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What drives the Connecticut Sun’s DeWanna Bonner?

DeWanna Bonner is a big reason the Connecticut Sun are in the 2022 WNBA Finals. (Melissa Tamez/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

LAS VEGAS — When DeWanna Bonner got to Auburn in 2005, coach Nell Fortner knew exactly what she was getting.

Bonner was an exceptional talent with a tall, lanky frame, meaning she could play any position on offense and guard anyone on defense.

Bonner averaged 21 points and nine rebounds as a high school senior and was named a McDonald’s All-American. Her skills were already polished when she arrived at Auburn as an 18-year-old freshman, and she was bursting with potential. Not just as a college player, but as a WNBA prospect as well.

Everyone knew it.

Almost everyone.

That was the one thing that surprised Fortner about Bonner.

“I don’t think she had a clue as to how good she was, or how good she was going to be,” Fortner says.

One day at practice, the coaching staff pulled Bonner aside to have a conversation about her future.

“They told me I could be in the WNBA,” she recalls, “and I was like, ‘Me? What do you mean?’”

That was 17 years ago. Since then, Bonner has carved out a dream career for herself. At 35, she’s worked her way up from winning three Sixth Player of the Year awards to being a four-time All-Star. Now, she plays a key role for a Connecticut Sun team that’s fighting for its first WNBA championship.

Her talent is undeniable.

To everyone except Bonner.

“I still don’t think I’ve made it to that point,” she says. “Like to this day I’m like, ‘I should be better.’”

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(Cooper Neill/NBAE via Getty Images)

LaShelle Bonner has one of those laughs you can get lost in. She’s 52, but has a soft and sweet giggle like a cartoon princess.

It’s a Tuesday afternoon in Birmingham, Ala., and LaShelle is between patients. She’s an in-home care nurse, a profession she’s held for 30 years. When she’s done with her workday, LaShelle will go home and turn on the TV to watch her daughter, DeWanna, and the Sun take on the Las Vegas Aces in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals.

She and her husband will watch the game together, but separately.

She watches upstairs and he watches downstairs.

“He says I don’t know how to act,” LaShelle says with that sweet laugh. “I get too intense. I can’t help it.”

LaShelle has always had that intensity when it comes to cheering on her daughter, on the basketball court and in life.

DeWanna’s father, Greg McCall, has been in California since she was young, so for a lot of her childhood in Birmingham, it was just DeWanna and her mom.

Eventually, she’d spend summers with her dad in California, learning about basketball and training with McCall, who currently coaches at California State, Bakersfield.

But as a kid, DeWanna didn’t gravitate to the sport her dad played. She wanted to participate in every athletic activity possible.

“Every time I turned around she wanted to play something else,” LaShelle says. “Baseball, basketball, volleyball.”

LaShelle worked two jobs, and her mom, Shirley Sanders, helped out so that DeWanna could do everything she wanted.

But LaShelle didn’t mind the extra work it took because DeWanna made being a mom easy.

“She was always an active girl, but she was never any trouble,” LaShelle says. “She’s always been humble and sweet.”

DeWanna was a breeze to raise, but life wasn’t always easy for the two of them. The Bonners lived in the projects of Birmingham where DeWanna and her mom shared one bedroom.There wasn’t money for anything extra, and sometimes there wasn’t enough for the necessities, either.

“I remember one time asking to go to the movies, but we couldn‘t afford it,” DeWanna says. “And the next day we were trying to figure out how we were going to eat.”

DeWanna doesn’t talk much about her upbringing. Not because she’s embarrassed, but because she’s done so well for herself that people don’t realize what life was like for her as a kid. She went to college at Auburn and studied psychology. Now, she splits her time between the WNBA and various overseas teams. There’s enough glamor in DeWanna’s life now that people rarely ask about her childhood.

“It’s the same cliché story a lot of people probably have but don’t speak on,” DeWanna says. “I embrace it, but I don’t speak about it much, because once I got to Auburn, people kind of forgot about where I started because I went to this amazing university.”

But DeWanna doesn’t forget.

Birmingham, the projects, her mother, her grandmother, all those things made her who she is today.

