Messiah Bright is in the conversation for the NWSL Golden Boot in her first professional season, showing off the scoring touch that made her a top college player.

The race for the scoring title tightened over the weekend, with North Carolina’s Kerolin (10) pulling within one goal of Portland’s Sophia Smith (11). While the top stars are pulling away from the pack, Bright leads all rookies with six goals, so she could have a different award — Rookie of the Year — on lock.

After scoring 50 goals across five seasons at TCU, Bright saw her stock drop on draft day. Projected as a first-round pick by many prognosticators, she dropped to No. 21 overall, which has turned out to be quite the steal for the Orlando Pride.

The 23-year-old forward has started in 14 of her 20 regular-season appearances for Orlando, and she has been scoring goals from all over the place. One of her goals came off her left foot, three off her right and two from headers.

She has 12 total shots on target this season, meaning that her conversion rate on shots on target sits at 50% and ranks sixth in the league. Bright’s efficiency in goalscoring has put her in the top 10 in the league in goals (T-7th), goals per 90 (5th), xG (6th), xG/90 (4th), non-penalty goals (4th), non-penalty goals/90 (3rd) and goals per shot on target (6th).

Bright is good on aerials, too, having won 37, which puts her ninth in the league. And has had 27 successful take-ons, which also ranks ninth in the league.

All together, that’s not a bad rookie season for Bright, especially on a team in Orlando that has struggled offensively. But the Pride are trending upward, having won three of their last five. With two matches to go, they sit within striking distance of the NWSL playoffs — and if they do make it, Bright will have been a huge part of that turnaround.

And the Pride will be able to grow with their young star, as she signed a three-year deal with the club ahead of the 2023 season.

“I am beyond excited to be able to stay in purple and call Orlando home for the next few years,” Bright said at the time. “It’s always been a dream of mine to play professional soccer, and I finally get to do that with such an amazing team.”

The month of Messiah 👑

Congratulations @messiah_bright on earning @NWSL Player of the Month AND Rookie of the Month honors!

— Orlando Pride (@ORLPride) September 1, 2023

Two-time WNBA champion and league MVP A’ja Wilson is getting her own shoe. 

The WNBA star announced the pending arrival of her long-awaited Nike signature on Saturday, the same day that the Las Vegas Aces played the Puerto Rican national team at South Carolina. The preseason matchup was a homecoming for Wilson, who played for the Gamecocks and grew up in Columbia —making it a fitting moment to drop the news. 

Wilson showed up to the arena with a sweatshirt that read "Of Course I Have A Shoe Dot Com," revealing a URL that redirects to Nike’s website. The sneaker will be called the A’One.

The shoe — along with Wilson’s signature collection — will arrive in 2025. Having first signed with the athletic mega-brand as a rookie in 2018, the former No. 1 draft pick has reportedly been refining designs with Nike for over a year. 

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"It's been incredible working with Nike toward a dream of having my collection, and it really is an honor to take this next step and become a Nike signature athlete," Wilson said in Saturday's press release. "From my logo to the look of the shoe and the pieces throughout the collection, we've worked to make sure every detail is perfectly tuned to my game and style."

She told Andscape’s Aaron Dodson that the highlight for her was being able to announce the drop in conjunction with the Aces’ trip to her alma mater and hometown.

"The biggest thing for me is I get to showcase what I've been working on for a couple of years now in my home state, in my home city," Wilson said. "A place where people watched me grow and I raised eyebrows like, 'Is she really that good?!' To then seeing me in college and now in the pros."

When the A'One debuts, the 27-year-old will most likely be the 14th WNBA athlete to receive a signature shoe. Current players with active shoe contracts include Breanna Stewart, Elena Delle Donne, and Sabrina Ionescu. Caitlin Clark is next in line to receive a shoe in her new deal with Nike, although the brand has yet to confirm that detail.

After talk of Clark's shoe-inclusive Nike deal hit the headlines in mid-April, questions arose around Wilson's lack of signature footwear, with many pointing to a dearth of Black representation within the recent influx of shoe collaborations. The last Black WNBA player to receive her own shoe was Candace Parker with Adidas in 2010, while Wilson marks the first Black WNBA player to ink a Nike shoe agreement since Sheryl Swoopes in 2002.

"There's definitely value in patience," Wilson told Andscape. "That's something [South Carolina] Coach [Dawn] Staley has taught me — that some of the best things come from waiting and 'what's delayed is not denied.' That's something I have tatted on me. That's something I live through. So it's something I'm going to stick through."

