The No. 22 kit of Indiana Fever superstar Caitlin Clark weighed in as last fall's second best-selling basketball jersey in the US according to sports outfitter Fanatics, with the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year trailing only NBA superstar Steph Curry on the top sales list.
Clark's merch dominance is nothing new, however. Her Indiana jersey sold out less than an hour after the Fever drafted her as the overall No. 1 pick in April 2024, making Clark the top seller of any draft night pick in the company's history.
Even more, Clark's merchandise led last season's record-shattering WNBA sales, with Fanatics reporting that 2024 sales of player-specific gear earned a jaw-dropping 1,000% year-over-year increase by last summer's All-Star break — in large part thanks to the 2024 WNBA rookie class.
Fellow 2024 WNBA debutants Chicago Sky standout Angel Reese and then-Las Vegas Aces guard Kate Martin — Clark's NCAA teammate at Iowa — trailed the Fever star with the league's second- and fourth-most merchandise sales, respectively.
This year, a new WNBA rookie could give Clark a run for her money, as the No. 5 Dallas Wings jersey for 2025's No. 1 draft pick, Paige Bueckers, is already doing numbers at retailers across the country.
Already a brand mogul in her own right, Bueckers topped the 2024 NIL list as college basketball’s biggest earner via endorsement deals and merchandise sales prior to going pro.
The NCAA basketball transfer portal window officially closes on Wednesday, after an active period saw top players unafraid to jump ship — even if that means joining a rival team.
After the portal window shuts, athletes can no longer declare their intention to transfer, though there's no official deadline for accepting admission to a new school.
Former UCLA rising senior Londynn Jones is the latest to switch sides, taking her 35.1% three-point shooting to the Bruins’ fiercest Big Ten competition by committing to crosstown rival USC on Tuesday.
The SEC — arguably the sport's powerhouse conference — has also seen significant movement in recent weeks, with Ole Miss landing ex-Ohio State standout Cotie McMahon and ex-Mississippi State guard Denim DeShields — WNBA veteran Diamond DeShields’s little sister.
Maryland is also cleaning up, signing ex-Duke star guard Oluchi Okananwa and Indiana center Yarden Garzon to the Terps' 2025/26 roster.
Meanwhile, 2025 national championship runner-up South Carolina added former Mississippi State big Madina Okot on Monday, after securing ex-Florida State guard and Division I's 2024/25 scoring leader Ta’Niya Latson earlier this month.
Another transfer portal superstar considers a jump
As the stars begin to settle, all eyes are on South Carolina transfer MiLaysia Fulwiley as she weighs her options ahead of her junior year.
Like UCLA-to-USC transfer Jones, the Columbia, South Carolina, product could opt to go the rival route, with rumors of Fulwiley seriously eyeing SEC foe LSU currently making the rounds.
All in all, while the player pool will be finalized on Wednesday, it could take days, weeks, or months to round out NCAA basketball rosters, as teams continue courting athletes in the portal before the 2025/26 season tips off.
Insurance giant Aflac is renewing their 2024 partnership with the WNBPA, raising the stakes at the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend by boosting prize payouts for individual competitions.
When WNBA standouts will take the Indianapolis court for the July 18th competitions, $60,000 will be on the line for this year's 3-Point Contest winner and $55,000 for the 2025 Skills Challenge champion.
Those figures reflect Aflac's overall purse increase from $110,000 to $115,000 — a move that aligns the two events' payouts with their NBA All-Star equivalents.
"Aflac's investment in us isn't a one-off. It's year two," said WNBPA president and nine-time All-Star Nneka Ogwumike. "We're excited about what's ahead as we grow this together. It's not just about the rewards; it's about building a future where our value is undeniable."
Gray, Clark are early favorites for All-Star contest payday
While the increase achieves gender pay equity with their NBA counterparts, Aflac's initial 2024 WNBA All-Star investment already dwarfed the mere $2,575 allocated to each contest's victor in the league's current CBA.
Cashing in on that significant pay increase was Atlanta Dream forward Allisha Gray, who cleaned up at the 2024 All-Star Game by winning both solo events.
As the first-ever player to dominate both contests in a single night, Gray collected roughly 62% of her annual $185,000 WNBA salary with the dual wins.
This year, however, the champ will have some new competition to her title defense, as 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year and notable sharpshooter Caitlin Clark plans to make her WNBA All-Star 3-Point Contest debut this summer.