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Bonner won championships with the Phoenix Mercury in 2009 and 2014. (Andrew D. Bernstein/NBAE via Getty Images)

DeWanna has traveled the world. She went from Auburn to Phoenix when she was drafted No. 5 by the Mercury in 2009. She’s also played in the Czech Republic, Spain, Russia and, of course, Connecticut.

LaShelle, meanwhile, has lived her whole life in Birmingham and isn’t planning to leave.

“Unless my child can convince me otherwise,” she says.

But the two share a multitude of similarities, starting — but not ending — with their laughs. When DeWanna laughs, you can hear LaShelle’s sing-songy giggle.

“DeWanna is just an old maid like me,” LaShelle says. “We like the same type of old music, we like to sit out and just be to ourselves. We’re not too big on a crowd.”

When they’re together, DeWanna and LaShelle listen to Blues and talk about life. Sometimes, they like to go bowling, even though DeWanna always wins.

LaShelle cherishes those moments the two spend together back in Birmingham. She also tries to go to games whenever she can, and even if she’s watching on TV, LaShelle is radiating pride for her daughter.

“I’m a very proud mom,” she says. “From our background and where we come from, to now, very, very proud.”

DeWanna talks about her story being cliché, the tale of someone coming from nothing, but that’s not all it is.

Rather, for the longtime WNBA vet, it’s a story about never letting good be good enough.

LaShelle could have been content with DeWanna simply getting by, but instead she worked two CNA jobs so her daughter could play every sport in the book. And she always showed up for her, whether it was watching DeWanna as a cheerleader, waving her pom poms at the boys’ basketball games, or when she was older, driving two hours to Auburn for her college games.

Once, LaShelle was in the hospital with a blood clot and couldn’t make the trip to Auburn. Her doctor was going to discharge his patient, but then thought better of it.

“He didn’t trust me,” she says with a laugh. “He said, ‘I know you’re going to travel down there to that game, so I’m going to keep you one more day.’”

That’s where DeWanna got her tenacity and her intense work ethic.

It’s how she was able to work her way from a talented sixth player with the Mercury in her early WNBA years to playing the second-most minutes on the Sun roster and averaging 13.5 points, 4.7 rebounds, 2.8 assists and 1.2 steals per game in 2022.

In the semifinals, Bonner helped the Sun get past a Chicago Sky squad that upset them in last year’s playoffs, with 15 points, nine rebounds and five assists in Game 5.

She’s also not afraid to go after loose balls or get into the occasional tussle with an opposing player. And after 13 years as a professional basketball player, DeWanna still looks for growth in every opportunity.

“I want to win, I want to do whatever it takes,” she says. “Losing sucks. Well, no, let me not say losing sucks, because you learn so much from losing, but I’m the ultimate competitor. I want my teammates to know I’m there, and I want to win the game.”

Her toughness, she says, comes from LaShelle. Though LaShelle prefers the word “strong.”

“I don’t know why she thinks she’s tough,” LaShelle says with a laugh. “You ask her for the shirt off her back and she gone give it to you.

“But she has the patience. She can manage anything. She can play ball and still tend to her kids. She’s a strong woman.”

Bonner has twin daughters, born in 2017, and though they are kindergarteners now, she still refers to them as “my babies.”

They take up most of her free time, which is fine with DeWanna since she prefers to stay in anyway.

“I love just being in my house,” she says. “We are on the road so much, airplanes, traveling, that when I get home I just want to enjoy my house.”

DeWanna loves grilling in the backyard, and watching movies during her down time. Her favorite is “The Holiday” — year-round, even though it’s a Christmas movie. But usually, she watches whatever Disney film her girls pick. One graviates to princesses, and the other to things like the “Incredible Hulk,” but she finds a way to cater to both.

For DeWanna, there is nothing more important than family, and her teammates fall into that category.

When the Sun had their backs against the wall in two elimination games against the Sky, she took matters into her own hands, calling a “players only meeting.”

“DB is a champion,” teammate Natisha Hiedeman told reporters this week. “She’s been there. She knows what it takes. Her speeches have been on point lately, so we’ve been feeding off of that. She’s leading the way, and we’re following.”

It’s easy to follow DeWanna, Fortner says. The current Georgia Tech coach saw her develop into a leader during her days at Auburn.

