The W Series, entering its third season, is set to kick off as part of the first-ever Formula One Miami Grand Prix on Saturday. The all-women driver series was launched in 2019 by CEO Catherine Bond Muir in response to disturbing data that showed the already dismal number of girls and women in single-seater* motorsports was declining instead of growing.

Lining up on the grid this weekend are purportedly the 18 fastest female drivers in the world, including the undefeated W Series champion Jamie Chadwick.

With the popularity of Netflix’s “Drive to Survive,” a behind-the-scenes docuseries about the world of Formula One, American interest in elite-level motorsports has skyrocketed. While all 10 of the W Series 2022 races will be held in conjunction with F1 Grand Prix events, it’s a mistake to think of it as simply the women’s version of F1. For starters, nobody in W Series is aiming for a “separate but equal” future for women in motorsports, and further, Bond Muir intentionally designed W Series to counteract some of F1’s faults.

“There are two strands of DNA in W Series. One is that a driver doesn’t have to come and pay for their seat. It’s incumbent on W Series to pay all of the driver’s expenses and the cost of the car,” Bond Muir said. “And second is that the cars will be identical. Because where we stand as a business is we’re looking for the fastest drivers.”

Due to the exorbitant expense of building and maintaining insanely fast vehicles, the traditional world of motorsports is infamous for favoring drivers whose parents or sponsors have well-lined pockets. A driver who may not be the fastest athlete available, but is nonetheless selected for a seat because of their financial resume, is what those in the industry refer to as a “paid driver.” On a recent episode of The Ringer’s F1 podcast, motorsport journalist Elizabeth Blackstock lamented the prevalence of “paid drivers” in F1, but also savvily quipped, “Paid drivers were the original drivers. They were the people who could afford to buy a car and go race.” The extent that financial access and backing now influence driver selection has prompted many to call for change.

For her part, Bond Muir is wholeheartedly committed to keeping money out of the equation when filling W Series driver seats and looking solely for the best raw talent.

“In my tenure, I certainly don’t believe that drivers will be paying for their seats, because that is a point of differentiation for W Series,” she said. “I never want that to change. I don’t want it to be about rich kids. I want it to be about kids.”

To Bond Muir, a large portion of this year’s W Series drivers are still just “kids.” Out of her 18 drivers, six of them are teenagers. But she’s also referring to the larger impact she envisions for W Series on junior levels of racing.

“There is money that goes into the young kids who are super-fast because they believe that either their child or the person that they’re choosing to sponsor can get into Formula One or into IndyCar,” she said. “When I started looking at motorsport in 2016 … women were not being thought of as a group of people who could do that. Maybe the next female driver in Formula One is [now] 7 or 8 years old, but because we have changed the environment of motorsport to demonstrate that women have a valid place in motorsport, that 8-year-old, when they are super-fast, money will go into them at that point.”

Along with her large-scale vision for how W Series can change the world of motorsports, Bond Muir is at base level a pure sports fan, and one of the things she’s most excited to see this season is, “Who’s going to challenge Jamie?”

Jamie Chadwick: The Champ

Jamie Chadwick didn’t start karting until she was 11, which in racing made her a bit of a late bloomer. But she caught up quickly, and what started as a fun family activity became a serious competitive endeavor, demonstrated by her becoming the youngest driver and first-ever woman to win a British GT Championship at age 17. Now, having won both the 2019 and 2021 W Series titles (the 2020 season was canceled due to the pandemic), Chadwick is entering her third season with an enormous target on her back.

“I think where I’ve been fortunate in the past two seasons is consistency,” she said. “In the championship with so few races, you need to be scoring in every race or otherwise. If you have even one bad result, it can really set you back in the championship.”

Just 23, Chadwick is now cast as the seasoned vet who will have to defend her crown against a new class of young speedsters.

“It’s getting more and more competitive,” she said. “There’s a lot of young girls, which is really exciting. Great for the sport. Harder work for me.”

Chadwick has been very direct about her long-term career objective to become a Formula One driver, as she told Kelley O’Hara on JWS’ The Players’ Pod last year. Of the current W Series drivers, she has the strongest resume, but a significant gap remains between W Series and F1. The traditional path for the minuscule percentage of drivers who eventually get to F1 is to progress from karting to F4, then F3, then F2, and finally F1. Currently, W Series falls somewhere next to or just behind F3 based on the car they race. Where Chadwick lands next will be a telling indication of how W Series fits into this leveled progression.

“There’s still quite a lot I need to achieve and different series that I need to go through before Formula One is an option,” she said. “But I made no secret of the fact that’s my ambition.”

There are positive signs that F1 teams are interested in growing their pool of female drivers. Three W Series drivers have now signed on in some capacity with F1 teams. Chadwick, for one, has been a development driver for Williams since 2019.

Chadwick also isn’t shy about where her career would be if W Series didn’t exist.

“Honestly, I don’t think I’d be racing,” she said. “I think I probably would’ve had a year or two maximum of continuing to try and find something, and it definitely wouldn’t have been in single-seaters … W Series came about at the perfect time. It gave me this opportunity to continue racing with a huge platform. It’s been pretty career-changing.”

Chloe Chambers: All-American Teenager

W Series is much more than a potential stepping stone to F1, but this encapsulation is what is most appealing to many of the youngest drivers. They see its potential to serve as an express lane, providing them with critical track experience and full-funded support to make up for the lack of opportunities for girls and women in the existing pathways.

“The younger drivers are much more fixated on getting into Formula One, because they’re young enough to be able to do that,” Bond Muir said. “Without putting our older drivers down, if you are in your late 20s, you’re not going to get into Formula One.”

It’s a harsh reality that exists in racing regardless of gender. But in the mind of 17-year-old Chloe Chambers, the sky’s the limit.

“My goal from when I first started racing was to get into Formula One. Obviously getting into Formula One is an accomplishment, but I want to be competitive in it. I want to be able to win and fight for race wins and just show to the world that I’m a good driver, not just a good female driver,” she said. “W series is definitely a stepping stone for that. It can definitely help me a lot in getting me up into F3, F2, and then F1.”

Adopted from China when she was 11 months old, Chambers lives in New York with her parents and two younger siblings, both also adopted internationally.

“I think it’s really cool for me to be able to have that kind of experience and that knowledge of other cultures,” she said of her family’s diverse heritage. “Especially in a sport like racing, where you have to experience a bunch of other countries and cultures.”

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The 17-year-old Chambers joined W Series this year after a successful F4 campaign. (Joan Valls/Urbanandsport /NurPhoto via Getty Images)

After quickly making her way through the karting ranks at the same track where Danica Patrick raced as a kid, Chambers spent last season in the F4 U.S. Championship before being selected for W Series this year. Despite the fast progression, Chambers says she feels very comfortable in the car heading into Miami this weekend.

“I think you get used to the speed. All the things that people would find scary, you get used to it really quickly, especially having grown up racing,” she said. “I am just going in with a fresh mind and willingness to learn.”

And she’ll be learning from the best. In her corner will be her Jenner Racing teammate, Jamie Chadwick, and team owner Caitlyn Jenner.

“Caitlin has just a wealth of knowledge in the sports world, and she loves racing too,” Chambers said of her new boss. “She has so much to say about racing and cars and just things that I love. I can just learn so much from her.”

Emma Kimilainen: Mother of the Grid

Besides the fact that her profession is to drive some of the fastest cars in the world at ridiculous speeds, Emma Kimilainen is just like most working mothers trying to find that delicate balance between career and family.

As a sports loving kid, Kimilainen pursued basketball, soccer and karate before deciding her primary passion was in racing. By the age of 12, she was winning almost every karting race she entered, and by 18 she was an Audi factory driver in a European junior single-seater series. Unfortunately for Kimilainen and many of her peers, the financial crisis of 2008 made sponsorship funding almost impossible to come by for the next few years, so she stepped away from the sport and eventually accepted it was a thing of her past.

Fast forward to 2014, Kimilainen and her husband were adjusting to life as new parents to their baby daughter when she received a very unexpected phone call.

“When she was 6 months old, I got that golden phone call that no one ever gets,” Kimilainen said.

The caller was the team manager of PWR Racing, a Swedish touring car team, offering her a driver seat, which she enthusiastically accepted. The physical challenge of getting back in shape and adjusting to being back in the car was easy compared with the emotional challenge of the accompanying “mom guilt.” On her daughter’s first birthday, Kimilainen was out of town, competing in her very first race back behind the wheel.

“Being away from home, from my daughter and family when she had the birthday was like a slap in the face,” she said.

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Kimilainen rediscovered her passion for racing after giving birth to her daughter. (ROC/Jerry Andre/Hasan Bratic/DeFodi Images via Getty Images)

It took a lot of self-examination and reevaluation of internal and external expectations for Kimilainen to feel secure in her work-life balance.

“With the first three years, I really worked hard mentally to balance what I thought that a good mother is, to what I actually am,” she said frankly.

Kimilainen found that her driving performance improved significantly when she got back on the track.

“I’m a lot better driver than I have ever been because of being a mother,” she said. “I realized that I’m a lot more than a racing driver. My identity is not the thing that I’m passionate about. I can be very passionate about it, I can be very ambitious about it, and it’s something that I really love to do, but it doesn’t define who I am as a person. Getting that right was the whole key to a completely new performance level.”

Having finished fifth overall and third overall in the previous two seasons, Kimilainen said she’s better prepared this time around and is optimistic she’ll be competing for the championship at the end of the year. She’s also more confident than ever that her decision to pursue her dreams will be invaluable for her daughter in the long run.

