USA Basketball released its official 3×3 Olympic roster on Wednesday, naming some familiar faces to the four-player team. 

2023 FIBA 3×3 World Cup champs Cameron Brink, Cierra Burdick, and Hailey Van Lith were all named to the squad alongside 2022 No. 1 draft pick Rhyne Howard. Brink was named MVP of the 2023 FIBA 3×3 World Cup, while Burdick also won gold at the 2014 World Championship for 3×3.

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Brink is a rookie in the WNBA this season, going No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks. Van Lith, meanwhile, will finish her college career at TCU this upcoming season.

"It is an honor to announce the USA Basketball 3×3 Women's National Team," Jay Demings, USA Basketball 3×3 national team director and member of the USA Basketball 3×3 women's selection committee said in a statement. "It is an exciting process to put a roster together that will represent the country on a global stage. We are thankful for all the athletes who attended training camps or participated in 3×3 competitions on the journey to Paris 2024."

2011 USA Basketball National Coach of the Year and current WNBA Connecticut Sun president Jennifer Rizzotti will be the team’s head coach, while University of Rhode Island coach Tammi Reiss will be her assistant. 

The sport was first introduced at the 2020 Tokyo Games, with the WNBA’s Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray, Kelsey Plum, and Jackie Young all taking home the inaugural gold medal. 

Other qualified teams for the women's Olympic 3×3 competition include China, France, Azerbaijan, Australia, Germany, Spain, and Canada. Team USA is currently ranked second in the world behind China.

On Friday, EA Sports released FC 25, the latest edition of the company's best-selling soccer video game — now with increased playability and storytelling on the women's side.

For the first time in history, EAFC — formerly known as FIFA — is throwing Women's Manager and Player Career Mode into the mix. In Career Mode, players now have full access to 2024/25 rosters across the world's top women's leagues: NWSL, WSL, Première Ligue, Frauen-Bundesliga, and Liga F plus UEFA Women's Champions League.

"It's been a few years since they've been implementing women into the game and I've had a presence in this community," Gotham forward Midge Purce told JWS at Thursday night's FC 25 launch party in New York City. "It's been fun to see that presence grow in a really authentic way. For the first time ever, women have Career Mode and that's a really sick addition that you wish came from the beginning, but it's really nice that it's being added now."

According to EA Sports, Women's Career Mode features all the same detailed capabilities as Men's Manager Career Mode, but also incorporates "unique challenges that exist solely within the women's game." 

FC 24's Ultimate Teams paved the way for Women's Career Mode

Last year, FC 24 introduced women's football athletes into the brand's popular Ultimate Team mode. This addition allowed users to create their dream squads with both current stars as well as titans of the game like Mia Hamm and Kelly Smith as well as comic book-inspired "Women's Heroes," or stylized versions of real-life legends like Sonia Bompastor.

This year's upgrade represents a significant shift in programming for EA FC, which ended its 30-year partnership with international soccer's governing body FIFA after the game's 2023 release. The success of 2024's Ultimate Team inclusion likely preempted EA Sports' decision to expand women's soccer offerings to Career Mode. In addition to the managerial track, FC 25 users can also start a career on the pitch, following a player from team to team as they build skills via training and gameplay.

"The key thing that we wanted to do was present the women's career authentically, and make it feel like it really was, not just like men's career with women players," EAFC 25 design director Pete O'Donnell told reporters at a July 2024 preview event. "A lot of the systems behind the two mostly work the same, but it's the financial models and other things that make a really big difference."

In FC 25, women's soccer stars are on par with the men

FC 25 is the second video game to feature a career track for athletes in women's sports, following 2K Sports' 2021 edition of NBA 2K.

However, NBA 2K's The W mode operates separately from the men's side, while FC 25 takes a more integrated approach, allowing users to transition from playing on a women's team to managing a men's team, while Ultimate Team also allows athletes from both men's and women's leagues to play on the same squad.

According to Purce, seeing women's soccer elevated to the same level as men's, even in video game form, can impact users long after they turn off their consoles.

"When you can see and play with other players, that's crazy — like there's [ACFC star Sydney] Leroux in the locker room," she said. "It just makes it easier for girls to be engaged in it in a way that we haven't been before.

"When I was younger I used to play what was known as FIFA, but I would've played more if there were women I could have played with. If I could've used [Japanese soccer icon Homare] Sawa, I'd have loved that. That would have been nuts."

EA FC's women's soccer offerings show broad appeal

And it's not just young girls taking advantage of EA FC's increased interest in the women's game.

In FC 24's first 24 days on the market last year, EA Sports released statistics showing that 357 million online Ultimate Team squads had at least one women's soccer star among their starting XI. Additionally, women's leagues accounted for four of the top 10 leagues in terms of representation across all online Ultimate Teams. 

"My brother, who plays EA a lot, he'll call me and get really upset about my ratings, or he'll use me and be like, 'You just scored a goal!'" Purce continued. "To be in the conversation — where they do know you and they're either happy or upset — that's sports. In the sports world, it's more important to be in the space than anything else."  

