she believes is right does not come from a feeling of pressure or responsibility, she says, but a calling based on opportunity. When the moments arise, she feels the need to use her platform for people who need it.

“I have the resources, and if I have the resources, I’m gonna help, you know?” she said. “I think it’s more so in our nature and just who we are as people. There’s s a lot of people in our league that are very caring, that want to help, that are super understanding, and want to empower their community, our community, in the best way that we can.”

Looking back at her evolution from high schooler to Olympian, Atkins says she’s grown in her faith, in her relationship with her family, and her relationship with herself. Along the way, her support system has been everything to her.

Whenever Atkins goes back to Duncanville, she goes to lunch or dinner with Self-Morgan and some of her former high school teammates. Self-Morgan, who retired in 2020, cherishes her connection with Atkins.

“I’m always just thoroughly in awe and supportive, and just one of her biggest fans,” said Self-Morgan. “She is your complete athlete, young lady, person, human being.”

Howard still trains and works with Atkins, and they talk all the time. They watch film, break it down and zero in on areas of improvement. They’re always working on getting better, even when Atkins is overseas.

“When I first met her, she was a kid. I called her kid all the time. But the thing that I can appreciate, and I’m sure that everybody that’s been connected to her as well, is we had the opportunity to grow up and truly be a village and part of someone that is so special,” said Howard. “I just told her the other day, I saw her on the red carpet for (Team USA) and I’m like, ‘Wow — kid, you’ve finally grown up.’ It’s just special to be able to be a part of somebody’s journey and how hard work can really pay off.”

As for Atkins’ family, they are as tight as ever.

”It feels so good,” said Lashonda. “You know, every parent wants the best for their child. Every parent believes in their child, even when their child sometimes don’t feel they believe in themselves. As parents, we always have that belief in them.”

Atkins, who turns 25 this week, has already accomplished so much. With Team USA set to begin Olympic play Tuesday against Nigeria, a gold medal in Tokyo would only add to the list.

None of it changes what Atkins’ primary focus has always been — to be her best self, connect with people and put good out into the world. The secret is that Atkins’ approach to life matters just as much on the basketball court, where there’s always something more to strive for, to put in work for, to achieve.

“We’re still waiting on her to hit a buzzer shot,” joked Lashonda.

Chances are, somewhere over in Tokyo, Atkins is in a gym right now . . . working on it.

Noelle Quinn spent Memorial Day Weekend in a WNBA whirlwind. In the span of 72 hours, she went from being an associate head coach of the Seattle Storm to giving an introductory press conference as their new head coach. The very next day, she guided the Storm to an 88-73 win over the Indiana Fever.

“I think the emotions of everything, I was kind of floating in that it was very surreal,” Quinn says. “But understanding we have a game to play and I was just trying to stay focused on that, it was a lot.”

Quinn and the Storm coaching staff knew Dan Hughes was eventually going to retire. Seattle was already a couple of weeks into the season, but Hughes ultimately felt it was the right time after 20-plus years of coaching in the WNBA and three with the Storm. As his successor, Quinn became the first Black female head coach in the history of the franchise.

“(I have) incredible respect for Dan and what he’s meant to the league and the organization. Learned a lot from him and will continue to learn from him,” Quinn says. “So I thank God, knowing that I’m the first at something but also that I can pave the way for someone coming up to also have an opportunity and can continue on the legacy, continue on the assistant coaching tree, so to speak.”

Quinn has made the transition look seamless. Since taking over as head coach, she’s led the Storm to a 7-3 record, including a six-game win streak, that’s allowed them to maintain their hold on first place. Seattle leads the WNBA in total assists (365), assists per game (22.8) and effective field goal percentage (52.7). For a team that thrives on chemistry on and off the court, the Storm have gelled faster and better than even they expected this season with a handful of new players on the roster.