“Even though I’m away a lot, I hope that she understands why and then can appreciate it later,” she said. “I just want to show her that you can become whatever you want and there’s no barriers or limits, no boundaries of what she can become.”

W Series Miami Race 1 takes place Saturday at 2:30 p.m. ET, with Race 2 to follow on Sunday at 10:35 a.m. All qualifying sessions and races will be broadcast in the U.S. on ESPN. You can also follow W Series action on Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube.

*The term single-seater, in motorsport, refers to racing cars with only one seat and wheels that are outside the body of the car. Single-seater race cars are seen to have a higher degree of technological sophistication than other types of racing vehicles.

The year-round, globetrotting life of WNBA players was thrust into the spotlight in recent months after star center Brittney Griner was arrested at a Russian airport in February just before the country’s invasion of Ukraine. While the overwhelming concern continues to be getting her home safely and swiftly, her case re-enflamed the debate about why so many WNBA players go overseas during the league’s long offseason.

Is it because they love to hoop and want to work on their game and travel the world? Or is it all about the money? Are they victims of gender-based pay inequality in the U.S., forced into a financial choice that jeopardizes their safety and well-being?

As in all things, it depends on whom you ask.

In her pre-draft press conference earlier this month, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told reporters, “I think one of the narratives — that the players have to go overseas — is a little bit outdated actually, I think, and inaccurate.” After describing league efforts to enhance domestic financial opportunities for players in the offseason she said, “We’ve been paying players this year to do marketing outside of them having to go overseas, but players are still going to want to play basketball. One thing I learned, and I didn’t know this before I came into the league, they want to play basketball year-round.”

WNBA Players Association President Nneka Ogwumike had a different perspective. The morning after the draft, the Los Angeles Sparks forward appeared on “Good Morning America” to discuss Griner’s status.

“The reality is she’s over there because of a gender issue, pay inequity,” she told Robin Roberts. “We go over there to supplement our incomes and, quite frankly, to maintain our game. Our teams encourage us to keep up with our game by going over there and being more competitive … We don’t want to play 12 months out of the year. We don’t want to feel as though we have to go over there to get what we want to get at home.”

To shed more light on the players’ perspective, Just Women’s Sports spoke with three current WNBA players about their overseas basketball life: the good, the bad and the surprising.

Ariel Atkins, entering her fifth year in the league with the Washington Mystics, spoke to us on the eve of her final game with her Ukrainian team, whose lives had just been completely upended by the Russian invasion. Brionna Jones, a six-year veteran and the WNBA’s 2021 Most Improved Player, was in the midst of an MVP-caliber run in Europe’s most competitive league when we caught up with her long distance from the Czech Republic. And Erica McCall, also entering her sixth year in the league, chatted with us from Istanbul, where she was wrapping up her annual stint abroad before heading back to the states to rejoin Atkins in D.C. (McCall was later waived from the Mystics’ final roster.)

Each WNBA player’s experience abroad is unique, but the common themes that surfaced in the conversations with these three players are revelatory for how we think about the game both at home and abroad. And though we often hear from the biggest names in the league about key issues, it’s arguably the other 90 percent of players whose livelihoods are the most dependent on overseas income.

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Ariel Atkins defends Tiffany Hayes while playing for Prometey in Ukraine this winter. (Sezgin Pancar/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

1. The hardships are … hard

The toughest challenges for those who play overseas are inadequate time with family and physical strain on the body, all three players shared.

“I don’t see my family a lot, miss a lot of holidays and birthdays and all that good stuff,” McCall said. “And so, it’s always gonna be hard. Especially these past few years, I’ve missed Christmas, and Christmas is such a huge part of my family tradition.”

For those who play for European teams, which often offer the highest salaries, there is virtually no gap between the end of their WNBA seasons and the start of their overseas commitments. It’s the same on the backend, with overseas seasons typically running into the early weeks of the WNBA. The windows of time for them to return home and visit with their families are few and far between. Opportunities to rest and rehab their bodies are equally scarce. Jones said the quality of the physio support has started to become a bigger factor in signing international contracts.

“The treatment and stuff that we get at home in the States is a lot better than what we have available here,” she said. “Not having that time to recover between seasons, you need that treatment to get you through.”

Atkins said she tries to be smarter about taking physical risks on the court overseas.

“There are some plays where you just gotta make a career decision. Like, do I really need that steal? Do I really need this stop?” she said. “When it’s time to put my body on the line, I’m willing and able to do it because I didn’t waste it early on just trying to get a random loose ball that’s probably gonna go out of bounds anyway.”

2. Players aren’t asking for much

A surprising commonality for all three players was what it would require to make the year-round grind of their profession much easier. The answer? Not a lot.

“I need a month somewhere,” Jones said when asked what her ideal schedule would be. “A whole month together, either before I go back to the W or after the W’s over. Just like a month off to rest and recover.”

It was the same answer for McCall. “I would love for the overseas season to be one month shorter so that we can all go home, recuperate, let our bodies rest,” she said. “A month would be amazing for me. And be able to get our bodies ready for the WNBA season.”

For Atkins too, a month between is all she wants. “That sounds like a lot of time, but it not only gives me time to rest and see my family, it also gives me time to focus on one or two things that I want to add to my game. And it lets me breathe,” she said.

3. There are some serious upsides

The WNBA is one of the most competitive sports leagues in the U.S. in terms of the number of roster spots available, and the depth of talent vying for them. The three-month regular season creates a pressure-cooker environment where playing time is scarce and expectations are high.

When that top-level talent spreads out around the globe during the offseason, players can expand their roles a bit more.

“I would say that I definitely do some things here, and I have a lot more freedom with my coaches here than I would back in Connecticut,” Jones said. “We have so much talent there, so I do what I do well in Connecticut to bring that to the team. But over here, I get to do a little bit more.”

All three players talked about how they play more freely overseas and are able to develop their in-game skill sets.

“Just not thinking so much,” Atkins said. “I think that’s my biggest thing that I’m allowed to do overseas is that I build up that muscle of not overthinking things in the game and just allow myself to flow and trust the work that we’ve put in.”

The overseas season can also be a crucial counterbalance for young players struggling to secure their footing in the WNBA.

“I always loved overseas because even though when I was in Indiana, I wasn’t playing a lot, I always had overseas to fall back on to display my skill set, to remind myself how great of a player I was,” McCall said. “Honestly, I was losing my confidence in my first three years of the league, and I loved overseas because I could come back and really show the basketball player that I was.”

Their abroad seasons also give them the chance to become more vocal leaders. Because the WNBA is viewed as the most elite women’s professional basketball league in the world, their overseas coaches and teammates expect them to be leaders right away.

“I think me playing for this team this year has really helped me with that. It has forced me to kind of step out of my comfort zone,” Atkins said. “I feel like a lot of times, I get nervous about speaking up, but I don’t really get that choice here.”

“Having a chance to be more vocal with your team, it’s a pretty cool opportunity to have,” McCall said. “That’s helped me a lot, going back to the WNBA, just allowing myself to be more comfortable, be more vocal with my teammates, not being afraid to push them to be better.”

These inconspicuous upsides demonstrate that, even if WNBA salaries eventually become high enough to nullify overseas contracts, there are valuable on-court benefits to having some type of offseason developmental league. And, of course, if the WNBA schedule, number of franchises and roster sizes expand significantly in tandem with salaries, there would be more space for in-house player development.

4. It’s not just the salaries that are better overseas

Crazy, diehard, intense — that’s how the players described the game atmosphere abroad. Women’s basketball fans overseas (at least in Europe) have a consistent track record of being loud, invested and loyal supporters of their teams. The EuroLeague semifinal game between Istanbul’s Fenerbahce and Hungary’s Sopron Basket last month provided a clear image of this reality. With constant crowd-wide chants, organized cheers, referee heckling and raucous celebrations, the arena overseas more closely resembled international soccer stadiums than American basketball sporting events.

“It was really cool that women’s sports were so well respected and that everyone wanted to come out and see the women’s basketball team playing,” McCall said. “You don’t get that in the States. You don’t get that type of respect that we had or receive. And that’s something that I really enjoy about overseas basketball — the love for the game is just at a different level.”

“The fans can get quite rowdy,” Jones said. “I’ve played in France and Spain, and those are some of the best fans … I definitely think they do a really good job of promoting the women’s side over here.”

While there are marketing lessons to glean from the overseas leagues, the players believe it’s more about geographical identity than anything else.

“I think they’re diehard for their city and where they’re from. Whoever puts that flag on, they’re like, ‘This is my team,’” Atkins said. “In the States, you have options. You can be a Lakers fan, but you can be from Philly. That’s probably not gonna fly overseas.”

McCall described the fans of her Turkish Besitkas team much the same. “When you’re born, you choose the team, and this is your team for your life and this is the life that you live. You live a Besiktas fan life,” she said. “It’s very intense, win or lose … Live and die, this is what they love. It can be intense.”

For the fans these players have come to know, it’s not about whether you’re a fan of women’s basketball, but whether you support your city or your country, regardless of sport and gender. While that nationalistic fervor can’t necessarily be duplicated in the U.S., the lesson for WNBA teams may be to continue efforts to tap into the city loyalty and identity of their fan bases. The new coalition formed among women’s pro sports teams in D.C. will be an interesting test case along these lines.

5. Prioritization is going to be a problem

Even before Griner’s arrest, the issue of overseas contracts for WNBA players was approaching a tipping point. Widely praised for its salary increases and improved benefits for players, the WNBA’s groundbreaking CBA also included a new “WNBA Prioritization” clause that largely averted the limelight when the deal was ratified in early 2020.