How to attend the 2025 WNBA All-Star Weekend
Hosted at the Indiana Fever's home of Gainbridge Fieldhouse, the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game will tip off on July 19th, one day after both the 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge.
Tickets for all three events will go on sale online at 2 PM ET on April 29th.
On the heels of Unrivaled 3x3 Basketball's successful debut season, TIME honored league founders Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart as two of the year’s most influential people, with the WNBA superstars earning space on Wednesday's 2025 TIME100 List.
"Unrivaled makes female athletes think about everything differently," retired US soccer legend and Unrivaled investor Alex Morgan wrote in the pair's tribute. "It's not always just take the salary and sign on the dotted line and be happy. Sometimes you can just do it yourself better."
Other big names in women's sports also made the cut, including the most decorated gymnast in history, Simone Biles, and retired tennis superstar Serena Williams.
"She is both deeply human and undeniably superhuman — a combination that makes her impact profound," Biles's former USA teammate Aly Raisman wrote of the seven-time Olympic gold medalist. "She inspires us to believe that we, too, can persevere. That we, too, can shatter limits."
Citing Williams's extensive post-tennis resume, which includes significant investments into women's sports, retired US Olympic track star Allyson Felix sang the 23-time Grand Slam singles champion's praises in the 2025 TIME100 List.
"She continues to show that we, as athletes, are so far from one-dimensional," Felix wrote. "She could take a break from being in the public eye and raise her family. Instead, she continues to pave the way."
WNBA star Caitlin Clark and the Fever will hit the airwaves sooner than expected this year, with multiple sources reporting that ESPN will televise a preseason game between Indiana and the Brazil national team on May 4th.
The broadcast boost will reportedly make the Fever vs. Brazil matchup the WNBA's first-ever nationally televised exhibition game, a move that comes after a 2024 preseason battle between the Minnesota Lynx and Chicago Sky earned more than two million streams — from a fan's cellphone.
WNBA teams follow in the Indiana Fever's preseason footsteps
The May matchup will mark the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year's return to Iowa’s Carver-Hawkeye Arena, with the Fever set to play in front of a sold-out crowd at Clark's alma mater.
Indiana isn't the only team taking a trip down memory lane this preseason, with several teams bringing exhibition games to university arenas before the 2025 WNBA season tips off on May 16th.
Two days before facing the Fever, Brazil will clash with the Sky at Chicago star Angel Reese's collegiate home of LSU — an arena also familiar to new Sky recruit Hailey Van Lith.
Also on May 2nd, Notre Dame will host legendary alums Arike Ogunbowale, Jewell Loyd, and Jackie Young when the Las Vegas Aces play the Dallas Wings at South Bend's Purcell Pavilion.
Monday’s 2025 WNBA Draft scored the second-highest viewership in the event's history, with an average of 1.25 million viewers tuning into ESPN to witness the league’s newest young stars turn pro.
The broadcast peaked at 1.46 million viewers, becoming just the second-ever WNBA Draft to surpass the million-fan mark.
That rise represents a 119% increase over the 2023 edition, with Monday's live event weighing in as the night’s most popular programming among key demographics across both broadcast and cable TV.
NCAA superstars fuel enthusiasm for WNBA Draft
Interest in the WNBA Draft hit a steep peak in 2024, as an average of 2.45 million viewers watched Iowa superstar Caitlin Clark start her WNBA journey with the Indiana Fever.
This year’s iteration also offered a wealth of star power, featuring No. 1 overall pick Paige Bueckers as well as other 2025 Final Four standouts.
"We're just continuing to try to grow the game, expand the game, bring the viewership from the college game to the WNBA," Bueckers told reporters gathered at The Shed in Manhattan.
"I think the new wave and generation of basketball players are bringing so much to the game, but obviously off the foundation that the players before us have built," she added.
With more NCAA basketball fans following their favorites to the pros, it's now up to the WNBA to sustain that interest through the regular season — and beyond.
Welcome to another episode of Sports Are Fun! presented by TurboTax.
Every week on Sports Are Fun!, co-hosts soccer legend Kelley O'Hara, sports journalist Greydy Diaz, and JWS intern BJ serve up their hottest takes on the biggest women's sports headlines.