Quinn, a former WNBA player and champion with the Storm, has a knack for connecting with her players and creating a team bond. At 36 years old, she’s also relatable. One of the first messages Quinn delivered to her team after assuming the role of head coach was that they needed to get back to having fun.

“Basketball is what we do, it’s not who we are,” Quinn said during her introduction on May 31. “Our joy comes from within, honestly, and nobody can take that away from us. I think we are at our best when we’re having fun.”

Where Quinn comes from, it’s just one lesson from a deep, layered basketball education.

***

Quinn never set out to be a basketball coach. Her goal was to “keep playing and hooping” as long as possible. But over the course of her long playing career, something shifted.

“I used to have a notebook — I still have a notebook — of plays that I would like over the course of years of playing, that coaches would cook up, and maybe innately I was building my mind to become a coach,” she says. “(I) just kind of always was a student of the game. I always watched a lot of basketball, no matter what the level.”

That journey started at Bishop Montgomery High School in Torrance, Calif., where the marquee hasn’t changed since Quinn took the job in Seattle. “Congratulations Noelle Quinn ‘03,” it reads. “Head Coach WNBA Seattle Storm.”

Quinn first arrived at Bishop Montgomery in 1998 as an eighth grader and, over the course of four years, led the Lady Knights to four state championships. Steve Miller, the assistant principal, still remembers meeting Quinn when she toured the school with her mother. Even after Quinn moved on to a standout career at UCLA and a 12-year stint in the WNBA, Miller stayed close with her.

“I called her that Sunday right away when I heard she was named the head coach, and I can’t be prouder of her. She deserves it, without a doubt,” he says. “It doesn’t surprise me that it was quietly done, but that’s just how (Noelle) rolls.”

In 2016, when Quinn was still playing in the WNBA, she returned to Bishop Montgomery to take over as head coach of the women’s basketball team — her first head coaching position. The Lady Knights won the California Interscholastic Federation Southern Section (CIF) championship in her first season.

Quinn’s coaching goal on a day-to-day basis was about more than basketball. She focused on inspiring the young women and making sure they knew she cared about them as much individually as she did collectively.

“A lot of those kids may not go on to play Division I or play basketball for the rest of their lives, so if all they have is four years of the high school setting, it becomes (important) for me to be a light for them, inspire them, show them the way, care about them,” says Quinn. “That’s what I really enjoyed.”

“She changed so many lives the moment she walked back on campus,” Miller says. “Wherever she goes, she does that. I know that the girls know how special it is that they were able to have that opportunity to be coached by her. … She got 100 percent out of each one of those players. It doesn’t matter if they were the star of the team or the fifteenth person, she made them all very special.”

***

Even if Quinn didn’t see her own coaching potential, her coaches, teammates, friends and mentors did.

At UCLA, where Quinn averaged 17.1 points, 4.2 assists and 7.4 rebounds per game, she was known for making those around her better. After graduating in 2007, Quinn was drafted fourth overall by the Minnesota Lynx. As a rookie, she set a franchise record for most assists (14) in the final game of the season, and her season assist total (148) tied a franchise record held by WNBA great Teresa Edwards.

Quinn played for five teams over 12 years — the Lynx, Sparks, Mystics, Mercury and Storm — and was respected for her leadership, reliability and versatility. During that time, she also played for a lot of great coaches, including Sandy Brondello, Brian Agler and Jenny Boucek. Quinn would study their approach and their preparation, watch how they managed their players, take note of their demeanor and keep a mental list of what she liked and didn’t like.

“She’s just always been steady. She never gets too high, she never gets too low,” says UCLA alum and women’s basketball legend Ann Meyers Drysdale. “To me, she’s just always observing and seeing what’s next. She played for five teams, and I think she was solid everywhere she went and constantly learning.”

Sometimes players wonder why coaches do the things they do, say the things they say. Quinn not only understands the dynamic, she also coaches from that very angle. She explains where she’s coming from when she draws up plays, makes substitutions and talks to her team during a timeout. She knows players appreciate the context because she’s been in their position.