This new rule dictates that, starting with the 2023 season, fines and suspensions will be implemented for veteran-level players who do not report to their WNBA teams by certain prescribed dates (e.g., the start of training camp).

Most European basketball leagues, where the majority of players go in the offseason, run past the start date of the WNBA season, causing a significant number of players to show up late to their U.S. teams. The delayed arrivals of so many key players is a serious detriment to on-court cohesion and the league’s ability to maximize its product for the compact three-month regular season. But most players earn more money from their overseas contracts, often by a large margin, making it very unlikely they’ll simply opt out or break the terms of those lucrative deals.

The players we spoke with, however, don’t blame league officials for the dilemma they will soon be facing.

“I know the league is in a tough position because they want their athletes here,” McCall said. “It makes it really challenging. I understand where the league is coming from, but at the end of the day, for players like myself, it just makes it hard for us to be able to make a good living and also live out our dreams.”

“I understand what the WNBA was going for and trying to get players to prioritize playing in America,” Jones said. “But I’m getting paid more to play overseas and I can give up these three months [of the WNBA season] and make a lot more money playing overseas and save my body.”

When asked whether she would consider sitting out the WNBA season completely, Jones admitted, “I would consider it for sure, if it came to that.”

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McCall and Atkins were teammates on the Washington Mystics last season. (Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)

Even though players admit the intentions of the prioritization clause were noble, no one wants the players to bear the brunt of the consequences of a global sporting system with a scheduling conflict. The negative consequences of the rule are looming: It wouldn’t be surprising to see well-known players opt out of the WNBA altogether, or the league be criticized for handicapping their players’ earning ability. But Engelbert and her colleagues are hoping for patience from players and constituents while they continue to grow the at-home earning potential of their athletes.

One major domino in this effort will fall in 2024, when the WNBA’s grossly undervalued broadcast deal with ESPN expires, leaving many hopeful that new revenue streams for salary boosts are on the not-so-distant horizon.

With Griner detained in Russia instead of in the jump circle for the Phoenix Mercury’s tipoff against the Las Vegas Aces this Friday, and the prioritization clause looming, the global nature of women’s pro basketball is headed for major upheaval.

One way to reach pragmatic solutions for the hurdles ahead is to have open conversations about the challenges at stake. McCall herself is working to get more players’ stories told with her “Bird’s Eye View” podcast, where she chats with fellow WNBA players about their experiences overseas. As a seasoned vet looking back, she has well-earned advice for young players going abroad for the first time.

“Overseas is all about what you make it, and that’s what I really try to explain in my podcast — it’s all about a mindset,” she said. “It makes you a better player. It makes you a better person and ultimately helps grow your game. And you’ve got stories to tell. You’ve always got a story to tell.”

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

If you are one of the many already suffering from PMMD (Post-March Madness Depression), the basketball gods are here for you. Another Final Four is happening this weekend, and this time it’s at the pro level. Kahleah Copper, reigning WNBA Finals MVP and recently named 2022 EuroLeague MVP, has been putting on a clinic in Europe, averaging 22.5 points, 6.1 rebounds and two assists per game. Now she and the rest of her Spain-based Perfumerias Avenida team are headed to Istanbul for a win-or-go-home final four-style tournament to crown the 2022 EuroLeague champion.

Standing in Avenida’s path are several of Copper’s WNBA colleagues, including the WNBA’s reigning Most Improved Player, Brionna Jones, a dangerously healthy Alyssa Thomas, and fellow 2021 WNBA champion Stefanie Dolson.

For those new to the overseas game, you can think of EuroLeague playoffs sort of like the NCAA’s March Madness. Dispersed throughout the European continent, the 16 EuroLeague teams play a regular season in domestic leagues of their respective countries, similar to how NCAA teams play in their respective conferences. Then at the end of the season, the top teams from the continent compete for the EuroLeague championship, the most competitive title in women’s basketball outside the WNBA.

The intrigue for U.S. fans is that the league is chock-a-block full of WNBA players who pack their bags shortly after their W season ends and fly to locales all over Europe, from Spain to Turkey to Russia, to play professional basketball abroad on contracts typically more lucrative than what they earn in the WNBA.

(Not) speaking of Russia

Russia has long been home to powerhouse teams in European women’s basketball, most recently with UMMC Ekaterinburg. Ekat is a team with plenty of wealth that annually signs several of the biggest names from the WNBA, resulting in the club winning four of the past five EuroLeague Championships. This season, their loaded roster included Jonquel Jones, Emma Meeseman, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley, Britney Griner and Breanna Stewart (though Stewart was not able to play the season due to a foot injury).

With an undefeated record, Ekaterinburg appeared well on their way to making it five out of six championships as the playoffs approached. But then war broke out when Russia invaded Ukraine, and EuroLeague officials announced Russian teams were prohibited from competition for the rest of the season. WNBA players inside the country scrambled to return home, while news broke that WNBA superstar Brittney Griner was in Russian police custody, where she remains today.

While canceling the rest of the EuroLeague playoffs would not have benefitted the women’s game or its athletes, the fact the championship is proceeding as business as usual given the absence of Ekaterinburg and the ongoing foreign imprisonment of one of the best players in the world is jarring to say the least.

The race for a new champion

Amid the tragic and unusual circumstances, the top podium is now open for the taking with four evenly matched contenders. Of the teams still standing, only one (USK Praha) has reached the top spot in the past ten years.

Semifinal 1: Perfumerias Avenida (Spain) vs. Sopron Basket (Hungary)

The semifinal Friday features Avenida against Hungarian-based Sopron Basket. Sopron only added Dolson to its roster in late February, and the 6-foot-5 center had limited minutes and low production in the team’s quarterfinal series against France’s BLMA. Of the team’s WNBA players, Gabby Williams, Briann January and Bernadett Hatar have been the driving forces.

Williams was last year’s EuroLeague Defensive Player of the Year and has been a pillar on both ends of the court once again for Sopron. Earning her way onto this season’s All-EuroLeague Second Team, the UConn alum who was traded from the Los Angeles Sparks to the Seattle Storm this offseason has averaged 13.4 points, 5.6 rebounds, 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals per game in EuroLeague action for Sopron. Point guard Briann January, who will join Williams as a new face in Seattle this year, is leading the team in assists while also contributing 10.5 points per game. One recipient of January’s many dimes is the 6-10 Bernadett Hatar, who’s converting those feeds into 13.6 points per game while also grabbing 8.5 rebounds per contest. Hatar, a 27-year-old Hungarian native, made her WNBA debut last season with the Indiana Fever as the tallest active player in the league, but she played in only seven games before returning home with a season-ending injury. Hatar is once again on a Fever training camp contract and, according to Williams, has made big strides in her game this overseas season.

“Betty has really, really improved her game,” Williams said in a recent interview. “I always tell her she can be like a cheat code in a video game. She is so tall and it’s so easy to get her the ball. A pick and roll with her is automatic, but it is the other things like the IQ she has for the game, her mid-range jump shot. It’s so hard to stop her.”

Avenida will strive to do just that, and they may not be at full force to do it. Katie Lou Samuelson, recently traded from Seattle to L.A. for Williams and a draft pick, hasn’t suited up for Avenida since the team’s Feb. 1 loss to Ekaterinburg. Samuelson said in a recent Instagram post that she was focused “on getting my body healthy and keeping my mind healthy.” Now back with the team and headed to Istanbul, the question remains whether Avenida’s second-leading scorer and best plus/minus performer will be 100 percent at tipoff.

Luckily for Avenida, Karlie Samuelson, who has bounced around a few WNBA rosters without seeing much court time, has been a consistent starter and 3-point shooting weapon for the Spanish club this season. Besting her sharp-shooting sister from behind the arc this season, Karlie Samuelson’s 43.1 percent average from three is seventh-best in the league and came in big during their must-win quarterfinal game against Spar Girona, when she was 5-of-6 from downtown. But even if the elder Samuelson stays hot in Istanbul, Avenida will live or die by Kahleah Copper.

The EuroLeague MVP took some well-deserved time off after leading the Sky to the WNBA championship last fall, but once she arrived in Spain for her inaugural EuroLeague season, her foot never came off the gas. Leading her team in points, rebounds and overall efficiency, she’s been putting up big numbers even while dealing with hardship off the court. After suffering a personal loss in recent weeks, Copper considered going home, but the support of her teammates and her core value of perseverance have allowed her to play on.

Semifinal 2: USK Praha (Czech Republic) vs. Fenerbahce Safisport (Turkey)

The second semifinal this Friday pits Praha against Fenerbahce. Praha has two enormous WNBA talents this year in Brionna Jones and Alyssa Thomas. Both put up regular season performances that placed them in MVP consideration. Jones was the league’s second-leading scorer behind Copper at 19.8 points per game, but was first in average efficiency and ninth in rebounding at 8.5 per game. She may have handily won MVP honors if Thomas hadn’t been putting up her own impressive numbers of 14.4 points, 9.5 rebounds, 5.7 assists and 2.1 steals per game.

Jones and Thomas have been inseparable for years now. They played together at Maryland as a freshman (Jones) and senior (Thomas), taking the Terps to the 2013-14 Final Four. And they reunited in Connecticut after the Sun drafted each of them out of college. Now, they’re playing their third overseas season together for Praha.