“At her core, she’s just a good person,” Fortner says. “Her mother raised a fine, young woman. When you’re on a team, character matters, and to me, that is where it starts for DeWanna Bonner.

“It’s not about her, and that is easy to respect as a teammate.”

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(Michael Reaves/Getty Images)

DeWanna wasn’t always the confident player she is today. At 35, she’s had years to grow into herself. But when she was a kid in Birmingham, her lanky frame wasn’t seen as a positive.

That’s another cliché part of her story, DeWanna says, being the girl who was bullied for looking different.

Kids in middle school didn’t see her wingspan as a strength for defending, or her length as an advantage for finishing around the rim. To them, she was just tall and skinny, and that made her a target.

LaShelle remembers one day when the bullying was particularly bad, she had a heart-to-heart with her daughter.

“I told her, “You are this size and this height for a reason,’” LaShelle says.

And as she worked her way from shooting on the hoops outside her home in Birmingham, to AAU to Auburn and the WNBA, to now, playing for her third WNBA championship (the first two came with Phoenix in 2009 and 2014), DeWanna realized her mom was right.

“I learned to embrace it,” she said. “This is me. Like, I’m awesome, I’m amazing. And that paid off because now, here I am.”

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

2025 NCAA Softball Kicks Off as Oklahoma Hunts 5th-Straight World Series Win

Oklahoma and Texas line up on the softball field before the second game of the 2024 Women's College World Series.
Oklahoma will pursue their fifth-straight NCAA softball title this season. (Brian Bahr/Getty Images)

College softball is back, with a new-look Oklahoma team kicking off the 2025 NCAA season in pursuit of a fifth-straight Women's College World Series win.

Despite Oklahoma's ongoing dominance, 2025's lineup does promise significantly higher parity than seasons past.

Having graduated a number of last year's stars — including a senior class that snagged four straight national titles — the Sooners enter the season ranked third.

Instead, 2024 runner-up Texas takes the top spot, followed by perennial contenders Florida at No. 2. Both teams enter 2025 with the majority of their rosters from last season intact, earning them an edge over the revamped Sooners.

Texas star catcher Reese Atwood blasts a double during a 2024 NCAA Softball Regional game against Northwestern.
Star slugger Reese Atwood is back to lead the Texas softball offense. (David Buono/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Texas on top as SEC looms

Still hunting a first national championship, Texas returns with six starters and four of their five 2024 pitchers — including then-freshman phenom Teagan Kavan, who led the team with 20 wins last year.

Meanwhile, last season's Big 12 Player of the Year, junior catcher Reese Atwood, is back to lead the Longhorn offense.

After joining rival Oklahoma in flipping to the SEC this year, Texas is gearing up to meet their new conference foes with the No. 1 target on their backs.

"It's a great honor, to tell you the truth," Texas head coach Mike White said about the preseason ranking. "And now we got to back it up. We’ve had a team that's been called young in the years past, and now we're a little more mature."

"We have a tough slate of games ahead of us, and then, of course, the gauntlet of the SEC is ahead of us," White noted. "We’ve really just got to go play good softball now."

The impact of conference realignment will extend beyond the SEC this season. The sport's historic dynasty No. 6 UCLA is now competing in the Big Ten while No. 4 Oklahoma State is taking over the top spot in the Big 12 rankings.

Stanford pitcher NiJaree Canady winds up from the circle during a 2024 NCAA Softball Super Regionals game against LSU.
A $1 million NIL deal convinced 2024 National Player of the Year NiJaree Canady to transfer to Texas Tech. (Eakin Howard/Getty Images)

2025 NCAA softball season takes the field

As multiple teams travel to warm-weather destinations to start the season, the first week of competition showcases a slate of top-ranked matchups.

With a top-tier win already in the books, No. 4 Oklahoma State opened their 2025 campaign with a bang at the Puerto Vallarta College Challenge on Thursday. Buoyed by a trio of home runs, the Cowgirls handed No. 12 Florida State a 9-6 loss.

Waiting on deck at this week's NFCA Leadoff Classic in Clearwater, Florida, are two ranked games featuring superstar pitchers.