“As a player, I was doing a lot of the same things in the locker rooms. In timeouts, I was helping everyone, and so that kind of made it a seamless transition because I’m essentially doing the same thing I was doing later on in my career,” Quinn says. “Just to have that camaraderie from playing pour over into our relationship as player and coach, we can talk through things, we can learn from each other still.”

It helps that Quinn played with four players she’s now coaching in Sue Bird, Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Jordin Canada. They won a championship together as players in 2018 and again when Quinn was an assistant coach in 2020.

During their last season playing together in 2018, Bird says there were multiple times when she’d be about to walk onto the court after a timeout and Quinn would say, “Hey, you might want to run this play because this team is doing this.” From those glimpses into Quinn’s feel for the game, Bird knew Quinn was ready to be a head coach.

“I think it’s a step that’s been needed, and a step that will probably open more doors for more women, for more former players, for people of color,” Bird said, adding, “The things that (Noelle) has, the things that a lot of former players have, you just can’t teach.”

***

When the WNBA first began in 1997, there were eight teams and seven female coaches. Today there are four, a group that now includes Quinn.

Opportunity is something Quinn has spoken about a lot. It’s important, she says, for WNBA front offices to understand that players are capable of leading a team. But unless former players are given opportunities, the lack of female coaches in the league (or in the NBA) won’t change.

“I’ve said this for years, broadcasting, that why shouldn’t the players take over just like they have in the NBA?” Drysdale says. “The majority of coaches, not all of them, but the majority of coaches in the NBA have been players. There’s no reason five years into the WNBA that that wasn’t happening. … I’m not saying anything against coaches that are in the league now. They’re all terrific. But at some point, I’d like to get the majority again being women coaches.”

Quinn thinks it’s already shifting in that direction.

“As you look around the league there are a lot of former players that are on staffs right now. To have the ability to stay within the game, I think a lot of players would want to do that,” she says. “Especially making that transition from playing basketball all our lives to deciding what we want to do, it’s just an avenue that a lot of players would love. But to have an opportunity is the biggest thing.”

When Quinn spoke about becoming the first Black female head coach in Storm history in her introductory press conference, she didn’t hold back emotion. She reeled off a list of all the Black women who came before her as WNBA head coaches and helped pave the way:

Pokey Chatman; Teresa Edwards; Jennifer Gillom; Carolyn Jenkins; Vickie Johnson; Trudi Lacey; Cynthia Cooper; Cheryl Miller; Carolyn Peck; Julie Rousseau; Amber Stocks; Karleen Thompson; Shell Dailey; Jessie Kenlaw; Cathy Parson; Taj McWilliams-Franklin; Denise Taylor; Penny Toler.

At her introductory press conference, Noelle Quinn talked about what it means to be the Storm’s first Black head coach and the 19th Black female head coach in WNBA history. pic.twitter.com/3HTiOVcLDT

— Percy Allen (@percyallen) June 1, 2021

“What’s interesting is only one person on that list is still in our league, and that’s Vickie Johnson,” Quinn says. “Now I have younger generations understanding that it is possible, that this job is for young girls who look like me. I think the opportunity for younger generations to understand that we’re more than just athletes, I understand the weight of that.”

Now that Quinn has the opportunity in her hands, she’s intent on making the most of it. The Storm have high expectations. They have the talent and experience to make it back to the WNBA Finals and repeat as champions. And Quinn has embraced that challenge head on.

She knows what it takes, after all.

“It’s twofold,” she says. “It does feel like it puts pressure (on you) to be successful, but at the end of the day, when you are given the opportunity, you want to be able to show that you can do it.

“And those opportunities should come more frequently, more often.”

When Sue Bird entered the WNBA in 2002, the league was just beginning to take small steps toward LGBTQ+ inclusivity. She remembers, for example, the New York Liberty introducing a “Kissing Cam” for gay women early in her career — only after a lesbian group protested the team’s treatment of LGBTQ+ fans by kissing during a televised game betwen the Liberty and the Miami Sol in 2002.

