A’ja Wilson deserves her own signature sneaker, Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon said after Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.

LeBron James gifted Wilson a custom pair of his own shoes ahead of Sunday’s contest, with the shoes quickly going viral as the Aces pulled off a 99-82 win against the New York Liberty. Wilson posted 19 points, 8 rebounds, 3 blocks and 2 steals in the shoes.

Yet while Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu play in their own signature shoes, Wilson is still waiting on her own sneaker.

“You think?” replied Aces head coach Becky Hammon when asked by The Messenger if Wilson should get a signature shoe. “You don’t need my thoughts. You already know my thoughts.”

And then Hammon expanded further, adding: “She needs her own shoe. She is the two-time MVP. I’ll toot her horn because she won’t. Olympic gold medalist, best defensive player two years running, her team’s (success)… Stop. Stop.”

As for Wilson, who won the 2022 WNBA MVP award and the 2022 and 2023 Defensive Player of the Year awards, she knows that her time will come. More and more shoes have been popping up in the WNBA, from Stewart to Ionescu to Elena Delle Donne. And she’s also thankful to have her name in the conversation.

“In due time, in due time,” Wilson told The Messenger. “We’ll see what goes on, but in due time I believe we’re going to get something moving and shaking. But I’m blessed just to have my name in that conversation.

“A lot of players don’t get signature shoes so for people to say I should or demanding that I get one, I’m blessed to be in that situation. So, in due time, we’ll see, until then I’m going to rock these LeBron 21s until the heel falls off.”

Three Top 10 NCAA basketball teams suffered big upset losses on Thursday, shifting late-season momentum to the sport's underdogs ahead of next week’s conference tournaments.

No. 3 Notre Dame fell 86-81 to No. 24 Florida State, marking the Irish's second straight loss since reaching No. 1 in the AP Poll on February 17th.

"Just really frustrated with our performance defensively tonight," Notre Dame coach Niele Ivey after last night’s game. "I didn’t think that we were locked in for four quarters."

No. 7 LSU and No. 8 UNC also saw tough results, with the Tigers falling in a narrow 88-85 overtime battle to No. 20 Alabama while the Tar Heels stumbled 68-53 to in-state rival No. 16 Duke.

Even No. 1 Texas faced some adversity, eking out a 68-64 win after unranked Mississippi State pushed the Longhorns to the brink.

All in all, as the hyper-competitive 2024/25 women's college basketball season draws to a close, building exhaustion, waning focus, and minutes management are inducing game-changing upsets — putting the country’s top teams firmly on notice.

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Conference titles on the line in final NCAA games

While most of Thursday's upsets affect seedings further down conference tables, Notre Dame's loss puts the Irish in danger of losing the ACC tournament’s No. 1 seed right at the finish line.

Notre Dame now sits alongside No. 9 NC State atop the conference table, with the Wolfpack holding a potential tie-breaking head-to-head advantage over the Irish. The only way Notre Dame can now book the top ACC tournament spot is with a win over No. 25 Louisville plus an NC State loss against unranked SMU this Sunday.

Even more, Notre Dame could now lose their projected top-seeded entry into the 2025 NCAA tournament.

Along with the ACC trophy, regular-season titles in the SEC, Big 12, and Big Ten will now come down to weekend finales. The Big East's No. 5 UConn stands alone as the only major conference team to have already secured their title.

Similar to the ACC, the No. 1 SEC seed relies on a pair of Sunday games featuring the conference's two top contenders: No. 1 Texas and No. 6 South Carolina.

The Big 12 and Big Ten, however, finish the season with table leaders meeting in winner-take-all finals this weekend. The Big Ten title will be decided in Saturday's clash between No. 4 USC and No. 2 UCLA, before No. 10 TCU and No. 17 Baylor will battle for the Big 12 trophy on Sunday.

In the pair's first rounds earlier this season, USC and TCU emerged with wins over their respective conference foes.

How to watch top women's college basketball games this weekend

The country's best NCAA teams are all aiming to take care of conference business this weekend, pushing for top seeds and eyeing deep postseason runs.

Saturday's spotlight belongs to No. 4 USC and No. 2 UCLA, with the crosstown rivales' rematch determining the Big Ten title. USC tips off against UCLA at 9 PM ET, live on Fox Sports.

Then, Notre Dame kicks off ESPN's Sunday coverage with a decisive game against No. 25 Louisville at 12 PM ET.

Sunday's DI finale belongs to the Big 12, where No. 10 TCU takes on No. 17 Baylor at 6:30 PM ET, airing live on FS1.

Unrivaled basketball returns to action on Friday night, with the 3×3 league's weekend games bolstered by Thursday's huge off-court business breakthrough with the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA).

The offseason league officially secured a licensing deal with the WNBPA, allowing Unrivaled to sell merchandise showcasing player names, images, and likenesses both in-person and online.

Without a brokered licensing deal, Unrivaled faced limitations in its attempts to capitalize on its near-instant popularity, as the league could previously only use non-player-specific team branding.

The WNBPA’s willingness to help Unrivaled push the envelope — despite the lengthy negotiation — sets an important precedence for increased monetization opportunities across women’s sports.