The dynamic duo will look to uproot Istanbul’s home team of Fenerbahce, which will not be easy given the impassioned loyalty of Turkish fans and the team’s top W imports of Elizabeth Williams, Kayla McBride and Satou Sabally. With a 13-3 EuroLeague record and their last loss coming way back in November, Fenerbahce is full of well-founded confidence heading into the weekend. Williams, who will join the Washington Mystics this season, is a significant piece of that confidence, having just been named the Defensive Player of the Year after leading the league in blocks and placing fifth overall in rebounds.

Minnesota Lynx shooting guard Kayla McBride has also found her stroke this season, finishing third in points per game while posting a prestigious 50-40-90 in shooting percentage. Add in Sabally’s 16.1 points and 8.2 rebounds per game, and Fenerbahce has the weapons to make a run at the championship.

The EuroLeague Final Four semis will tip off Friday at 10 a.m. and 1 p.m. ET, with the championship game to follow on Sunday at 10 a.m. ET. All games can be streamed live free of charge on EuroLeague Women YouTube.

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

Just as WNBA fans and families were beginning to feel at ease, with reports that American players in Ukraine and Russia were returning home safely, we awoke last Saturday to find out that Brittney Griner was taken into Russian police custody over three weeks ago on charges of possessing vape cartridges containing hashish oil. Griner was detained at the airport as she attempted to return to Russia, where she competes for UMMC Ekaterinburg and has played professionally during the WNBA’s offseason for the past eight years.

Suddenly, the real-life consequences of Russia’s political agenda hit very close to home for sports fans in the U.S. At the heart of the conflict in Europe, the lives of professional Ukrainian players were thrown into total chaos as soon as Russia’s invasion of their country began two weeks ago.

Olympic gold medalist and Mystics starting guard Ariel Atkins was competing in Ukraine as things began to unravel. After stints in Poland, Australia and Turkey, Atkins decided to play with BC Prometey, a EuroCup team based in Kamianske, during this WNBA offseason. Atkins led Prometey to a 9-1 EuroCup regular season record, while averaging 20.3 points, 4.9 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game.

At the end of January, the European season paused for a month-long national team break as top players returned to their national team programs for FIBA World Cup Qualifying competitions. Atkins joined Team USA in her WNBA home city of Washington, D.C. for a three-day training camp and two-game series against Puerto Rico and Belgium.

With Russian troops gathering at the Ukrainian border even before she left for the break, Atkins was skeptical about returning to Eastern Europe for the rest of the season and packed up almost all of her belongings for her trip back home.

“It was definitely a tough decision,” Atkins recalled in a recent conversation with Just Women’s Sports. “Ultimately, I decided not to go back as I didn’t plan on crossing the Ukraine border whatsoever, just because I wasn’t sure how I would be able to get out if things ended up being what they are right now.”

But when her agent called to say the team was being relocated to Bulgaria to continue practicing ahead of their EuroCup playoff series against a tough Turkish squad, Atkins found herself back on a plane to Europe to rejoin her Ukrainian teammates.

“I build bonds with my teammates, and I really do care about them,” Atkins said from Turkey, the day before CBK Mersin knocked Prometey out of EuroCup competition. “I just want things to go well for them and I want to help as much as I can. But I honestly, personally, don’t know how. What I’m thinking or feeling or dealing with is not even an ounce of what they’re dealing with.”

The Russian invasion of Ukraine escalated rapidly during the brief time Prometey was practicing in Bulgaria and then competing in Turkey. The team’s Ukrainian captain, Olga Dubrovina, did her best to console her teammates as feelings of helplessness overwhelmed them.

“Everybody cry. Everybody don’t know how to help,” Dubrovina said in her semi-fluent English. “Everybody is scared. A lot of people leave [Ukraine]. The situation is so bad. A lot of people die.”

In shock and sorrow, the team continued to practice and prepare for their playoff game.

“There are moments here and there where you can just tell the room goes kind of somber,” Atkins said. “I feel like my job is to try to make practice more fun or to kind of lighten the mood a little bit as best I can, without being ignorant to the fact of what they have going on with their friends and their families back home.”

After losing that final playoff game and the remainder of the Ukrainian Women’s Basketball SuperLeague season was canceled due to the war, Atkins returned home to the U.S. while her teammates dispersed across Europe. Dubrovina and a couple of her Prometey teammates were able to sign with teams inside Turkey, and will play the remaining six weeks of the domestic league there.

With her 4-year old daughter and husband, a pro soccer player, safe in his native Bulgaria, Dubrovina’s primary concerns now are supporting her family financially and ensuring the safety of her loved ones still in Ukraine, including her parents, grandmother and brother.

“My brother is in the war in Ukraine. I don’t know his movement,” she said. “We don’t know where he is, what he’s doing. It’s army. It’s everything like secret, and we just wait for when he talks, he calls mom.”

Dubrovina, 34, says a few of her Prometey teammates opted to return to Ukraine despite her encouragement that they stay in Turkey until the danger subsided. Those with husbands or fathers younger than 60 years old were the most anxious to return, as men aged 18-60 are currently not permitted to leave the country per President Volodymyr Zelensky’s general military mobilization.

Other teammates scattered to Poland or Belgium, Dubrovina explained. One had a family connection in Canada. Another, who opted to stay and play in Turkey, is planning to use the money she will earn there to get her kids and grandmother safely out of Ukraine when the season ends.

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Olga Dubrovina competes for the Ukrainian national team at the European Championships in 2014. (Jonas Güttler/picture alliance via Getty Images

Dubrovina originally left Ukraine in 2014 when tensions with Russia escalated over the annexation of Crimea. After ten years of playing professional basketball all over Europe, the point guard had assumed her playing career was behind her when she became pregnant with her daughter in 2018. She was enjoying coaching youth basketball when an old coach called and talked her into getting back on the court with the newly formed Prometey club in Ukraine. As a result, Dubrovina, her husband and their young daughter have spent the past two years in Ukraine.

Now that her family has relocated to Bulgaria, Dubrovina is the sole provider for the time being. She says focusing on providing for her daughter, who wants to be a basketball player like her mom when she grows up, is keeping her sane during an otherwise unbearable situation. Dubrovina talks with her family during every break she gets, often ten times a day.

She hopes to eventually get her parents safely to Bulgaria, where she envisions staying to raise her family surrounded by her husband’s relatives. The main reason her parents are still in Ukraine is that her grandmother cannot travel.

“I’ll stay with my family, my daughter and husband. And speak with my mom, because now I have grandma who is invalid,” she said. “She can’t move, she’s just in the bed. And I want to take my mom and my family to Bulgaria, but it’s impossible because Grandma can’t move and now it’s so dangerous.”

As to what Dubrovina thinks will happen to her homeland, she says giving in is not an option for her people.

“You need to understand, we’re not scared of nothing,” she said. “We are a people who can’t just stay and shut up … We can’t lose. If we lose, it’s just as if we died.”

She also urged leaders in the West to hear Ukraine’s pleas for military support in the country’s air space.

“[Those] who have power, close the sky for Ukraine, please,” she implored. “We don’t need food. We don’t need help with money. Just to close the sky…We talk about this night and day. Close the sky. That’s all.”

For now, the continuation of leagues outside Ukraine is helping players like Dubrovina better survive this catastrophe. But as the situation with Griner escalates and geopolitical relations become more strained, WNBA players who supplement their salaries overseas during the offseason will have even more difficult decisions to make in the future.

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

Despite a two-week extension due to COVID-19 delays and a current military conflict in Eastern Europe, the EuroLeague regular season has officially wrapped up, the playoffs are set and several WNBA stars are in contention for league MVP.

While WNBA players who were competing in Ukraine, such as the Washington Mystics’ Ariel Atkins, have safely returned home after Russia invaded Ukraine last week, those posted in Russia and elsewhere in Europe remain abroad. As of Sunday night, several athletes in Russia were making plans to return stateside through their agents.

As the wartime situation unfolds, Jonquel Jones and Natasha Howard, both playing in Russia but on different teams, are on the list of MVP hopefuls and are set to face off in the first round of the playoffs in a best-of-three series starting March 8. Jones and Howard are joined by Kahleah Copper, Brionna Jones and Kayla McBride as those who have set themselves apart in EuroLeague action this season.

Let’s take a closer look at each of the top five WNBA candidates for MVP as they look to lead their teams to the EuroLeague championship game scheduled for April 10.

Jonquel Jones

The 6-foot-6 Bahamian-Bosnian power forward, in her fourth consecutive season with Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg, is striving to match Breanna Stewart’s 2018-19 feat by following up the WNBA MVP crown from the fall with EuroLeague MVP honors in the spring. Jones is tied with Howard for the most double-doubles this season with seven and is averaging 17.1 points, 9.1 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game. She’s first in the league in both overall shooting percentage (62.3 percent) and second in average efficiency per game (23.5).*

On a stacked UMMC roster that includes Brittney Griner, Courtney Vandersloot, Allie Quigley and Emma Meesseman, Jones has had to improve her accuracy in order to rise above the rest. One factor working against Jones in the MVP race is that she missed a couple of games at the start of the overseas season. Still, the fact that she’s followed up her stellar WNBA MVP season with a solid run at the EuroLeague equivalent speaks volumes to what her WNBA colleagues have known for some time: Jones is the real deal.

It also aligns with her “win now” mentality. After receiving the Connecticut Sun’s core designation guaranteeing her a one-year, $228,094 supermax deal, Jones agreed to a two-year deal for less than the supermax. Her team-first decision gave the franchise the cap space to bring back Courtney Williams, a player Jones believes is crucial to the Sun winning a championship in 2022.