This week, Sports Are Fun! talks all things 2025 WNBA Draft. The crew dives deep into who went where, which teams scored big, and — most importantly — who wore what.
For Sports Are Fun!, style definitely stole the show.
"This is one of my favorite parts of draft night," said O'Hara. "It's seeing how people dress, what they choose, how they bring in their own bits of personality, or things that they want to pay tribute to."
"I'm a suit girl, so Paige [Bueckers] and Georgia [Amoore] were my two favorites," she added.
"Well do you know the background behind Georgia's?" asked Diaz. "She is the first WNBA player to be styled by an NBA player. Russell Westbrook has his own brand, Honor the Gift, which is so cool. And to see them both just interacting yesterday was so cool."
"I loved it," she continued. "I hope it sparks even more collaborations with other players and brands. Even them — I'd love to see them do some more work together.
"Yeah, I hope that Russ has some tunnel fits for Georgia going into the season. That'd be sick," said O'Hara. "I'd like to see more."
Over an action-packed 49 minutes, Sports Are Fun! also gets into the state of the USWNT post-Brazil friendlies, Midge Purce's return to Gotham, and so much more.
'Sports Are Fun!' rate player outfits from the 2025 WNBA Draft
After wading into the 2025 WNBA Draft style conversation, Sports Are Fun went all in. O'Hara, Diaz, and BJ didn't hold back when it came to WNBA Draft night fashion, discussing the good, the glam, and the uncomfortable.
"Apparently Georgia [Amoore] was like, 'I just want a blazer and I want to wear a skirt and I don't want to wear heels,'" O'Hara said, referencing the Kentucky grad's Russel Westbrook-designed outfit. "And I was like, girl after my own heart. She looked good, but she looked comfortable."
"So speaking of uncomfortable," O'Hara began, switching gears. "Paige [Bueckers] wore a three-piece suit on the Orange carpet. Then she did a fit change — still a suit, but went blazer, no shirt underneath. Clearly she was having some malfunctions, because she was having to hold it."
"She was also mic'ed up," reasoned BJ. "You could see her fixing the mic."
"I love that she matched Azzi," said Diaz, shouting out Bueckers's UConn teammate Azzi Fudd, who was seated next to her at the event. "They had a little matchy-matchy vibe. They both look so good in the black. And Azzi told me she straightened her hair — she's like 'Greydy, this is the first time I straightened my hair in like four years!'"
"Loved this look, amazing," O'Hara continued. "But [Bueckers] was having to hold her blazer down a lot and I was like, I just want her to be comfortable in this moment.
"I love this fit, I just like 'Could can someone get the girl some fashion tape and so she doesn't have to hold on?' In those moments, you want to look amazing and you want to feel your best but you don't want to be uncomfortable."
About 'Sports Are Fun!' with Kelley O'Hara
'Sports Are Fun!' is a show that’ll remind you why you fell in love with women's sports in the first place.
Join World Cup champ, Olympic gold medalist, and aspiring barista Kelley O'Hara as she sits down with sports journalist Greydy Diaz and a revolving cast of co-hosts and friends. Together, they're talking the biggest, funnest, and most need-to-know stories in the world of women’s sports.
From on-court drama to off-field shenanigans, to candid (and silly) chats with the most important personalities in the space, this show screams "Sports Are Fun!"
Subscribe to Just Women's Sports on YouTube to never miss an episode.
Despite some mock drafts projecting her to go as high as the first pick in the second round of the 2025 WNBA Draft, TCU’s Sedona Prince did not earn an invite to the pro league on Monday night.
The move came after the 6-foot-7 center helped lead the Horned Frogs to the 2024/25 NCAA tournament's Elite Eight round.
Prince, who turns 25 years old next month, suited up for Texas, Oregon, and TCU during her seven-year NCAA career. Her run spanned multiple injury-induced redshirt seasons caused by a broken leg, torn elbow ligament, and a broken finger.
During Monday's ESPN broadcast, commentators noted that her age and injury record may have impacted Prince's WNBA prospects. They also directly brought up Prince's history of intimate partner violence and abuse allegations.
As reported both via social media and by The Washington Post, several women have accused Prince of abuse or sexual assault. Prince denies these claims and, to date, has never been charged with a crime.
Prince's complicated collegiate campaign also includes a viral 2021 social media post calling out gender inequities within the NCAA tournament. The post ultimately ignited top-line changes across college sports.