"This is a sign of the Players Association’s responsibility to its players, to its members to monetize the rights fully," WNBPA executive director Terri Jackson told Front Office Sports on Thursday. "Their group rights don’t need to be limited to WNBA-only associated products."

While the player-specific merchandise isn't available just yet, fans can expect customized jerseys, T-shirts, and even game-used memorabilia to hit shelves soon — especially as the league’s March 10th regular-season finale nears.

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Postseason line looms as Unrivaled hits Friday's court

As the 3×3 basketball stars return to work this weekend, Unrivaled co-founder Breanna Stewart’s Mist and her NY Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu’s Phantom BC will both be hunting a bit of magic to boost them above the postseason cutoff line.

Trailing the pack with twin 3-7 records, the squads square off against each other on Friday, each aiming to step up into playoff contention with a win.

With all Unrivaled teams taking the weekend's court hoping to create separation from the bottom of the standings, Vinyl BC has arguably the most to lose. Currently sitting in fourth place on the league table, Arike Ogunbowale's squad faces an uphill climb against the third-place Laces on Friday and the league-leading Lunar Owls on Saturday to maintain their precarious postseason positioning.

How to watch Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball games this weekend

The Vinyl will kick off Unrivaled's weekend action against the Laces on Friday at 7:15 PM ET, with the Mist taking on the Phantom one hour later. Both games will air live on TNT.

Saturday's games will air on truTV beginning at 6 PM ET, when the Lunar Owls battle Vinyl BC before the Mist tip off against Angel Reese's Rose BC.

After the second day of competition, Korean golfer A Lim Kim holds a one-stroke lead at the LPGA Tour's HSBC Women’s World Championship in Singapore — with New Zealand’s Lydia Ko, Korea’s Hyo Joo Kim, and the UK’s Charley Hull hot on her heels.

World No. 9 Hull kept pace in second after the first day of competition, but No. 3 Ko pulled ahead to sit one stroke behind No. 34 A Lim Kim after two days of play.

Meanwhile, No. 29 Hyo Joo Kim sliced seven strokes off her first-round performance to pull level with Hull in third place after a strong second round.

The USA's top contenders thus far are No. 69 Sarah Schmelzel and recently minted first-time LPGA champion No. 30 Yealimi Noh, both of whom currently sit one stroke behind Hull in a five-way tie for fifth place.

Elite LPGA golfers lock in on high-stakes battle

The field in Singapore features nine of the world’s Top-10 players and 13 of the Top 15, with the only top-ranked absences coming from US stars No. 1 Nelly Korda and No. 15 Rose Zhang.

Korda is sitting out the Asia leg of the LPGA Tour for the second year in a row. She will also miss the upcoming tournaments in Thailand and China before making a scheduled return at Arizona's Ford Championship in late March.

Korda’s absence hasn’t lightened the Women's World Championship competition, however, as the tournament’s $1.8 million purse remains in close contention halfway through the event's four rounds.

"I don’t think I typically play really well on this golf course and I thought this year would be a good year to kind of turn that around," reigning Olympic gold medalist Ko told reporters following the second round.

"The scores haven’t really been that low these past couple days," she added. "I'm just trying to focus on me and hopefully just keep climbing up the leaderboard."

How to watch the LPGA Tour at the Women's World Championship

The third round of the LPGA Tour's 2025 HSBC Women’s World Championship tees off at 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with live coverage on the Golf Channel.
 

Retired WNBA star Layshia Clarendon is being inducted into the LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame, with the former LA Spark earning recognition for contributions both on and off the court on Thursday.

After coming out in a 2015 Players Tribune article, Clarendon made history as the league's first openly trans and nonbinary player. They played 11 seasons in the WNBA, repping half of the league's 12 teams by the time they retired in 2024.

The 2017 All-Star's off-court endeavors included advocating for justice and inclusivity across all sectors. They became the first vice president of the WNBA Players Association in 2016, helped negotiate the league's game-changing 2020 CBA, and served on the league's Social Justice Council, among other accomplishments.

"Layshia made a huge impact on and off the court throughout their outstanding basketball career," said former LA coach Curt Miller. "Lay was a true professional, showing up each day with a desire to help our teams compete and improve."

"Off the court, Lay is a trailblazer and impacted so many with their bravery to be authentic and unapologetic while consistently fighting for the marginalized."

Current USC manager Lindsay Gottlieb, who coached Clarendon at Cal, echoed Miller's assessment.

"The way the W looks and feels right now is largely a testament to the people that have been doing the work," she said. "And there's no one more important in that realm than Layshia."

Clarendon joins first LGBTQ Sports Hall of Fame class in 10 years

First established in 2013, the LGBTQ Sports HOF honors coaches, athletes, advocates, and executives "who have made an enduring impact on the sports world through leadership, visibility, and commitment to inclusion."

The HOF grew to 49 inductees through 2015. It then lay dormant for a decade before the Sports Equality Foundation resurrected it.

The SEF plans to announce additional members of the 2025 class in the coming weeks.

This year's cohort will be officially inducted in Las Vegas on August 10th. Then, Clarendon will join past honorees like tennis icon Billie Jean King, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe, WNBA standout Brittney Griner, and golf legend Patty Sheehan in the LGBTQ HOF.