The Phoenix Mercury will be making adjustments to their travel plans for the WNBA season after star center Brittney Griner was confronted by a right-wing YouTuber at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport on Saturday.

Diana Taurasi called the incident, which occurred as the Mercury were heading from Texas to Indiana for the next game of their road trip, “disrespectful” to Griner, the team and the league. The Phoenix guard also pushed for the WNBA to take action to protect its players.

“That can’t happen,” Taurasi said after Sunday’s 85-82 win against the Indiana Fever. “The safety of everyone comes first. You know basketball is secondary to all that. People have families, kids. To be put in that situation really is disrespectful, to not only BG, but to our team, to the league.

“So hopefully they can take steps to make sure that the security of our players throughout the league is at the forefront.”

Mercury forward Brianna Turner, who initially called out the incident Saturday on social media, said on Sunday that the experience was a “huge disappointment.”

“I mean, I don’t blame the league, obviously no one could’ve predicted this,” she said. “But at the same time, I think more measures could have been in place, absolutely.”

The confrontation rattled the players, Turner said.

“It was startling to show up to the airport to have people waiting at your gate to just totally (disrupt) your day and follow you around on the airport, shouting and causing a scene,” she said. “That’s obviously nothing anyone wants to deal with, especially on a business trip for work, representing the league, the city of Phoenix, our organization.

“And in times like that, we don’t want to throw phones or yell and say things back, so we kind of have to take it. I guess you live and learn, but I don’t know … if it happens again, what do we do next? I’m not really sure of that answer yet.”

The Mercury will make travel adjustments that “maybe should have happened before,” head coach Vanessa Nygaard said before Sunday’s game.

“Right now, we’re going to prioritize the safety of our players,” she said, though she did not provide details of the changes.

The WNBA said in a statement Saturday that Griner had been approved to fly private charter for games this season, and that they had informed the Phoenix Mercury earlier this year “to move ahead with any arrangements they felt were appropriate and needed, including charter flights.” But there may have been uncertainty over whether the Mercury were allowed to pay for all of the charters, the WNBPA told ESPN on Sunday.

New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, who made charter flights a key piece of her free agency negotiations, called the incident “traumatizing” for WNBA players.

“I think that player safety should be first and foremost,” Stewart said. “Everyone was aware that BG coming back to the WNBA this season was going to be a little bit different. A lot more eyes, a lot more publicity, positives and negatives, and wanting to make sure that she’s protected at all times.

“The fact that she wasn’t (protected) yesterday, I think it’s a little bit traumatizing for all of us to think about. Because we feel for her and we want her to be safe and know that when she’s with us, she should be able to be herself. So I think that there needs to be extra precautionary measures taken, I don’t think anyone is against BG having charter flights whenever she wants so that she can be herself and travel and be comfortable and be safe.”

WNBA players across the league have addressed the incident, renewing calls for league-wide charter flights.

“This is something that we’ve been talking about months before the season started and it’s just frustrating that we have to go through something like this to have more change,” Stewart said.

Fever guard Emma Cannon, who is a friend and former teammate of Griner, was angered by what happened.

“I’ve seen the little snippet of the video, and that’s upsetting,” Cannon said. “We as a league deserve to be treated as our standard has been. WNBA players, the top 144 players, we should be charter.”

And Fever coach Christie Sides said she would like to see the issue of charter flights in the WNBA can get worked out sooner rather than later.

“That was really unfortunate, what happened, I really hate it,” Sides said. “That’s a CBA thing, you know, where the league, when they change their mind and we’re able to get those charter flights, it’ll be awesome. Hopefully, that’s sooner than later, but that’s all in the league.”

Turner will likely be part of driving that change as a vice president of the WNBPA.

“Players are really supportive of us and making sure that BG is safe,” Turner said. “Obviously, we want the best for all players traveling. … I don’t want any other team to go through what we went through, and hopefully we don’t go through that again.”

UCLA-bound high school senior Sienna Betts led the West team to a decisive 104-82 victory over the East in the McDonald's All-American Girls Game held last night at New York's Barclays Center.

The 6'4" forward contributed 16 points, seven rebounds, and two assists, earning MVP honors for her performance. ​

Betts is currently the class of 2025's No. 2 overall recruit. Only Texas-based point guard Aaliyah Chavez, who recently committed to the Oklahoma Sooners, ranks above her.

Betts to join sister Lauren Betts at UCLA next year

Betts's performance is a good indicator of her potential impact at UCLA next year. There, she'll join forces with her sister Lauren Betts, the senior currently leading the Bruins to this season's NCAA Final Four after transferring in from Stanford.

The Betts sisters' arrival is highly anticipated, with Lauren opting to forgo the 2025 WNBA Draft in order to play out her final year of college eligibility alongside her little sister.

“For me, it [committing to UCLA] was a lot about how the coaches care about you off the court, and the coaches at UCLA, they really care about your mental health,” Betts told The Flagler College Gargoyle after committing last year. “Every team that I’ve ever been on, we’ve been a family… So, they really cared about that part of basketball for me, and they showed me that on my visits and when I called to talk to them.”