“What’s interesting is the league embracing its fan base, but then from a player’s standpoint, there really weren’t that many people who were open,” Bird says. “There weren’t that many players who were coming out. So it was kind of this interesting place because it was just this unspoken thing. Everybody knew it, but nobody really talked about it.”

It would take a decade for the culture to shift in a meaningful way, and almost two decades for the WNBA to become the most socially conscious and active professional sports league in the country.

In the years after the WNBA launched in 1997, it was clear the strategy was to market to certain demographics by portraying its athletes as family women and traditionally feminine. In 2000, the league issued a press release of a list of players who were recently married along with the names of their husbands. Queer athletes did not talk openly about their sexuality in the WNBA, just as it was largely taboo in society at the time.

The WNBA’s embrace of “family values,” as former Liberty player Sue Wicks explained in an October 2020 interview with Fanbyte’s Natalie Weiner, alienated its LGBTQ+ players and fans.

“That’s how it was promoted,” Wicks said, “and I wouldn’t say it was subtle because every advertisement featured families in the stands and that type of thing. They showcased the girls that had husbands or kids, or other family ties. And it certainly was a true representation — it’s one facet of the league, and it was the one that they were selling then.”

Wicks, whose career on the court is often overshadowed by the fact she was the first WNBA player to come out as gay and talk openly about her sexuality, was an outlier. Though she doesn’t consider herself a trailblazer, her courage forged the path that so many WNBA players now walk.

“Everything changes as time goes on, and I think we’re just at a point in life where we shouldn’t see what a person likes, who a person likes, or anything like that,” says Connecticut Sun guard Natisha Hiedeman. “I wish it could have been like that a long time ago, but I think it’s super important for everybody to just be who they are.”

***

In 2013, Brittney Griner sat at her first official press conference, ready to discuss the start of her WNBA career after being drafted first overall by the Phoenix Mercury. When Griner casually commented on her sexuality, it wasn’t considered a big deal. At that time, athletes who came out in professional women’s sports did so to little fanfare and media attention. It was a sign that society was becoming more accepting of queer women.

Griner’s authenticity had a ripple effect. Slowly but surely, other players came out, too — some outright, some in interviews, some never needing to make an announcement at all.

Elena Delle Donne, drafted second overall in 2013 and now a star with the Washington Mystics, believes the WNBA has always been a safe place for her to express herself, but she admits it took her some time to embrace that part of her identity.

“I came into the league and was not out, so over the years I was able to truly come into myself,” Delle Donne says. “I often felt like I was a robot at times because I wasn’t able to truly be myself until I was open and honest about my sexuality.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Elena Delle Donne (@de11edonne)

In the spring of 2014, the NBA and NFL were having a reckoning of their own after Jason Collins and Michael Sam came out as gay. The WNBA went further, becoming the first professional sports league to launch a marketing campaign targeting the LGBTQ+ community. Starting that season, teams and players would participate in Pride events and there would be a nationally televised Pride-themed game.

The campaign marked progress on the surface, but internally the WNBA was still taking steps to feminize the players. Griner talked about how the league had proposed new, shorter and slim-cut uniforms for the upcoming 2014 season.

“They want more male attendance, and for us to change our uniforms to ‘sleek and sexy’ takes away from what we’re trying to do on the court,” Griner told Mother Jones at the time. “I want you to come watch my game, not the uniforms. If you wanna come just because we look sexy, then I really don’t want you there. I feel like we need to get away from that.”

While some old-fashioned, stereotypical beliefs remained, the players were no longer going to stay quiet about them. And today, their voices are stronger and louder than ever.

“Players are being more open and talking about this and using their platform to help others. That’s really where I’ve seen the biggest evolution,” Bird says, “Right now, I think we’re on a pretty amazing trajectory overall as a league, and I think if we continue on that path, that’s where I would like to see things go — just continuing to talk about things, speak about things and push it forward.”