In a news release, Nike said they were "proud to introduce A'ja Wilson as the newest member of the brand's signature family, marking the next chapter of partnership with one of basketball's greatest athletes."

Wilson is working with the same shoe designer that partnered with Ionescu, as well as Kyrie Irving before the Mavericks shooting guard parted ways with Nike in 2022. Wilson's upcoming signature collection will be "inspired by her distinctive style, incredible performance, and unapologetic realness," per Nike. "As one of the most iconic basketball players of her generation, of course, she got a shoe," they added.

Wilson’s hopes for the shoe is that girls wearing it can "feel powerful and understand that nobody can stop them from their dreams."

"It’s been an incredible ride, but there’s a lot of weight lifted off my shoulders now because it was starting to get hard," Wilson told Andscape. "But with the movement and growth of the game, I feel like this was the perfect time to say, 'Hey, I got a shoe on the way.'"

Teams around the WNBA are under pressure to finalize their 12-player rosters before Monday's league-enforced deadline.

Teams must cut their 2024 rosters down to just 12 spots from as many as 18 training camp players. And while this year’s WNBA draft class is undoubtedly rife with talent, only 18 draftees remain rostered ahead of Monday's final cuts. Last year, just 15 of the league’s 36 draftees made it onto their team’s opening-day squad. 

And it's not just rookies. Veteran players are also on the chopping block, even former title-winners: On Thursday, the Minnesota Lynx waived 2021 WNBA champ Ruthy Hebard.

But with every wave of cuts, players that survive dismissal inch closer to claiming a coveted roster spot. The Las Vegas Aces have already reached that magic number 12, opening the door for draft picks Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin to stay on with the reigning champs.

Additionally, Dallas has whittled their training camp group down to 12. Fifth overall pick Jacy Sheldon and undrafted rookie Jaelyn Brown continue to remain in the mix. 

Other teams, meanwhile, still have decisions to make. Seattle currently lists 13 players, while others like New York still have a full 18 players in training camp. It’s likely that the final preseason game will tip roster decisions one way or another as coaching staffs continue to evaluate performance and playing time. 

But being cut doesn't mean the end of the road for everyone. Should players be waived, they can still be signed to short-term hardship contracts with teams carrying injured players on their permanent rosters. 

The 2024 WNBA season kicks off on Tuesday, May 14th.

Two NWSL teams avoided some major setbacks on Thursday, as both Portland’s Morgan Weaver and Orlando’s Angelina were cleared of season-ending injuries after undergoing scope procedures earlier this week. 

Angelina has been described by her club as "week-to-week," while Weaver has been placed on Portland’s 45-day injury list. 

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The Thorns won their May 4th game without Weaver 2-1, continuing their season turnaround, while the Pride remain one of two unbeaten teams in the NWSL.

In other injury list news, Christen Press posted a video on Thursday of her running with a trainer and doing drills, providing further updates on her road back from a June 2022 ACL tear.

🚨CHRISTEN PRESS IS SHOOTING AND RUNNING 🤩

(yes, we're freaking out)

🎥: @ChristenPress pic.twitter.com/BUjIyzj4xh

— The Women's Game (@WomensGameMIB) May 9, 2024

Angel City coach Becki Tweed has told reporters that Press is back with the team, but has not issued a timetable for her return to the field.

A group led by Toronto billionaire Larry Tanenbaum will bring a new WNBA franchise to Canada, CBC Sports reported early this morning. 

Set to begin play in 2026, the team will be owned and operated by Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports Inc. Tanenbaum is a minority owner and chairman of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argos, and Marlies. He originally explored an expansion team via MLSE, but was turned down by other members of the board. 

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The Toronto addition will be the WNBA's 14th team. It follows the Bay Area's WNBA Golden State, which will debut in 2025. 

An official announcement is expected May 23rd in Toronto, according to reports. 

"We continue to engage in productive conversations with interested ownership groups in a number of markets but have no news to report at this time," a WNBA spokesperson said in a statement. Tanenbaum's Kilmer Sports group, meanwhile, told CBC Sports that his organization has “no update at this time.”

In April, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said that Toronto was among the cities being considered for WNBA expansion.

The WNBA has a growing footprint in Canada, as the league's held wildly successful exhibition games north of the US border for the last two seasons. 

In 2023, a preseason matchup between Chicago and Minnesota sold out Toronto’s 19,800-capacity Scotiabank Arena. This past Saturday, the league drew more than 16,000 fans to Edmonton for a preseason showdown between LA and Seattle.

The Toronto team will reportedly play at Coca-Cola Coliseum, an 8,000-seat arena which is currently home to the Marlies as well as Toronto’s PWHL franchise.