First, No. 16 Nebraska ace Jordy Bahl — a two-time NCAA champion with Oklahoma — will likely take the circle against No. 5 Tennessee on Thursday. If she gets the start, it will mark her first game in nearly a year, as the Cornhusker transfer suffered a season-ending ACL injury in last year's opener.

Then on Friday, a revamped No. 10 Texas Tech side will face No. 25 Mississippi State, with former Stanford pitcher NiJaree Canady likely leading the charge.

The 2024 National Player of the Year transferred after her sophomore season with the Cardinal, as Texas Tech sealed the deal via a record-shattering $1 million NIL contract.

Oklahoma softball pitcher Jordy Bahl winds up during the 2023 Women's College World Series against Florida State.
Star transfer Jordy Bahl is back with Nebraska softball after missing 2024 play with an ACL tear. (Grace Bradley/NCAA Photos via Getty Images)

How to watch this week's Top 25 NCAA softball games

Look for Bahl to lead No. 16 Nebraska against No. 5 Tennessee at 7 PM ET on Thursday, before No. 25 Mississippi State will contend with Canady and No. 10 Texas Tech at 5 PM ET on Friday.

Both games will stream live on the GameChanger app.

Unrivaled Basketball Drops 1v1 Tournament Bracket

Napheesa Collier and Stefanie Dolson tip off an Unrivaled basketball game.
The winner of the Unrivaled 1v1 tournament will earn $200,000 in prize money. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Unrivaled 3×3 Basketball's 1v1 tournament is fast approaching,​ with the offseason league dropping the competition's official bracket on Wednesday.

The head-to-head showdown tips off on Monday, February 10th, with the semifinals and three-game final series all tipping off on Friday, February 14th. 

Fan votes determined the seeding for the debut league's first-ever in-season tournament. Those ballots gave the Mist's Jewell Loyd and Vinyl's Arike Ogunbowale first-round byes, moving them straight into Tuesday's quarterfinal round.

Meanwhile, the other 28 competitors have four rounds to overcome to claim the trophy — not to mention $200,000 in prize money.

Breaking down the Unrivaled 1v1 bracket

Some early battles will be tougher than others, as Unrivaled co-founder and current scoring leader Napheesa Collier takes on fellow UConn alum Katie Lou Samuelson. The winner of that matchup then faces either Jackie Young or Rickea Jackson.

Collier's fellow co-founder Breanna Stewart — also a UConn product — drew 2024 UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards in Monday's first round. The winner subsequently earns a second-round date against either Marina Mabrey or Kate Martin.

Despite her first-round bye, Ogunbowale's bracket quadrant appears to be a gauntlet.

The guard will first battle either fellow Notre Dame alum Skylar Diggins-Smith, who has four game-winners under her belt so far this season, or Vinyl teammate Dearica Hamby.

The Olympic 3×3 bronze medalist trails only Collier and Laces star Kayla McBride on Unrivaled's score sheet, averaging 21.2 points per game. Additionally, Hamby's 10.4 rebounding average has her sitting fourth in the league.

Should they advance, either McBride or Satou Sabally will await Ogunbowale in the quarterfinals.

Ultimately, every matchup is stacked considering the star-studded league's depth.

"I just want the top dawgs to knock each other out," joked Courtney Williams ahead of her own first-round clash with Tiffany Hayes, with the winner set to square off against either Rhyne Howard or Lexie Hull.

"[If] your shot's falling, really anyone can win 1v1," she continued. "It's all about who figured it out in that moment."

An official game ball rests on the Unrivaled basketball court in Miami, Florida.
The three-day 1v1 tournament will tip off on Monday. (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

How to watch next week's Unrivaled 1v1 tournament

The inaugural contest's first round tips off at 2 PM ET on Monday, with live coverage on truTV. The evening session begins at 7 PM ET on TNT.

Both the second round and quarterfinals will air on truTV starting at 7 PM ET on Tuesday, with the semifinals and finals taking over both truTV and TNT on Friday beginning at 7:30 PM ET.

No. 1 UCLA Downs No. 8 OSU in Top 10 NCAA Basketball Action

UCLA center Lauren Betts lifts a shot over Ohio State during Wednesday's Big Ten basketball game.
UCLA center Lauren Betts registered 19 points and 14 rebounds in Wednesday's win. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)

No. 1 UCLA added another Top 10 NCAA basketball win to their 2024/25 resume on Wednesday, tallying their second of the season after holding off Big Ten foe No. 8 Ohio State 65-52.

Despite Buckeye freshman Jaloni Cambridge's game-leading 21 points, Ohio State fell to a tough UCLA defense. The Bruins clamped down in the second and fourth quarters, relinquishing just 18 points to the Buckeyes across those two periods.

Meanwhile, UCLA junior Lauren Betts continued her National Player of the Year campaign, scoring a team-high 19 points plus 14 rebounds after clinching the double-double before the first-half buzzer.

Star junior guard Gabriela Jaquez narrowly trailed Betts, posting 17 points to help push UCLA over the line.

The victory marks a program-record 22nd consecutive win for the still-undefeated Bruins — their longest winning streak since 1978.

"I told the team after the game that these games are fun when they're close," Jaquez said afterwards. "This might have been one of the first games where it got close."

Top 10 NCAA upset rattles the Big 12

Wednesday didn't pan out as smoothly in the Big 12, where No. 12 Kansas State upset No. 9 TCU 59-50 in the Wildcats' first Top 10 win of the season. The victory broke the pair's tie atop the conference standings, putting Kansas State firmly in control of the Big 12.

While the Wildcat defense stifled TCU top scorers Sedona Prince and Hailey Van Lith, holding them to a respective 14 and 10 points, Kansas State senior Serena Sundell showed out on offense. The guard scored a season-high 27 points — 15 of which came during the Wildcats' third-quarter surge.

"[Sundell] lived at the rim," TCU head coach Mark Campbell told reporters after the game. "She absolutely destroyed us in the post. She just shot layups and layups and layups. That's what makes her unique is she's a 6-foot-2 versatile playmaker.... We didn't have an answer for that one."

UConn guard Azzi Fudd controls the ball against Tennessee during the rivals' 2022 basketball game.
Tennessee hosts historic rival UConn in a Top 20 matchup tonight. (M. Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

How to watch Top 20 NCAA basketball on Thursday

The NCAA action continues with historic rivals No. 5 UConn taking on No. 19 Tennessee at 6:30 PM ET tonight. That's when Paige Bueckers and the Huskies will take aim at Jewel Spear and the Vols, with live coverage on ESPN.

USWNT Star Midge Purce Signs One-Year NWSL Contract Extension with Gotham

Gotham winger Midge Purce holds the ball before a set piece during a March 2024 NWSL match.
Purce earned NWSL Championship MVP with Gotham in 2023. (Tim Nwachukwu/Getty Images)

USWNT attacker Midge Purce re-signed with Gotham FC on a one-year deal Wednesday. The move quieted speculation about the star's future with the club.

The 29-year-old announced her return in classic fashion. She simply adding a two-word quote to Gotham's press release on Wednesday: "I'm back."

Purce played a major role in Gotham's 2023 title-winning run. She earned NWSL Championship MVP honors after assisting on both goals in NJ/NY's trophy-clinching match. However, she was sidelined for much of the subsequent season — her fifth at Gotham — after a late March 2024 ACL tear.

"Midge brings a number of great qualities to our team, and her dynamism and experience are great additions to our talented attacking group," Gotham GM Yael Averbuch West said in a statement. "We are very excited to welcome her back into the mix."

Purce signing helps ease Gotham's 2025 concerns

Securing the striker eases some fears about Gotham's plans for 2025. This offseason saw a number of high-profile exits including USWNT stars Lynn Biyendolo (née Williams), Crystal Dunn, Jenna Nighswonger, among others.

"We fully understand our journey won't always follow a straight path, and we are realistic about the time, fortitude, and effort required to achieve our goals," Averbuch West recently told fans in an open letter.

"I know this offseason has been a time of uncertainty for our fans, and I want you to know we've worked tirelessly to build a team you’ll be excited to stand behind in 2025 and every season after."

Ultimately, Purce's return rounds out a still-solid Gotham squad. Of course, the roster remains punctuated by USWNT mainstays Rose Lavelle, Emily Sonnett, and Tierna Davidson.

The team is currently in Spain for preseason training. They'll play a pair of closed-door scrimmages before returning to New Jersey to kick off the 2025 NWSL season.

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