Kahleah Copper

The reigning WNBA Finals MVP has continued to shine over in Europe. After taking some time off after leading the Chicago Sky to a WNBA championship in October, Copper joined Perfumerias Avenida and has been a dominant force with the Spanish club.

Through eight games, Copper is leading her team in scoring, rebounding and efficiency. Her 23.3 points per game also lead the league by a large margin (Brionna Jones is in second at 20.9 points per game), and she’s earned it while maintaining a 54.2 shooting percentage, seventh best in the league. Her 21.5 efficiency is tied for fifth overall, proving she’s doing her part on the defensive end while minimizing turnovers.

Copper’s claim to the 2022 EuroLeague MVP trophy faces the same problem as Jones’ since she has played only eight games, while other stats leaders are now at 13 or 14 games apiece. Still, it’s fun to speculate whether the WNBA’s seventh overall draft pick from 2016, who exploded into the national spotlight last season, could have maintained these numbers if she’d played the full season this year. Her Avenida team is a solid bet to make it to the EuroLeague championship game, so we could still get the pleasure of watching her earn another Finals MVP award.

Kayla McBride

Kayla McBride, averaging 19.3 points per game in 14 EuroLeague games, was the league’s leading scorer for the majority of the regular season until Copper and Brionna Jones very recently caught up to her. She’s tied for 10th overall in average efficiency with 4.5 rebounds and 3.3 assists per game. The three-time WNBA All-Star played on four different European squads before joining Fenerbahce in Turkey last season and returning this year.

The former Notre Dame sharpshooter spent her first seven WNBA seasons with the Las Vegas Aces (previously the San Antonio Stars) before being traded last offseason to the Minnesota Lynx. Head coach Cheryl Reeve worked McBride into her system right away and she was the only player to start all 32 games for the Lynx last year. Across the water, McBride and her Fenerbahce teammates, including Elizabeth Williams, Satou Sabally and back-to-back reigning EuroLeague MVP Alina Iagupova, secured their spot in the playoffs as the top team in Group B.

In addition to leading all scorers for most of the year, the 5-11 guard joined the exclusive 50-40-90 club by shooting 54.7 percent from 2, 46.7 percent from 3, and 97.4 percent on free throws. Joining the 50-40-90 club is easier to do in the EuroLeague’s 14-game regular season than when Elena Delle Donne did it in 31 games in the 2019 WNBA regular season, becoming the first player in the league to achieve the feat before leading the Mystics to their first WNBA championship. Despite the asterisk, a 50-40-90 season gives McBride a strong case to win EuroLeague MVP.

Brionna Jones

The WNBA’s Most Improved Player in 2021 is the third WNBA award-winner from last season who has carried the momentum into Europe this winter. Currently first in the EuroLeague with a 24.1 average efficiency rating and fourth with a 60.1 total shooting percentage, Jones surpassed McBride to finish the season second in points per game at 20.9 while also snagging just under eight rebounds per game.

Stateside, Jones has been with the Sun since they drafted her eighth overall in 2017 and earned her first WNBA All-Star appearance last season by putting up 14.7 points and 7.3 rebounds per game alongside frontcourt teammate Jonquel Jones. Brionna Jones highlighted her strong showing this season for the Czech Republic’s Praha with a EuroLeague MVP honor for the month of December. Praha clinched their playoff berth weeks ago, giving Jones a chance to add to her rising stock.

Natasha Howard

Howard is the only EuroLeague MVP contender whose team was very much on the cusp of not qualifying for the postseason. Thanks in large part to Howard’s on-court efforts, Dynamo secured its playoff berth with a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over Group B’s Spar Girona.

Returning to Russia’s Dynamo Kursk after a half-season stint with the club in 2019, Howard has been surging in the second half of the season and was named EuroLeague’s MVP for the month of January. Currently tied for fourth with 19 points per game, and right on Jonquel Jones’ heels with a 22.5 average efficiency rating, Howard is leading all players in rebounding (11 per game) and is tied for first in double-doubles (seven). Coming off a knee injury that caused her to miss 15 games in 2021, her first season with the New York Liberty, Howard will ride the momentum of her MVP-caliber EuroLeague campaign into the WNBA season, where she’ll share the paint with free-agent signee Stefanie Dolson.

Notable stat rankings

Points per game

1. Kahleah Copper
2. Brionna Jones
3. Kayla McBride
4. Natasha Howard
8. Jonquel Jones

Efficiency per game

1. Brionna Jones
2. Jonquel Jones
3. Natasha Howard
T5. Kahleah Copper
10. Kayla McBride

Rebounds per game

1. Natasha Howard
6. Jonquel Jones
12. Brionna Jones
36. Kahleah Copper
T44. Kayla McBride

Double-doubles

Natasha Howard and Jonquel Jones (7)
Brionna Jones (2)
Kayla McBride (1)

*Efficiency is a total performance statistic that attempts to measure a player’s performance by adding positive actions (points, rebounds, assists, steals and blocks) and subtracting negative actions (missed field goals, missed free throws and turnovers).

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

For longtime Tennessee basketball fans, it’s easy to place their hopes of a return to national title glory in the hands of third-year coach and Tennessee basketball alum Kellie Harper. That narrative has storybook ending written all over it.

Pat Summitt, one of the most iconic and successful coaches in all of college basketball, started out at Tennessee in the early 1970s and served as team coach, athletic trainer, tutor, driver and equipment launderer, as so many women of her era did. Eventually, Summitt built a dynasty at Tennessee, winning eight national championships between 1988 and 2008. In 2012, Summitt stepped down after the symptoms of early-onset Alzheimer’s started to impede her ability to coach. Over the next seven seasons, the women’s basketball community watched the program slowly slip down the ladder of national prominence, while also mourning the loss of Summitt when she passed away in 2016.

Tennessee’s hiring of Harper in 2019 ignited new hope around the team. Kellie Harper (then Kellie Jolly) had been a starting point guard for Summitt and was integral to the Vols’ national championship three-peat from 1996-98. After leading her new squad to a 21-10 record her first year at the helm, and following it up with a 17-8 season last year, Tennessee caught everyone’s attention by going 18-1 through the first half of this season and grabbing a top-four national ranking.

Supporters and media were abuzz with talk of Tennessee’s “resurgence.” Harper was fulfilling the promise she represented; Pat Summitt’s student was now the teacher, and a return to glory seemed imminent. Those who’ve watched women’s college basketball become more and more unforgiving, however, know there is no such fairytale.

Harper knows that as well as anyone, but it hasn’t stopped her from focusing on the little things. When she first took the job at her alma mater, there were certain aspects she wanted to focus on right away.

“Establishing how I wanted it to look, how I wanted it to feel was really important early on,” she recalled in a recent conversation with Just Women’s Sports. “For me, I know what it needs to look like to be successful and that we’ve gotta be gritty. We’ve gotta be tough. We’ve gotta be competitive, have a little chip-on-our-shoulder type of feel.”

Another important task for Harper has been to educate her team about Tennessee’s legacy, while not making it a burden for her players who may have been too young to have even watched Summitt on TV.

“When I was a player, Pat shared the history with us. It wasn’t forced. It was just important to her that we know who came before and what they did,” Harper said. “I think that’s important for our team. I think it’s important that they know the history and we’ve done different things to learn that. But at the same time, you can’t be successful off of your past. You’ve gotta be successful based on what you’re doing now. So, it’s important to carry on the tradition and the legacy of so many great people that came before, but also at the same time, they can still carve out their own piece in history.”

Keeping two feet planted firmly in the present moment has helped Harper maintain a level head during the past few weeks. In their Jan. 23 game against Georgia, grad student Keyen Green, a valuable leader and on-court producer, suffered a season-ending ACL tear. The Vols went on to lose three of their next four games and dropped from No. 4 to No. 13 in the AP Poll. Now at No. 12, Tennessee suffered more adversity Thursday night, falling to Alabama 74-64 in an SEC matchup despite a 20-point, 13-rebound double-double from Tamari Key.

When losses come in such bundles, an overreaction from those on the outside is all but guaranteed. Harper’s job has been to keep things in perspective for those on the inside.

“The mindset that we have to have is this isn’t catastrophic. It feels like it is because we haven’t dealt with it all year,” Harper said. “Another thing is that getting into the top five is maybe easier than staying there … there’s pressure there. The expectations are high, and our players have to learn how to live in that space. This is new for a lot of our players.”

It would be easy after the Feb. 6 loss to UConn to regret signing on for the marquee matchup in the middle of conference play, but Harper wasn’t letting their recent rough patch cloud her judgment of the bigger picture.

“There’s a lot of talk, a lot of attention on those games and I thought it was good. I think it’s a good situation to put a team in,” she explained. “It’s a loud environment, good crowd, really good for team discipline. If you want to be the best, you’ve gotta be able to perform in those situations.”

Heading into Storrs as the seventh-ranked team in the nation, and taking on the 10th-ranked Huskies, was definitely new for her players. Until this season, the Vols hadn’t outranked UConn since the preseason poll in 2012, causing diehard Tennessee fans to do an extra little jig when they surpassed UConn in Week 6 this year.

Although losing Green was a significant blow to the team both on and off the court, it’s 6-foot-2 junior Jordan Horston who leads the team in points, rebounds, assists and steals. She’s also second in blocks, behind 6-foot-6 center Key. Horston has played her way onto the midseason list for the Naismith Player of the Year Trophy and the top-10 list for the Ann Meyers Drysdale Award, given to the top shooting guard in the nation. Playing under a brighter national spotlight has been important developmentally for Horston.