That path includes a younger generation of bold and authentic players entering the league and challenging the status quo. Atlanta Dream guard Courtney Williams, for one, has always been unapologetic about who she is, though she says people have considered her more outspoken since she gained more exposure.

“The only difference, I guess, is the more clout, the more people dive into who you are,” Williams says. “I’ve kind of always been the same, you know? I just got a little bit more clout around my name. But man, I think it’s dope that the league is supportive. I mean, they should be. The majority of the league is gay, bi — whatever people want to call themselves.”

If the league weren’t supportive of players living their truth, Williams says, then it would be “super contradictory.”

“It’s important because I think it’s real. This is people’s truth. This is their everyday life,” she says. “It’s not one of them things where it’s like, you go home and things change or you step on the court and it changes. Like, this is who people are. People are gonna walk in their truth regardless.”

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Courtney Williams (@courtneywilliams10)

Layshia Clarendon of the Minnesota Lynx exemplifies Williams’ point. As the WNBA’s first out nonbinary athlete, they’ve often felt alienated even as the league increasingly embraces individual differences. An emotionally affirming step for Clarendon was the support she received from the WNBA when he decided to get top surgery earlier this year, which he described in a recent Sports Illustrated cover story by Britni de la Cretaz.

Clarendon is also a key voice of the WNBA/WNBPA Social Justice Council, whose top priorities this season are LGBTQ+ advocacy and trans rights along with health equity and civic engagement.

***

On June 10, the Indiana Fever’s Danielle Robinson and Victoria Vivians attended a Fever Pride event at Indiana Youth Group, a local organization that is working to solve LGBTQ+ homelessness.

“It’s important for there to be events during Pride Month,” Robinson says. “Our league is very inclusive and supportive of its players, so to be able to help so many people in our own markets and communities is an honor to have that platform and be able to give back in the way that we can.”

At the beginning of June, which is nationally recognized as Pride Month, the WNBA announced a handful of initiatives that “advocate for, support and celebrate the LGBTQ+ community and its allies.” Teams changed the icons on their social media platforms to rainbow colors, held events in their communities and hosted Pride-themed games. Sparks center Amanda Zahui B. wrote an op-ed for the WNBA website about coming to terms with her own identity.

ICYMI: What Does Pride Mean To Me? Written By @AmandaZahuiB

WATCH @espn at 4pm/ET as we celebrate the anniversary of the #WNBA's first ever game with a @nyliberty and @LASparks matchuphttps://t.co/YTSP9wN6Qg

— WNBA (@WNBA) June 20, 2021

“The league is so supportive, whether it’s adding gear or changing team logos throughout the month. It shows they care about who we are and the decisions we make,” Robinson says. “That has certainly been a great change since I came into the league.”

For the Mercury’s seventh annual Pride night, the team honored former Suns, Mercury and Warriors president Rick Welts. Welts, who is gay, was part of the intial NBA group that helped launch the WNBA in 1997. He represents yet another historical throughline connecting the WNBA to the LGBTQ+ community.

Griner, who is now in her eighth season with the Mercury, sees events like Pride nights, parades and panels as significant markers of how far the league has come.

Diana Taurasi, Griner’s longtime teammate in Phoenix, never made a grand announcement about her sexuality. By the time she married former Mercury teammate Penny Taylor in 2017, there wasn’t an expectation for WNBA players to do so. Taurasi has observed the WNBA’s evolution from her veteran perch, having been in the league for 18 seasons. And she’s proud of what the league stands for today.

“I think it’s been an amazing transition to being able to come to WNBA games, whether you’re a fan, a player, a coach, a front office worker, and just be yourself,” she says. “I think that’s the whole purpose of life — to live life authentically and to be yourself. And I think the WNBA has given different sectors of life a safe haven to come and enjoy games and, at the same time, express themselves.”