Candace Parker sat down with Bleacher Report’s Taylor Rooks on Tuesday, speaking candidly about her non-relationship with USA Basketball and Geno Auriemma after the program famously cut Parker from the 2016 Olympic team.

FULL CLIP: Candace Parker speaks about not having a relationship with USA Basketball, dislike between her and Geno Auriemma , and the @nnekaogwumike snub

“I don’t like him, he doesn’t like me. We don’t like each other..” pic.twitter.com/3Z828ffarQ

— Taylor Rooks (@TaylorRooks) December 1, 2021

“I’m happy for them,” Parker said of the Tokyo squad, singling out Napheesa Collier and Chelsea Gray for their success this past summer as they helped Team USA win Olympic gold in Tokyo. Parker said she wishes Team USA the best, but was also candid in critiquing the program’s evolution.

“When you evolve with time, that’s when you’re at your best. And I don’t know if USA Basketball has continually evolved with time.”

Parker, who played very little in 2012 and was snubbed from the team in 2016, added that she wished that USA Basketball had been more upfront about the process. Parker highlights a camp in which she excelled on the court, alluding to the idea that it was about who she was off of the court that made the difference.

“I got a triple-double at the camp, was first or second in scoring,” she said. “Like, it wasn’t on the court.

“So if it’s me as an individual, as a person… I’m spending time away from my daughter to come and do these camps that I’m not even being judged off of how I’m playing.”

She added that she didn’t think she personally fit in with the team, which was then coached by UConn’s Geno Auriemma.

“I don’t think Geno wanted me on the team,” she said, adding that she wished that Auriemma and USA Basketball had just been upfront rather than beating around the bush.

“As soon as he was named coach again, I was like ‘ah well, this is gonna be interesting,’” Parker said in reference to 2016. When pressed for as to why Auriemma didn’t want her on the team, Parker said: “He doesn’t like me, I don’t like him.”

Parker also alluded to the fact that during her time at Tennessee, UConn failed to win a national championship and couldn’t beat the Lady Vols.

“We don’t like each other… But I’m of the mindset that I don’t have to like you to play with you. I don’t have to like you to work with you. And it’s fine, it’s cool. They made their decision.”

Parker then added that she’s still upset about Nneka Ogwumike being left off of the USA Basketball team that won gold in Tokyo.

“I get more angry at the people that I love getting hurt, and what they did to Nneka was unbelievable,” she said. “It’s one of those things where it’s like, I’m more angry at that. Because you have somebody that arguably, maybe in 2016 but definitely in 2020 [should have been included]. She’s the only MVP of the league [that hasn’t been named to an Olympic team]. She went and got MVP of the World Games and then you leave her off the team? I think that there’s certain grace for certain people, and there’s certain things that aren’t, that you don’t get grace.”

Parker also complimented UConn’s success as a college program while seeming to insinuate that the team and Geno have had too much influence over Team USA, a claim Seimone Augustus also recently made.

The Chicago Stars have landed a head coach, with the NWSL confirming on Wednesday that Hammarby manager Martin Sjögren will join the team when the top-flight Swedish league's season ends in November.

Under Sjögren, Hammarby currently sits second in the Damallsvenskan, with a 2025/26 UEFA Champions League play-in opportunity set for later this month.

No stranger to the global stage, the incoming Chicago Stars coach led the Norway women's national team from 2016 to 2022, leading the Grasshoppers to two group-stage exits at the 2017 and 2022 Euro tournaments as well as a World Cup quarterfinal appearance in 2019.

Calling the NWSL "the most competitive league in the world," Sjögren told The Athletic on Monday that he wants "to build [the Chicago Stars] in a different way," by combining European-style tactics with US soccer's physicality.

"We want to create something sustainable that could be successful," Sjögren explained. "You can always choose to put a lot of money in and buy the best players, but when the money runs out, then you don't have a team anymore."

With just one win on the season, the Stars currently sit 13th on the 2025 NWSL table, with interim managers Masaki Hemmi and Ella Masar splitting coaching duties after Chicago fired head coach Lorne Donaldson in April.

Prior to Sjögren taking the reins ahead of the 2026 NWSL season, his longtime assistant Anders Jacobson will join the Stars "in the coming weeks" to serve as interim manager, with current interim head coach Masar then shifting back into an assistant capacity.

Jacobson will subsequently join Masar as an assistant when Sjögren arrives.

"Martin has been someone I've known and highly respected for almost 10 years," said Masar in a club statement. "Chicago is in good hands."