“Jordan has really matured over her career here at Tennessee. She’s very competitive. She’s a great teammate. She wants to win,” Harper said. “You have to understand you’re going to make mistakes. You’ve gotta play through those mistakes. That’s mental toughness. I think that’s one of the biggest areas that Jordan has improved.”

With back-to-back conference wins against Missouri and Vanderbilt last week, Tennessee has shown it can weather the storms in an otherwise stellar season, lessons that could prove useful come tournament time. With big matchups ahead, including against top-ranked South Carolina on Sunday and Kim Mulkey’s LSU a week later, Tennessee has the chance to add ample fuel to the “resurgence” storyline before March.

Regardless of how the rest of the season plays out for the Vols, Harper will continue to shape the pieces that are essential for getting Tennessee back into national championship contention.

“One of the big things for me is our players have to actually love the game, because this is hard. What we do is hard,” she said. “And doing it at Tennessee is harder than most places because of the set of eyes on you.”

She’s not expecting the fairytale version. Kellie Harper is here for the real thing.

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

When readers get their hands on the new book basketball legend Seimone Augustus and longtime sports journalist Kate Fagan are creating, they will open it to find a colorful encyclopedia of sorts about the world of women’s basketball and pop culture.

“Hoop Muses,” the title credited to Augustus and anticipated to release in Spring 2023, will be a compilation of mini chapters with subjects ranging from landmark historic events, like the first intercollegiate women’s game ever played, to infamous moments of lore, like when Diana Taurasi kissed Augustus on the cheek during a heated play in a WNBA game.

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(Illustration by Sophia Chang)

As our society slowly wakes from the coma of defining sports as male, there are massive gaps to be filled in telling the stories of women’s sports. Augustus and Fagan (and their publishers at Twelve) are motivated to fill that gap with “Hoop Muses” in a way that is fun and exciting, and that is a true representation of the joy and drama athletes and fans feel in their love for the game.

In a recent interview with Just Women’s Sports about the book, Fagan put it simply, “We don’t want it to feel like a dissertation on Title IX.”

With Fagan doing the writing and Augustus curating the content, they needed a stellar illustrator to complete the team and were beyond pleased to bring artist Sophia Chang on board. A talented and young multimedia designer, Chang has made a name for herself in the streetwear and sneaker industries.

“She gave you that feel, she gave you that funk that you were expecting,” Augustus says of the artist. “To tell the stories on the inside, you actually have to have that visual effect to really have that profound feeling of intensity of the story and of the movements you’re reading about.”

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(Illustration by Sophia Chang)

An illustrated medium also allows Augustus and Fagan the freedom to get creative in not only telling the real-life stories of the game, but also re-imagining history and what it could have been. Like the forthcoming chapter where they recreate an iconic SLAM Magazine cover to feature Chamique Holdsclaw alongside the words “She Got Game.” Or the planned (W)NBA Jam chapter, where they bring to life the “top 10 dynamic duos that would have ruled the ’90s.”

“We want to build out cool, not anachronistic, but almost multiverse-level stuff. Like in a different world, here’s what NBA Jam would’ve looked like and here’s who you would have played,” Fagan explains. “Things that should have existed but didn’t. We want to build out that world, too.”

With the increased attention the WNBA garnered during its 2020 Wubble season, primarily due to the social activism and magnetism of the players, Augustus and Fagan feel the timing of their vision for this book is right on track with the demand from fans.

“It was becoming so clear over the last few years how many ways we’ve celebrated, mythologized, told the history of, created cultural value around men’s sports,” Fagan says. “We know the current logo of so many men’s teams and we know the previous seven logos. And we can trace the iteration of how the 1890s New York Yankees became the current New York Yankees. Women’s sports has never had that. Mythologizing women in sports is a crucial piece of building the cultural value around the game. We want this book to fill that gap.”

For Augustus, who lives by the “learn something new every day” adage, the opportunity to help educate current generations about those who paved the way has been one of the most rewarding aspects of the project.

“When you start reaching back in time and finding those moments where women had to go through certain things or certain eras for us to get here, it’s a beautiful thing to see,” Augustus says. “We want to give those players their flowers for what they’ve done to help us get where we’re going.”

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Cheryl Miller (Illustration by Sophia Chang)

While Fagan is a seasoned author of several books, including the national bestseller “What Made Maddy Run,” this is Augustus’ first foray into the world of publishing. When she decided to retire from professional basketball and transition into an assistant coaching role for the Los Angeles Sparks just before the start of the 2021 season last May, the move was more sudden than she (and many of her fans) expected. Now, getting this experience in the world of publishing may be a stepping stone to writing her own book eventually.

“It kind of helps me put together a bigger idea of, if I were to put out a book of my own personal life at some point of basketball, what would that be like? But it’s all about having a great team,” Augustus says.

Fagan herself has recently chosen a new team. After many years at ESPN, she left the sports media conglomerate to care for her father in the final months of his life. Reflecting upon her career during that time, Fagan realized that although ESPN was a great experience for her in so many ways, she wanted more. She wanted her presence and content to be a more complete picture of who she is and what women’s sports are like.

“At ESPN, you’re so boxed in,” she recalls. “It’s hard to be funny. It’s hard to avoid being the person who just comes in when there’s a domestic violence claim in football. People start to see you in only one way.”

Now with Meadowlark Media, Fagan has teamed up with producer and co-host Jessica Smetana to create the extremely entertaining podcast “Off the Looking Glass.” She credits “Hoop Muses” with igniting many of the ideas and stories they cover on the pod. With both projects, Fagan has been able to incorporate much more of her natural humor and joy into what she wants to say about sports and society.

“You can try to get your point across for decades in a really earnest way, like, ‘You should care about this! Look at what those dudes are saying! Isn’t that ridiculous!’ And people don’t get it. Then you write a [comedy] sketch about it and you just let them come to their own conclusions,” she says. “It’s a different way to try to get the same point across. And I don’t think it has been one that has really been used very often in trying to explain the world of media and sports and women.”

Similarly, you can write a dissertation on Title IX and explain all the reasons women’s sports are important, fun, entertaining and valuable for an endless number of pages. Or you can put together a trio of one passionate basketball legend, one charismatic writer, and one cutting-edge artist, and show the world what it’s been missing.

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Pat Summitt (Illustration by Sophia Chang)

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

With two-thirds of the EuroLeague season in the books, four teams have separated themselves from the pack, each led by multiple WNBA powerhouse players. Minnesota’s Kayla McBride and Connecticut’s Brionna Jones have brought extra fire to their European squads this season and are both high on the list of EuroLeague MVP candidates.

Before we take a closer look at each of the four frontrunner teams and their potential paths to the championship, let’s review how things work in the land of overseas basketball.

EuroLeague 101

There are 16 EuroLeague teams from countries across the continent that are divided into Group A and Group B. During the regular season, all eight Group A teams play each other twice (home and away) and all eight Group B teams do the same. There are no regular-season crossover games between the two groups.

The top four teams from each group qualify for the playoffs, where the first-place team from Group A plays the fourth-place team from Group in a best-of-three quarterfinal series, and so on. The four victors from the quarterfinals then enter a single-elimination Final Four structure for the championship. Because Groups A and B are merged into a single bracket for the first round, the following rounds can pit teams from the same group against each other (important to note since three of the top four teams currently are all from Group A).

Other essential facts for your EuroLeague 101 lesson fall under the category “Regulations or Lack Thereof.” EuroLeague teams are not organized under a unifying governing body, meaning that each of the 16 squads are club teams or national teams sponsored and governed by entities in their respective countries. So while there is a 20-page booklet of regulations teams must follow to be eligible for EuroLeague competition, the most glaring omission is anything resembling a salary cap or other budget parity measures. Thus, the financial disparity between teams, and the players they can afford to include on their rosters, is substantial.

One stipulation the booklet does include is the rule that each team can have only two players who are not European citizens, plus one player who gained EU citizenship after age 16. Here’s some trivia to test your WNBA player knowledge: Identify up to two non-EU card carrying reps on each EuroLeague team. Pro-tip: Don’t start with UMMC Ekaterinburg. (EuroLeague rosters list players’ nationalities.)

UMMC Ekaterinburg (Russia)

Group A
Record: 11-0
Notable WNBA players: Jonquel Jones (CON), Brittney Griner (PHX), Courtney Vandersloot (CHI), Allie Quigley (CHI), Emma Meesseman (WAS)

Yes, UMMC is beyond stacked with WNBA superstars and has been for many years, having won four of the last five EuroLeague Championships. They’ve got the money to afford the talent, and they use it. Breanna Stewart was also supposed to suit up for UMMC again this year, but surgery on her left Achilles after the WNBA season ended has kept her stateside so far. Stewart was the EuroLeague Final Four MVP last season; in her absence, the team has been spreading the wealth, with seven players averaging double-figure scoring, including Jonquel Jones, Allie Quigley, Emma Meesseman and Brittney Griner.

Jones, the reigning WNBA MVP, is leading the charge for UMMC’s imported talent, averaging 15.1 points and 8.8 rebounds in 23.3 minutes per game with an average efficiency of 21.8.* In last week’s 90-77 victory over second-ranked Praha (Czech Republic) Jones filled the stat sheet with 20 points, 11 rebounds, five assists, four steals and four blocks.

