Three-time WNBA MVP and Las Vegas Aces star A'ja Wilson has agreed to a historic six-year contract extension with Nike, ESPN first reported on Tuesday.

The two-time WNBA champion already announced a forthcoming apparel line and signature shoe with the sportswear giant this year.

The first edition of the "A'One" shoe is expected to be released this spring, shortly before the 2025 WNBA season tips off on May 16th.

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Wilson joins top tier of Nike athletes

Wilson's new deal is reportedly one of the highest-paid shoe endorsement contracts in women's basketball. The contract now places the 28-year-old alongside 2024 WNBA champion and NY Liberty sharpshooter Sabrina Ionescu, 2024 Rookie of the Year Caitlin Clark, and USC sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins in Nike's lineup of basketball stars.

While the exact details of Wilson's contract are still to come, the $28 million eight-year deal that Clark inked was, as of its April signing, the richest sponsorship contract in the sport.

Though Wilson's May sneaker drop will mark the beginning of her signature shoe journey, there's hope she could see similar early success as that garnered by Ionescu. The Liberty guard debuted her second shoe in June, with both editions earning significant playing time on the feet of both WNBA and NBA stars.

A no-brainer signing for Nike

The fact that Nike is going all in on Wilson is no surprise, as the Las Vegas superstar dominated the league with an historic 2024 season. Wilson set the WNBA's single-season rebounding and scoring records this year, becoming the first and only player to ever break 1,000 points in a season.

She tore up the stat sheet en route to becoming just the fourth player to ever earn three MVP nods — and the first to snag it by unanimous vote since legend Cynthia Cooper in the WNBA's inaugural 1997 season.

Even more, Wilson led Team USA to an eighth-straight Olympic gold medal this summer, snagging MVP honors in Paris in the process.

As of Tuesday, the NWSL is reportedly in exclusive talks to make Denver the home of the league's 16th team, with the Colorado city beating out bids from Cincinnati and Cleveland, the other two finalists previously announced by the league.

While the NWSL has yet to offer any details or timeline or even confirm the move, if true, Denver will join fellow expansion franchise Boston in making a 2026 season debut.

Led by IMA Financial Group CEO Robert Cohen, who will function as the team's control owner, the Denver NWSL bid group intends to build a soccer-specific stadium for their club. That said, with the runway to 2026 shortening, the group intends to secure temporary facilities while planning, designing, and constructing a permanent home.

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NWSL growth balloons expansion fees

The growing league is also expected to claim a record expansion fee from its 16th team, with insiders reporting that Denver's buy-in will likely come at a $105 million to $120 million price-tag.

That sum doubles the $53 million fees that 2024 expansion team Bay FC and the incoming Boston franchise shelled out in the last round of NWSL bids from new markets.

The swelling of expansion fees also mirrors the league's exploding valuations in recent years. According to Sportico, the average NWSL club is now worth $104 million, as increase of 57% over the 2023 average. Plus, this fall's sales of both Angel City FC and the San Diego Wave saw the clubs garner purchase prices of $250 million and $113 million, respectively.

Though further expansion is not currently on the books, the NWSL's increasing value and the additional markets hungry to enter the league signal that, sooner or later, even more cities will boast NWSL clubs of their own.

Two-time World Cup champion, Olympic gold medalist, and three-time NWSL champion Becky Sauerbrunn announced her retirement from professional soccer on Tuesday.

"This isn't the end. I'll be around. I love this game too much to leave it for good," the 39-year-old legendary USWNT center back writes. "But for the first time in sixteen years I'm going to find a quiet moment and close my eyes for a bit."

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Leading from the back

A titan on and off the field, Sauerbrunn's 16-year professional career is littered with trophies earned for club and country.

Sauerbrunn, who notably opened her senior national team account with a broken nose in her January 2008 first cap, leaves the international pitch with 219 appearances, making her the USWNT's 10th all-time most-capped player.

Across the three World Cups and three Olympic Games in which she competed, Sauerbrunn helped the USWNT to a runners-up finish in the 2011 World Cup before snagging back-to-back titles in 2015 and 2019. In addition to 2012 Olympic gold and 2021 Olympic bronze, her US resume boasts eight straight Concacaf championships.

As as part of a generation of players that founded the league, there has never been an NWSL season without Sauerbrunn logging minutes. The four-time NWSL Defender of the Year also earned annual Best XI selection seven times, more than any other player in league history.

Sauerbrunn began her 11 NWSL seasons with FC Kansas City, snagging a pair of championships in 2014 and 2015. She later spent two seasons with the Utah Royals before spending the last five on Portland's pitch, helping the Thorns to both the 2021 NWSL Shield and 2022 championship.

While executing her role as a fierce defender, the backline behemoth also served as captain of both the USWNT and Portland Thorns. A quiet leader, Sauerbrunn's calm, steady presence grounded her teams, anchoring them to trophy-lifting success.

A legacy of activism and equal pay

Though her on-field prowess is impressive, Sauerbrunn's true legacy can be found off the pitch, where the defender consistently tackles social justice issues. Along with combatting racial and gender inequities, Sauerbrunn's activism includes fighting legislation that bans transgender girls and women from competing in women's sports.

Most tangibly, however, is how she helped change the game for current and future USWNT players. In 2016, Sauerbrunn and four other USWNT athletes kicked off the fight for equal pay by filing a federal complaint against US Soccer.