The PWHL hit a new single-season salary record, with the Associated Press reporting that the contract extension inked by Ottawa Charge forward Emily Clark last week pushes her 2025/26 season payday north of the $100,000 mark.

The two-year extension will keep Clark in Ottawa through the PWHL's fifth season in 2027/28.

While the specific amount is not public, the restructuring of Clark's third-season pay — the last on her initial PWHL contract — will reportedly net her the highest single-season salary in league history.

"We know what she brings. She's really the heart and soul of our organization," Charge GM Mike Hirshfeld told the AP.

A two-time Olympian who earned 2018 silver and 2022 gold with Team Canada, Clark is the only player to have taken the ice in every Charge game to date. The 29-year-old was second on Ottawa's 2024/25 scoresheet with nine goals and 10 assists in last season's 30 games.

"I am proud to have been part of this organization from the inaugural season, and I am really grateful to get to extend my contract," Clark said in a statement. "Playing for such a passionate fan base made it easy for me to want more time here.... After coming up just short of the Walter Cup last season, I am as motivated as ever to work to bring a championship in Ottawa."

While the PWHL requires a minimum salary of $35,000, the league does not set any individual maximum pay.

The only other figures that PWHL front offices must abide by are the $1.3 million-per-team 2025/26 salary cap, and a CBA mandate that at least six players on each squad must earn a minimum of $80,000.

Next season, Clark will be one of nine PWHL players making a six-figure salary, as the league expands from six to eight teams.

Flag football has gone global, as the emerging sport takes center stage this week at The World Games 2025 in Chengdu, China.

Eight top national flag football teams will kick off their tournament campaigns beginning on Wednesday night, all aiming for Sunday's championship final.

Reigning champions Mexico will look to defend their 2022 title against the 2024 IFAF World Championships-winning USA as well as 2024 bronze medalists Japan.

Meanwhile, squads from Austria, China, Canada, Great Britain, and Italy will look to upend the three tournament titans.

Fueled primarily by women's sports athletes, the sport is on the upswing, rising from its debut at the 2022 World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, to secure a spot at the 2028 LA Olympics amid growing media exposure as well as backing by the NFL and the NCAA.

"[The sport] started rolling faster after World Games [2022]," Mexico captain and quarterback Diana Flores said at an IFAF press conference this week. "It was a very important moment for the flag football community… the first time flag football was showcased on a platform as big as the World Games, a multi-sport competition where the most elite athletes go and represent their countries."

"It took a quick spiral from the World Games Birmingham to the media exposure we got to the support our organization has given us," echoed USA star quarterback Vanita Krouch. "To be here paving the way, being these trailblazers and pioneers, it's a huge honor."

How to watch flag football at The World Games 2025

The USA and Canada will kick off The World Games 2025 flag football preliminaries at 9 PM ET on Wednesday.

Knockout rounds begin when the quarterfinals take the field 8:30 PM ET on Friday, with Saturday's 11:30 PM ET bronze-medal game and Sunday's 12:50 AM ET final determining this year's podium.

The tournament will stream live on The World Games website.

The No. 3 Atlanta Dream still have something to say, entering Wednesday's matchup with the No. 8 Seattle Storm on a five-game winning streak — and, notably, just a half-game behind the No. 2 New York Liberty in the WNBA standings.

"We know it doesn't get any easier," Dream head coach Karl Smesko said of his team's remaining regular-season slate. "This is a trip where we're playing a lot of really good teams."

With stars Rhyne Howard and Brittney Griner back in the lineup, Atlanta is returning to the height of their power at exactly the right time: "I thought BG was great," Smesko said of his once-injured center. "She was moving great. She looked really good out there."

As for Seattle, however, the Storm finds themselves on the opposite trajectory, riding a five-game losing streak into Wednesday's clash.

Adding insult to injury, former Storm guard Alysha Clark confirmed this week that she requested her midseason trade to the No. 10 Washington Mystics.

"Asked Alysha Clark if she had conversations with Seattle before the trade and she said she requested to be moved," tweeted Washington Post journalist Kareem Copeland on Tuesday. "Things hadn't worked out as they envisioned and she told herself at 38 years old she was going to stay in control of her career."

Clark's admission follows 2024 reports that volatile locker room dynamics and front office disputes prompted former Seattle star Jewell Loyd to request a trade last season.

How to watch the Atlanta Dream vs. Seattle Storm on Wednesday

The Dream will put their winning streak to the test while trying to take advantage of the Storm's skid at 10 PM ET on Wednesday.

Live coverage of the game will air on ESPN3.