WNBA GMs weigh risk factors in drafting Prince
Like other undrafted athletes, Prince could still receive an invite to any of the 13 teams' training camps. Though the decision to offer her a preseason try-out remains complicated for WNBA front offices.
"You want to be fair about it and don't want to necessarily hold [the allegations] against her," one unnamed WNBA GM told ESPN’s Katie Barnes in a recent article detailing Prince’s draft prospects. "But from an organizational standpoint, you also have to be cautious and do your due diligence."
"We wouldn't touch it, but I think that everybody's at a different spot. Everybody has different information," another GM said. "But where we're at with this franchise, right, wrong, or indifferent, there's a risk associated and that's not a risk on someone's character that we'd take."
The Dallas Wings made arguably the easiest decision of the 2025 WNBA Draft on Monday night, selecting UConn guard Paige Bueckers as the overall No. 1 pick.
"I can't wait to play with that system, to play with that team, to embrace that new city," Bueckers told reporters. "To be in a place that you're loved and wanted, that's very important."
"Very early on it was Paige, and Paige only. She's such a special player," said newly hired Dallas GM Curt Miller.
Bueckers bolsters revamped Dallas team
Bueckers has been the consensus No. 1 draftee since the start of the 2024/25 NCAA season. Top pick-holder Dallas subsequently spent the offseason assembling existing WNBA talent to complement their expected collegiate recruit.
Returning starters include Arike Ogunbowale and Teaira McCowan. Additionally, Miller brought on experienced players NaLyssa Smith, DiJonai Carrington, and Ty Harris.
"There's a new GM, new coach, new assistant coach, a whole new team," Bueckers said. "We're excited for that fresh start."
The 11th-place Wings ended last season on a nine-game losing streak. And with a 9-31 record, Dallas missed the 2024 WNBA Playoffs. The team now aims to right the ship in 2025 behind their new-look lineup and freshly minted franchise player Bueckers.
"She can take over a game when she wants to, but she has a great feel for getting others involved and that’s really special," said incoming Wings head coach Chris Koclanes.
"You put that next to Arike, and I feel together they'll be able to play off each other."
With a fully revamped roster and an upgraded arena and practice facility in the works, the Dallas Wings appear to be bypassing the traditionally slow rebuild and will instead hit the ground running in 2025.
After UConn superstar Paige Bueckers set the tone as the overall No. 1 pick, the rest of Monday night’s 2025 WNBA Draft played out without too many surprises, as teams stocked up on fresh talent from both home and abroad.
The Seattle Storm selected French phenom Dominique Malonga second, before the Washington Mystics took Notre Dame guard Sonia Citron at No. 3 and USC forward Kiki Iriafen at No. 4.
Incoming expansion team Golden State threw the night’s initial curveball with their first-ever draft pick, adding Lithuanian forward Justé Jocyté to the Valkyries' inaugural roster at No. 5.
However, Jocyté's availability remains a question mark, with the 19-year-old confirming her intent to join her national team for this summer's EuroBasket.
Young stars earn first round selections at the 2025 WNBA Draft
The rest of Monday's first round showcased NCAA and international standouts alike, with teams prioritizing both skills, potential, and team fit as they strategized and vied to load their draft boards with top talent.
The exception to the original first-round lineup was Las Vegas, whose No. 10 pick was rescinded after a 2023 investigation found the Aces guilty of violating league policies.
- No. 6: Georgia Amoore (Kentucky) to the Washington Mystics
- No. 7: Aneesah Morrow (LSU) to the Connecticut Sun
- No. 8: Saniyah Rivers (NC State) to the Connecticut Sun
- No. 9: Sarah Ashlee Barker (Alabama) to the LA Sparks
- No. 10: Ajša Sivka (Slovenia) to the Chicago Sky
- No. 11: Hailey Van Lith (TCU) to the Chicago Sky
- No. 12: Aziaha James (NC State) to the Dallas Wings
With the 2025 WNBA season starting in just one month, the new draftees will soon be joining their pro teams in training camp, where final roster decisions will be made as franchises make difficult cuts en route to May 16th's opening tip-off.
"The WNBA is so unique with how powerful the talent is because it is so small," said Van Lith, who's set to link up with her former LSU teammate Angel Reese at the Chicago Sky this year. "It's a competition that I'm ready to embrace, that I'm excited to embrace."