One 2019 class-action gender discrimination lawsuit and years of litigation later, Sauerbrunn and her teammates secured a landmark settlement with the federation in 2022, cementing equal compensation for both the USWNT and USMNT as a contractual rule. As the president of the player's association, Sauerbrunn was one of the athletes to physically sign the historic agreement — a document that sparked similar battles for equality worldwide.

The end of an era

With her Tuesday announcement, Sauerbrunn adds to the wave of soccer stars officially exiting the professional game in 2024. She follows Portland teammate and Canadian legend Christine Sinclair in hanging up her boots, and joins USWNT standouts Alex Morgan, Kelley O'Hara, and Alyssa Naeher in retirement.

Still offering sage reflections, the captain told US Soccer, "I learned early on that we were all just renting our jerseys. That I got to wear the US Soccer crest once was an honor and privilege for which I’m forever grateful. The fact that I got to do it over 200 times is truly humbling."

Ultimately, Sauerbrunn leaves the game better than she found it, stepping off the field with no regrets.

"Of course I’d do it all again," she writes. "In a heartbeat.”

Unrivaled’s Series A investment round closed on Monday, with the new 3x3 pro basketball league raising $28 million from investors including South Carolina’s three-time NCAA champion head coach Dawn Staley and USC sophomore phenom JuJu Watkins.

Joining Staley and Watkins in cutting checks were several industry leaders, venture capital funds, and other prominent athletes like US swimming legend Michael Phelps and NBA star Giannis Antetokounmpo.

Also contributing to this round were several of the league’s original $7 million seed investors, including USWNT icon Alex Morgan and legendary UConn head coach Geno Auriemma.

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NCAA standouts seek Unrivaled access

Unrivaled's inclusion of college stars is particularly unique, and likely sets them up to join the league after graduation.

Other than Watkins, who partners with the league as an investor, Unrivaled has a pair of NIL deals with NCAA players. The league inked UConn’s Paige Bueckers — the expected No. 1 pick at the 2025 WNBA Draft — last summer, and added LSU's Flau'jae Johnson to its NIL roster earlier this month.

Both Bueckers's and Johnson's deals grant them equity stake in the league.

Unrivaled hits the financial ground running

Co-founded by WNBA stars Breanna Stewart (NY Liberty) and Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx) to offer a domestic alternative to overseas offseason play, Unrivaled has now raised an impressive $35 million ahead of its inaugural season, which tips off in Miami on January 17th.

"As women’s sports continue to surge in popularity and impact, we’re inspired by the growing momentum around Unrivaled and grateful for the strong support from our investors," stated Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell.

"Our players haven’t even taken the court yet and the foundation we are building with our partners unites unparalleled expertise, strategic insight, and an incredible product. Together, we’re setting the stage for Unrivaled for years to come."

After another jam-packed weekend of 2024 NCAA Division I volleyball tournament action, all four No. 1 seeds are still standing, sending Pitt, Louisville, Penn State, and Nebraska to Thursday's national semifinals.

Overall No. 1 seed Pitt booked their fourth straight Final Four appearance by first squeaking by No. 4 seed Oregon in a back-and-forth five-set thriller in Thursday's Regional semifinal, before making quick work of No. 3 Kentucky in three straight sets on Saturday.

Also on Saturday, Louisville followed up their Thursday sweep of No. 4 Purdue with a redemptive 3-1 win over No. 2 Stanford, avenging their 3-1 loss to the Cardinal to close out regular season play.

On the other side of the NCAA bracket, reigning back-to-back national champions No. 3 Texas fell 3-1 to No. 2 Creighton on Friday. The Bluejays' hopes for a first-ever Final Four appearance didn't last long, however, as Penn State, who ousted No. 5 Marquette 3-1 on Friday, took down Creighton in five tough sets in Sunday's Regional final.

Finally, after downing underdogs No. 5 Dayton 3-1 in their Regional semifinal, Nebraska completed their 2024 hat trick of sweeps against No. 2 Wisconsin on Sunday, tacking on an NCAA tournament ousting to their two regular-season straight-set defeats of their Big Ten rivals.

An ACC vs. Big Ten championship on deck

This Sunday's national championship match is guaranteed to be an ACC vs. Big Ten affair, as both of Thursday's NCAA semifinals pit conference foes against each other. The fact that 2024's last-standing quartet hail from these Power Four leagues is unsurprising, as each has been the sport's two strongest conferences in recent history.

That said, the ACC is still seeking its first-ever NCAA volleyball championship, though both Pitt and Louisville have come wildly close in recent seasons. The Panthers fell in the national semifinals in each of the last three tournaments, while Louisville made the trip in both 2021, losing in the semis, and 2022, when they stumbled in the championship match to title-winners Texas.

The Big Ten's two semifinalists, on the other hand, boast a slew of national trophies. Penn State's seven titles and Nebraska's five trail only Stanford's nine for most by a program in NCAA volleyball history. That said, the Nittany Lions are entering on a nine-year title drought, and Nebraska hasn't hoisted national hardware since 2017, so both will be hungry to ascend this weekend's podium.

How to watch the 2024 NCAA volleyball tournament Final Four

The semifinal round will take place on Thursday, beginning at 6:30 PM ET with ACC champion Pitt taking on Louisville. Big Ten champion Nebraska will play Penn State shortly after the ACC tilt, with both matches airing live on ESPN.

The national championship match will go down at 3 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage on ABC.