While Jones is clearly in a league of her own, we’ve got to give props to 23-year-old Russian Maria Vadeeva, who is nearly level with Jones on key stats. If you take out her less than three-minute appearance against Praha, Vadeeva is averaging 14.8 points and 9.2 rebounds in 24 minutes per game with an overall efficiency of 20. After playing both 2018 and 2019 with the Los Angeles Sparks, she could ride this strong 2021 EuroLeague campaign into a new opportunity in the WNBA.

Griner, who arrived late, has played only four games in what had been limited minutes until the game against Praha, when she dropped 25 points on 12-for-15 shooting. Vandersloot made her own season debut in the game, notching 10 points and six assists. It’s not unusual for WNBA players to negotiate a delayed arrival with their overseas teams as they attempt to balance their physical and mental health, personal lives and financial gains within the world of year-round professional basketball.

UMMC, undefeated and 2-0 against the second-ranked team in their group, has previously had close games with Praha (who was without Alyssa Thomas last week) and 2021 finals opponent Avenida (Spain). But a simple scan of the names and numbers on their box scores makes it seem foolish to bet against them come playoff time.

ZVVZ USK Praha (Czech Republic)

Group A
Record: 8-3
Notable WNBA players: Alyssa Thomas (CON), Brionna Jones (CON)

Currently the second-ranked team in Group A, Praha has the edge over third p-lace Avenida after stomping them 80-55 in Week 5 of EuroLeague action. In Week 4, Praha gave UMMC a run for their money, losing by one bucket to the reigning powerhouse.

Brionna Jones hasn’t missed a beat since her outstanding 2021 WNBA campaign that included Most Improved Player honors. The forward is the second-leading scorer in the league so far with 19.8 points per game on 58.1 percent shooting and is first overall in efficiency at 23.4. Add her 7.6 rebounds and two steals per game, and it’s clear why she’s high on the list of league MVP candidates. Her Connecticut Sun teammate. Alyssa Thomas, is leading the team in rebounding, grabbing 8.5 per game while averaging 13 points a game with an average efficiency of 20.3.

Praha’s last big test of the regular season comes against Avenida on Wednesday, in a matchup that will determine who earns the top seed in Group A.

Perfumerias Avenida (Spain)

Group A
Record: 7-2
Notable WNBA players: Kahleah Copper (CHI), Bella Alarie (DAL), Katie Lou Samuelson (SEA)

Avenida’s status report is short and sweet: Kahleah Copper. The 2021 WNBA Finals MVP has crossed the ocean and been as dominant as ever. After missing Avenida’s first five games with a delayed arrival in Spain, Copper has gone on a tear, notching two 30-plus point games and recording an average efficiency of 24.5. With four contests now under her belt, she’s averaging 25.8 points, five rebounds, 2.3 assists, and 1.8 steals per game. While no one expects her to maintain her 61.7 shooting percentage (50 percent from 3) through the rest of the season, she’s clearly done her part to keep her stock soaring. Copper’s value hasn’t been lost on the Chicago Sky, who put the core designation on her last week with an offer of a one-year, $228,094 supermax deal.

Katie Lou Samuelson is second for Avenida in both scoring (13.6 points per game) and efficiency (12.6). Her season-high 18 points came during the most entertaining EuroLeague matchup of the season (or maybe ever), when Avenida went toe-to-toe with UMMC in early December, eventually losing 110-102. The 2021 finalists will meet again in the last game of the regular season on Feb. 1. In the meantime, when Avenida takes the floor against Praha on Wednesday, they will be out to prove that the 35-point loss from Week 5 (prior to Copper’s arrival) was a fluke.

Fenerbahce Safisport (Turkey)

Group B
Record: 7-3
Notable WNBA players: Kayla McBride (MIN), Elizabeth Williams (ATL), Amanda Zahui B. (LA), Satou Sabally (DAL), Kiah Stokes (LVA)

The lone team from Group B to crack the top four, Fenerbahce has been riding high on the efforts of Kayla McBride and Elizabeth Williams. Both arrived in time for the start of the season, and with ten games now clocked, they are each in the top five in the league for efficiency and in the top three for minutes per game.

McBride, who left Las Vegas to sign with the Lynx a season ago, is leading all scorers with 20 points per game on an impressive 55.6 percent shooting accuracy from the field and a league-leading 46.8 percent from beyond the arc. Add in her five rebounds and 3.1 assists per game, and the league MVP award appears well within her reach this year. But let’s not overlook Ukrainian point guard and reigning EuroLeague MVP Alina Iagupova, who is averaging 17.8 points and six assists per game. And with Satou Sabally now five games into her Fenerbahce season, with 16-plus points in all but one of those outings, the Turkish squad appears to be hitting its stride at the perfect time.

While several games have been postponed due to COVID-19 protocols, there is a built-in break between the regular season and the playoffs that could provide a buffer against full cancellations. Fortunately, none of the highly anticipated matchups between the top teams have been affected so far. As WNBA free agency gets underway stateside, teams will be watching to see which stars add EuroLeague hardware to their collection.

All games can be viewed online at EuroLeague Women’s YouTube channel free of charge. See the game schedule for full listings.

*Efficiency is a total performance statistic that attempts to measure a player’s performance by adding positive actions (points, rebounds, assists, steals, and blocks) and subtracting negative actions (missed field goals, missed free throws, and turnovers).

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

Recently, every time the upper echelon of women’s basketball comes into focus, Dawn Staley is a part of the picture. In the span of two months in 2021, Staley led Team USA to its seventh Olympic gold medal in Tokyo and signed a record contract with South Carolina for $22 million over seven years, making her one of the highest-paid coaches in women’s basketball. Now, her Gamecocks are the No. 1 team in the nation and the favorites to win the 2022 national championship.

In today’s world, the only thing missing from this level of success is her own podcast. No longer. This week, Staley is launching NETLIFE with Just Women’s Sports, which will feature weekly in-depth conversations with some of the most influential people across sports and other professional industries. WNBA legend Lisa Leslie joins Staley as her first guest Wednesday.

The name of the podcast represents Staley’s own twist on the phrase “ball is life.”

“I’ve given basically all of my life to the game,” she says.

Basketball has been Staley’s north star since she was a kid growing up in the projects in North Philadelphia. She always brought her own ball to the local blacktop courts so that the older guys had to let her join if they wanted to play, since there often wasn’t another decent ball to be found. Staley’s tenacity and love for the game eventually resulted in an athletic scholarship to the University of Virginia, an opportunity she says her family would not have been able to afford otherwise.

Since those early years, Staley has never wavered in her commitment to the game, and it has paid dividends. Her resume includes two Naismith College Player of the Year awards, six WNBA All-Star honors, AP National Coach of the Year (2020), Naismith Coach of the Year (2020) and an NCAA championship as head coach of South Carolina (2017). She’s also a Naismith Hall of Fame inductee and the only person to ever be both USA Basketball’s Player of the Year (1994, 2000) and Coach of the Year (2018, 2021). Remarkably, Staley has been either a player, assistant coach or head coach during six of USA women’s basketball’s seven gold-medal runs. (Yeah, Sue and DT, she’s got six.)

Though she never gave much thought to coaching during her playing days, she couldn’t resist the challenge Temple University’s Athletic Director gave her in 2000. During the Final Four that year, Dave O’Brien asked Staley if she thought she could completely turn around a low-performing program. From 2000-08, Staley did just that, ultimately leaving Temple for South Carolina with a 172-80 record, six NCAA tournament appearances and four conference titles in eight seasons.

Initially tempted by the rags-to-riches challenge, Staley ended up finding deep fulfillment in coaching.

“I’m forever indebted to basketball. It’s given me so much, that every day I try to repay it in some form or fashion,” she says. “Coaching allows me to do that, just working with young people every day.”

Repeating the rebuilding process at South Carolina, she accomplished her life-long goal in 2017 when the Gamecocks won their first NCAA championship in program history behind star player A’ja Wilson.

“The national championship eluded me for, like, 27 years, and once I got it, I felt whole,” she says. “That’s strange because I’ve accomplished a lot in the sport, but that was one of the things that I wanted to check off.”

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Staley was so elated after reaching the pinnacle that she wore the championship net around her neck for many days afterward, calling it her “net-lace.” She also promptly adopted a dog and named him “Champ.” The Havanese is now the most prized creature in her life, making regular appearances on his dedicated Instagram account and at postgame press conferences. Staley is not too modest to admit she muses about names for her next pup if she wins another NCAA title.

Over the years, the 51-year-old basketball legend has found another way to pay forward what the game has given her: by speaking up and using her growing platform for awareness of off-court causes. Staley is very active on social media and shares her views openly with reporters, always advocating for the advancement of women and people of color in her sport and in our country.

Now, with the launch of NETLIFE, Staley will sit down with guests across a spectrum of industries and have long-form discussions about the things that matter to her and her listeners. Staley says her dream guests include President Clinton, Sue Bird and Megan Rapinoe, Reggie Love, and Michael Jordan. Wednesday’s debut episode features Leslie, and with her widespread connections, Staley will no doubt deliver on more of those aspirations.

“We’re looking for people who have a voice, who have something to share that’s not your average answer,” Staley says. “I want to get to the depth of people. I want to figure out what makes them go, what makes them blossom, what makes them hurt, what makes them who they are. Leaders, politicians, change-makers.”

As a leader and a change-maker herself, Staley is always aware of what her individual accomplishments represent in the larger context. When she and Arizona head coach Adia Barnes became the first two Black head coaches to ever cross paths at the Final Four last year, Staley told reporters, “Our history here in women’s basketball is so filled with so many Black bodies, that for this to be happening in 2021, to me, is long overdue, but we’re proud.”