EA SPORTS FC 25 is now available on PlayStation 5, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X|S, Xbox One, PC, and Nintendo Switch.

The Sun-Times reported late Thursday that the Chicago Sky have fired head coach Teresa Weatherspoon after just one year at the helm.

The Sky's record deep into the season had the franchise on track to make the 2024 playoffs. However, Chicago missed the cut after finishing regular-season play on a 0-5 run while star rookie Angel Reese watched from the sidelines with a wrist injury.

Weatherspoon's WNBA roots run deep

Weatherspoon's pro career dates back to the league's 1997 inaugural season, where she won the first-ever Defensive Player of the Year award. She spent the majority of her WNBA tenure with the New York Liberty, playing alongside greats like Rebecca Lobo and now-Aces coach Becky Hammon.

After seven seasons in New York, Weatherspoon finished her career with the LA Sparks in 2024.

Before joining the Chicago Sky ahead of the 2024 season, Weatherspoon most recently served as an assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the NBA. The five-time WNBA All-Star led Chicago to a 13-27 record in her first and only year as head coach.

After the news broke, Sky star Angel Reese tweeted in response to Weatherspoon's dismissal. "I’m heartbroken. I’m literally lost for words knowing what this woman meant to me in such a pivotal point in my life," she wrote. "You didn’t deserve this but I can’t thank you enough. I love you Tspoon."

After a record-breaking first round, the 2024 WNBA semifinals are set, with all top four seeds sweeping their lower-ranked opponents to launch their best-of-five semifinal campaigns on Sunday.

Top-seeded New York will take on two-time defending champs Las Vegas in a rematch of the 2023 WNBA Finals — a series the No. 4-seed Aces won in four games last year. Afterwards, the No. 2-seed Minnesota Lynx and No. 3-seed Connecticut Sun will face off.

In what promises to be one of the most competitive semis in recent memory, the second playoff round will feature many of the league's top performers, including a drove of individual award winners and contenders.

The Aces's newly minted three-time MVP A'ja Wilson will meet 2023 MVP Breanna Stewart on the Liberty's Brooklyn, NY, home court. Meanwhile in Minnesota, 2024 DPOY Napheesa Collier's Lynx will host 2024 MIP DiJonai Carrington's Sun.

How to watch the 2024 WNBA playoffs semifinal round

Both second-round series will tip off on Sunday, with the Aces kicking things off against Liberty at 3 PM ET. Afterwards, the Sun will face the Lynx at 8:30 PM ET. All the action will air live across ESPN networks.

Portland Thorns captain and Canada national team star Christine Sinclair announced her retirement on Friday, saying that the 2024 NWSL season will be her last as a professional player.

After starting her career in Canada in 1999, this season marks her 25th as a professional footballer. The 41-year-old, who retired from international play as the world's all-time leading scorer in December 2023, will leave the game as one of the most decorated players in history for both club and country.

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In her social media announcement, Sinclair wrote about Portland, "As I finish out this last ride, I want to say what a privilege it has been to represent this unique, beautiful, and passionate city that I will always call home."

Sinclair was a Thorn from the start

Sinclair, a two-time NCAA champion with the University of Portland, joined the Thorns in the NWSL's 2013 inaugural season, leading the club to the league title that year. The 11-season captain helped Portland pick up two more championships in 2017 and 2022, in addition to the 2016 and 2021 NWSL Shield.

Her 64 regular-season goals are the most in Thorns history and third all-time in the NWSL. Across all NWSL competitions, Sinclair has tallied 79 goals, and is one of just two players to have scored in every type of league competition.

Portland will honor their longtime star with a ceremony on November 1st, immediately following the team's final regular-season match. Currently in seventh-place above the NWSL playoff line, a Thorns postseason berth would extend Sinclair's pro career.

Sinclair's unmatched international career

When Sinclair stepped off Team Canada's pitch for the final time on December 5th, she did so as international soccer's all-time leading scorer. To date, no current player — man or woman — is within 50 goals of her record 190.

Called up for the first time at 16 years old, Sinclair's 23-year Team Canada career included six World Cups and four Olympic Games, where she earned gold in 2021 after winning bronze in both 2012 and 2016. Her 331 international appearances is second only to USWNT legend Kristine Lilly.

A game-changer off the pitch and on

Off the pitch, Sinclair has worked to improve the game in Canada, using her voice to fight for equal treatment and pay for the women's team. That work is far from complete, and Sinclair alluded to her ongoing efforts in her Friday announcement.

"I still have the same passion as that young 4-year-old growing up in Burnaby, BC, but as I hang up my playing boots, I vow to channel it in a new way. To continue growing the game I love, while inspiring the next generation," she wrote.

Before her final international game in 2023, Sinclair told reporters that she still plans to "definitely be involved" in soccer. Sinclair has previously mentioned the possibility of coaching or working with the Northern Super League, Canada's new top-flight women's league set to begin play in 2025.