Betts in good company as McDonald's All-American Game MVP

In Brooklyn, Betts showcased her ability among the sport's best high school talent. Recent McDonald's All-American MVPs have all gone onto fuel prominent NCAA programs, including top-ranked recruits UConn's Sarah Strong, South Carolina's Joyce Edwards, USC's JuJu Watkins, Notre Dame's Hannah Hidalgo, and UCLA's own Kiki Rice and Gabriela Jaquez.

The McDonald's All-American Game has a storied history of highlighting promising players, with past MVPs subsequently laying the foundation for future superstars.

Less than a day after Notre Dame’s Olivia Miles shocked the women’s basketball world by opting to enter the transfer portal rather than declare for the 2025 WNBA Draft, the Irish’s transfer fall-out has continued.

Sophomore guard Emma Risch and freshman forward Kate Koval have also entered the portal, with Koval — who started in 10 games this season — leading the Irish in blocks.

Between transfer moves and graduating seniors, sophomore guard Hannah Hidalgo remains Notre Dame’s only returning starter — a sharp turn for an Irish squad ranked No. 1 in the country just six weeks ago.

Other top NCAA programs see transfer portal movement

Notre Dame isn’t the only top-tier program experiencing a roster shakeup after exiting the 2025 NCAA tournament.

LSU sophomore forward Sa'myah Smith entered the transfer portal after the Tigers’ season ended in Sunday’s Elite Eight. USC sophomore guard Aaliyah Gayles subsequently followed suit after the Trojans fell to UConn on Monday.

Schools like TCU have become national contenders via the transfer portal, with the Horned Frogs recruiting both Hailey Van Lith and Sedona Prince ahead of their first-ever Elite Eight run. Former Kentucky center Clara Silva is the latest transfer to commit to TCU, as the team comes off their best tournament finish in school history.

The modern era of NCAA roster-building is upon us, with top players taking the reigns as ambitious teams scramble to fill offseason gaps.

The NWSL is looking to sign a new Sunday night TV deal, according to a Sports Business Journal report published this week.

The league is targeting a two-year deal starting in 2026, with both new and existing TV partners interested in picking up additional NWSL games.

NWSL looks to build on multimillion dollar TV deal

The NWSL is currently two years into a four-year, $240 million TV partnership with ESPN, Prime, ION, and CBS Sports. However, the current contract doesn’t cover the entire schedule. And with league expansion planned for 2026, even more inventory is on the way.

SBJ notes that the market for this season’s lineup has been strong. In fact, all four media partners have already sold out all their 2025 advertising slots.

“You cannot find a place to spend right now,” IMG’s Hillary Mandel said at a recent Business of Soccer event hosted by SBJ. “We know what’s motivating interest is the fact that there’s no place to invest. That’s a phenomenal story in such a short period of time."

ESPN spotlighted for TV network-owned Sunday lineup

ESPN could be a prime candidate for a Sunday package, with the network set to move on from Sunday Night Baseball after the 2025 MLB season.

The NWSL has traditionally leaned into network-owned nights, with Prime airing Friday night matchups and ION running Saturday double-headers.

The NWSL’s most recent contract subsequently added serious value to the league. And the returns have networks coming back for more, setting up a potential bidding war and easing growing pains as new teams join the fold.

UCLA will hit the court for their first-ever NCAA Final Four on Friday, but as they extend the most successful season in program history, the Bruins have looked anything but green.

“We said talent was going to be our floor,” UCLA head coach Cori Close said after Sunday’s Elite Eight win over LSU. “Our character, our chemistry, our habits were going to be our ceiling.”

With just two losses on the season, UCLA’s status as a first-rate NCAA title contender has actually been years in the making.

Roster-building paves the way to the Final Four

In 2022, the Bruins signed the No. 1 recruiting class in the country, stacking their roster with top high school standouts Gabriela Jaquez, Kiki Rice, and Londynn Jones.

UCLA then upped their game even further last year, when 2022 No. 1 overall recruit Lauren Betts transferred in from Stanford — a move that fueled the Bruins all the way to the Sweet 16 with the promise of even greater success.

“Everyone came to UCLA for this reason: to do something we haven't done in a really long time,” Jaquez said on Sunday. “[I’m] just really proud of my teammates, the staff, the coaches, just continuing to get better every day and grow from each season prior.

With Lauren Betts at center, UCLA leans on depth

As one of the most dominant post players in college basketball, Betts is at the literal center of every UCLA performance. But that doesn’t mean the Bruins lack the depth it takes to handle a team like Final Four opponent UConn.

“When we have a deep team, I don’t have to be in the game at all times,” Betts said. “I have a team full of players who are just amazing and talented in their own right, and they put in the work.”

All in all, UCLA is coming into their own after developing much of its squad from the ground-up. Now it's time to make the case that patient roster-building can pay off on NCAA basketball’s biggest stage.