When she led Team USA to Olympic gold in Tokyo last summer as the first Black head coach of the program, she recognized the impact it held for the future: “I know some people are like, if you can coach, you can coach. That’s true, but when it’s a first, and when it’s history-making, I think it’s something to be proud of. It also allows other doors to be opened and opportunities for Black coaches to hold these positions.”

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Staley and A'ja Wilson won a gold medal together with Team USA four years after South Carolina's NCAA title run. (Kevin C. Cox/Getty Images)

So it’s not surprising that when Staley was negotiating her new contract with South Carolina, she pushed past her comfort level because she knew it would set the new standard for women’s coaches and gender equity nationwide. “I made a lot of money before the [new] contract,” she told Julie Foudy last month. “It wasn’t for me, and it really wasn’t about the money. But the money is the thing that moves people … the money is the common denominator in it all because it talks, it walks, it shatters glass.”

With a deep, raspy voice that always sounds like she’s just left the sideline of an intensely coached game, and a spunky no-BS communication style, Staley seems to have found a perfect match in podcasting. But contrary to what her Twitter account portrays, Staley says she’s a naturally quiet person.

“All of my life, I’ve been a shy person. I’m OK not talking,” she says. “But I think now is the time in which people are listening. Sometimes people talk and there’s no listening involved, and people shy away from using their voice because they’re not being heard. I think I’m at a place in my career where the things I’m saying, people need to hear.”

Always tactful in her timing and her choices, Staley explains why Just Women’s Sports was a fitting partner for her in tackling this new endeavor.

“It’s time now for us to create our own space because there’s a demand for it. There’s a need for it. There are people out there who want to hear from us,” she says. “When there’s a need for it, we’ve got to give the people what they want.”

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.

One of the biggest questions WNBA fans have heading into what’s purported to be a wild free agency period is whether Sue Bird, the all-time assists leader and greatest point-guard ever, will be back to play another season with her Seattle Storm.

After losing an overtime thriller in a brutal single elimination playoff game to Diana Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury this past fall, Seattle fans broke out into a forceful “One More Year” chant as the two GOATs exchanged jerseys and spoke with ESPN’s Holly Rowe at center court.

“I will take my time and make the right decision,” Bird told Rowe that day about her retirement status.

Though we have to wait a bit longer to find out her 2022 plans, Bird recently opened up to Just Women’s Sports about her basketball influences, what it’s really like to play with some of the best to ever do it, and what she sees ahead for the WNBA. 

Bird’s early influences

Born in 1980, the now 41-year-old came of age at a time when women’s sports were not readily available to consumers.

“It took until I was 15 years old to find the female athlete that I could look up to, identify with,” she recalls. “Before then, there just weren’t women on TV. I couldn’t just sit down, turn on ESPN and watch WNBA games. It didn’t even exist.”

Like for millions of other U.S. athletes in her generation, it was the 1996 Atlanta Olympic games that provided Bird her first visible glimpse of what was possible for women in sports. And the athlete she was immediately influenced by was Jennifer Azzi of the USA Women’s Basketball Team.

“When I saw her [Azzi] on the ’96 Olympic team, that was my ‘See It, Be It’ moment,” says Bird.

If the name looks familiar to current college hoops fans, it’s because UConn’s latest big-time freshman and the 2021 number one overall recruit, Azzi Fudd, was named after Jen Azzi by her basketball-playing mother.

The other player that was a big influence on young Sue Bird was Mike Bibby, the 1998 second overall NBA draft pick who took his Arizona Wildcats all the way to the NCAA title in 1997 when saucer-eyed Bird was a junior in high school. 

“My all-time favorite player, the minute I saw him when he was in Arizona, I was obsessed,” Bird admits.  

The thing about Bibby’s game that stood out to Bird was that he wasn’t content to just be a facilitating point guard.

“Point guards were always the one, they dribbled it up, they passed it. Good job, go stand in the corner. But Mike Bibby was like, ‘Nah, I’m shooting this too.’ I feel I’m one of a couple of us that, I would say, started the whole scoring point guard thing in the women’s game,” Bird says.

“I actually became friends with him shortly after that. So I have his jersey. He knows I have it and he knows I want it signed. So I have to get it signed.”

Playing with Giants

A couple years after latching onto to Bibby’s style of play, Bird arrived in Storrs for her freshman year as a UConn Huskie, where she would go on to team with Diana Taurasi, who was a year behind her in school. Looking back 23 years and five Olympic gold medals later, Bird is grateful of all the times the two legends got to reunite on Team USA.

“Both our friendship off the court and our chemistry on the court, it started in college when we were teammates. I feel anytime we can get back to being teammates versus playing against each other in the WNBA, it’s always welcome. It’s just so comfortable. It feels like you’re coming home in a way,” she says.

In terms of what sets her best friend apart from the rest, Bird says, “D is the definition of a gym rat.” During the seven years they played together in Russia, Bird recalls, “You would have to beg her not to go in on the day off. You’d have to sit her down and be like, ‘Listen, you actually need to rest your body.’ And she’s like, ‘No, no, no. I need to get some shots up. It’ll be fine. It’ll be fine. I just need to get some shots up.’ I think for her, that’s where she gets her mojo.”

Another giant Bird has played against in the W and alongside on Team USA is Taurasi’s Mercury teammate Britney Griner. The 6’9” center out of Baylor was the first overall pick in 2013 and has been a menace inside the paint for Phoenix ever since.

“She’s the most dominant player in our league. You can argue MVPs and you can argue GOATs and Best Ever and all that kind of stuff. She is by far the most dominant player,” Bird says of Griner. “When you play against Phoenix, the entire game plan has to be about what you’re doing against BG.” 

As with Taurasi, Bird has the unique perspective of playing both with and against Griner.

“I think the best part is, she doesn’t take crap from anybody on the court, but she’s such a good person and such a good teammate. When you’re competing against her, you know you can’t mess with BG. BG will let you know, she’ll let you have it. But as a teammate, she’s the sweetest, she just wants to do whatever the team needs.”

A different tall, gangly player with an insane wingspan has been a major reason Bird has continued to tally victories through her late thirties. After Bird’s tenure with the storm was more than a decade old, the team drafted Breanna Stewart with the top overall pick in 2016, and suddenly the Storm were once again contenders. 

Bird’s first two WNBA Championships came six years apart in 2004 and 2010. Since Stewart came on the scene, they’ve already added two more, winning it all in 2018 and 2020. 

Stewart, who won four NCAA National Championships in a row at UConn, and now has a EuroLeague title in addition to her WNBA Championships, is arguably the winningest athlete in the game. Bird has said elsewhere that Stewart “literally saved my career.” 

“In Stewie’s case, she only knows winning. So there’s this air about her, almost like she just doesn’t know what losing is,” Bird says about her teammate. “Whereas for myself, sadly, I’ve lost some big games, so I’m very aware of that. I know. I’m always fearful of it. For her, she’s not really scared of it. She’s just like, ‘This is what I do. I win.’… There’s a confidence there, but it’s not cocky.”

Looking ahead

Bird and Stewart may represent different generations of players, but one thing they have in common is a passionate desire to grow the game. Recognizing the benefit of continually enhancing fan engagement and connection, the two superstars have recently joined with The Collective Marketplace to offer fans access to personal and autographed items from their closets. It’s another example of something that’s been available on the men’s side for decades but is just becoming available to women’s sports fans, and Bird, Stewart, and DT are headlining the charge.

“I am a little bit of a collector, and I think, for me, it’s more that feeling of nostalgia and just things having sentimental value,” Bird says of her collection on the site. “I kept those practice jerseys, and I kept those uniforms and kept those warmups for a reason. So it’s great that I can now share that.”

Bird isn’t afraid to highlight distinctions between the fanbases of the men’s and women’s game. Even though there is a high degree of overlap, Bird points out that quality vs. quantity of fan engagement is an important distinction.

“The one thing I love about women’s sports is the engagement,” she explains. “That to me is the story of where the growth of women’s basketball is and where it’s going to go. Because the fan base, that fan base is legit. And they love us. They’ll do anything to support us. They follow our careers. So when you have a passionate fan base like that, the growth is inevitable.”

 One of the most obvious types of growth for her game is WNBA expansion, which became a trending topic as soon as the 2021 season ended. With Alana Beard headlining the charge for a team in Oakland and Drake tweeting for a team in Toronto, everyone seems to have an opinion about what the league should do. 

“I do think the league needs to expand,” says Bird. “It doesn’t need to be too fast. I think one team at a time. We can’t go too many teams too fast.”

But Bird has no doubt the incoming talent is there to support growth. With the rise of college star Paige Bueckers, who happens to be a fellow Huskie, Bird can’t help but see things coming full circle.

“I think [Paige] is more Diana than anything. What I see in her is a player that has a flare, has a swag about her, has a confidence. And that’s where I see her similar to D in a lot of ways. 

“You could maybe argue she enjoys passing more than anything. So there’s a nice balance there, where I think as she gets older, she’ll start to really tap into when to set your teammates up, when to be the aggressor and take over games. She’s already showing signs of all those things.” 

Hoping Bird will be on the court to officially hand over the reins to UConn’s newest hotshot point guard when she enters the league in a couple years is probably too much to ask of the 41-year-old legend. But until she steps away, Bird’s fans can continue to dream.

(Editor’s note: The Collective Marketplace on Athlete Direct is a sponsor of Just Women’s Sports)

Tessa Nichols is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports.