Diana Taurasi and Elena Delle Donne have seen the hype surrounding the New York Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces.

But even as the superteams generate excitement, the former WNBA MVPs are not counting out their own squads.

When asked if the expectations heaped on the Liberty and the Aces had lessened the pressure for the Phoenix Mercury, Taurasi pushed back, noting that pressure comes from within each player and each team.

“I put pressure on this team every day to come in and be its best,” she said. “The one thing that I have learned is you can’t control the narrative.”

The Liberty and the Aces dominate the betting odds for the 2023 WNBA championship, with New York at +130 and defending champion Las Vegas at +110 to win the title, per FanDuel sportsbook.

Still, the 40-year-old guard, who is entering her 19th WNBA season, expects this campaign to be one of the toughest yet.

“I think it’s going to be one of the most competitive seasons we’ve had in a long time,” Taurasi said.

Delle Donne’s Mystics sit a distant third in title odds at +1400 as training camp begins. But the 33-year-old sees a full 40-game season ahead rife with possibilities.

“There’s some people that would think, ‘Just fast-forward to the end of the season and let those two compete for the championship,'” she said. “But that’s something we’re excited to make our mark and do what we’re going to do.

“The best movies, the underdog ends up on top. Remember that.”

Elena Delle Donne is looking forward to being fully healthy this season.

The Washington Mystics star, who has dealt with a back injury for the last three seasons, said Monday that she’s as strong as she’s ever been. And she intends to make her presence felt for her team, both on and off the court.

After leading the Mystics to the 2019 WNBA title, Delle Donne missed the 2020 season due to injury. In 2021, she played just three games.

While she played through all of the 2022 season, the team managed her load. She played 25 of 36 games in the regular-season, skipping many of the road games in the first few months of the season.

“Throughout the past few years with my injury, not always traveling or being on the road, not being in each practice, being in and out, [it] was tough to find that presence and the same voice as being there every single day,” she said Monday. “So I’m excited that I’m there now. I’ll be there on the road. I don’t plan to miss any games. It’s different.”

The biggest thing, she said, is just being able to be present with the team throughout the entirety of the season. And she wants to put her near-decade of experience to use.

The Mystics have a roster which includes several veterans but also a number of younger players, including Shakira Austin and Evina Westbrook, who are both entering their second year in the league.

“I’ve been in this league for a while now. I’ve seen a lot of different coverages, different teams,” she said. “I’ve played with some of the greatest players to play this game. So, there’s a lot that I’ve learned and a lot that I feel like I can pass on to the rest of our team.

“And this is such a competitive league that you’ve got to find your way and find who you are as a team and I feel like I can help and my voice will do that.”

Few people have accomplished more in a pair of basketball shoes than Elena Delle Donne. The two-time WNBA MVP will be remembered one day as one of the greatest to ever lace them up.

And after her latest venture, she’ll also be remembered for the shoes she designed.

This fall, Delle Donne released the Nike Air Deldon. On Friday, her latest colorway, “Together We Fly,” launched as part of the release. It’s the third of six colorways, each with a special significance to Delle Donne’s life and career.

“I hope people really look into the meaning behind each colorway,” says Monique Currie, the product line manager for the Nike design team behind the Air Deldon and Delle Donne’s former WNBA teammate. “They’re all unique, and they’re really powerful stories.”

The first colorway, the “Lyme,” dropped on Oct. 6, and the “Be True” followed five days later. Each represents Delle Donne in its own way, which Currie says was one of her favorite aspects of the process.

“That was probably one of the most exciting parts, was really trying to work with Elena and come up with stories that can speak through her shoe,” Currie says.

The “Lyme,” which appropriately features lime green accents throughout, is a nod to Delle Donne’s years-long battle with Lyme disease.

“Elena has been really open with bringing awareness to how [Lyme disease] affects her and her game and so many people around the world,” Currie says. “It’s telling an important story of how people are managing their physical health as well as performing at the top or the highest level possible. So that was really fun to come up with that story and [for] that to be the first colorway to come out, because that’s just such a huge part of who Elena is.”

Delle Donne’s coming out story was the inspiration behind the “Be True,” which celebrates the LGBTQIA+ community with a gradient pattern of colors and rainbow speckles on the laces.

“When I was younger I felt like something was wrong with me because I was different,” Delle Donne says. “So I feel like this shoe can inspire every single person, whatever your story is.”

While the first two colorways tell parts of Delle Donne’s own story, the next is dedicated to one of her closest loved ones. Delle Donne has a special relationship with her older sister, Lizzie, who has cerebral palsy and autism and is deaf and blind. After committing to UConn out of high school, Delle Donne transferred to the University of Delaware before her freshman season so she could be closer to Lizzie.

“The ‘Together We Fly’ colorway is very much the story of my sister with special needs who has never had a shoe for her,” Delle Donne says. “She’s had several disabilities, [she’s] had a lot of doctors say she would never walk, she would never do this. But because she has had the support of my family and a team around her, she’s been able to fly.”

The colorway pays homage to Lizzie with purple accents on the tongue and the heel.

“The color purple has always just been a color that looks really cute on my sister,” Delle Donne says. “We all have our colors – I think Lizzie looks great in everything, but purple and pink are her colors.”

For Lizzie, the process of putting on a standard basketball shoe has never come easily. The Air Deldon also comes with Nike’s FlyEase technology, which utilizes a collapsible heel and fold-down tongue for easy, hands-free entry.

“We wanted to make sure that they were accessible to all athletes, regardless of your mobility or physical stature or anything like that,” Currie says.

Delle Donne, Currie, and the Nike design team began working on the shoe in 2019, Currie’s first year with the company. They spent the next two years making sure every detail of the shoe was true to Delle Donne, from the colorways and stories to the performance and physical features.

“We really put a lot of thought into the way Elena plays, the areas that she likes to get to, what’s important in her movements,” Currie says. “We tried to include technology that really supports making those movements in those places as easy as possible for her.”

“I wanted it to be where once it’s on, I really don’t feel it or think of it,” Delle Donne adds. “It’s just kind of part of me.”

There’s also the style component, which Delle Donne says was as important to her as the performance.

“I needed it to work with me so I can do my job and play basketball, but I also wanted it to be a shoe that you don’t just wear on court— you wanna wear it and make a fashion statement with it,” Delle Donne says. “I wanted it to be one of those shoes that, you’re walking a red carpet, you wanna wear the Deldons.”

Both style and performance, Delle Donne says, are key factors in selling the shoe, and those sales will be critical to creating more opportunities for more women down the road.

“I know the importance of this moment, and for what it needs to do and how it needs to sell in order for this to be a catalyst for other women to get their own shoes,” Delle Donne says.

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Delle Donne is a WNBA champion, two-timeMVP and six-time All-Star. (Barry Gossage/NBAE via Getty Images)

Delle Donne counts that as one of the many reasons why having Currie, her former Washington Mystics teammate, on board for the design process meant so much to her. Both of them remember shopping for basketball shoes as a kid and often not feeling represented in the options that were available to them.

“I do remember that there weren’t many female shoes that I could go get, and the time that there was a Sheryl Swoopes shoe on the shelf, I was elated,” Delle Donne says. “I didn’t even care how that thing fit. It was like, ‘If Sheryl has it and it’s her shoe, I’m getting it.’”

Currie believes Delle Donne can be to young hoopers what Swoopes was to a young Delle Donne.

“So many young girls love Elena, and this is like getting a little piece of her,” Currie says. “Girls need people that look like them to look up to, to have as role models, to see themselves in them, and to know, ‘Hey one day, I can have a shoe named after me.’”

Ultimately, Delle Donne hopes her shoe will be the most inclusive one on the market. No matter your abilities, gender, sexuality, or anything else that’s part of your story, Delle Donne says, this shoe is for you.

“If that shoe’s dope and I want it, it shouldn’t have a label,” Delle Donne says. “This shoe is for everyone.”

Calvin Wetzel is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering basketball and betting. He also contributes to Her Hoop Stats, CBS SportsLine and FiveThirtyEight. Follow him on Twitter at @cwetzel31.

Elena Delle Donne continued her statement-making July in the Washington Mystics’ 78-69 win Thursday afternoon over the New York Liberty.

Delle Donne had 25 points, three rebounds and three assists in the victory, the Mystics’ fourth in five games.

The 2019 WNBA MVP missed Washington’s first game of July due to scheduled rest. With her performance Thursday, though, she has averaged 24.4 points per game through the other five games so far this month, highlighted by back-to-back 26-point performances to start the streak.

The numbers just highlight the return to form for Delle Donne, who is averaging 17.4 points and 6.2 rebounds per game through 19 games.

She played just three games across the 2020 and 2021 seasons as she recovered from a back injury, but she has shined this season.

While Delle Donne still has some scheduled rest days to keep her in top shape, the Mystics are better with her on the floor. The team is 17-11 overall this season — 14-5 with her and 3-6 without her.

In Thursday’s win, Delle Donne was joined in double-digits by Ariel Atkins with 16 points and Myisha Hines-Allen with 13 points.

The Chicago Sky and Las Vegas Aces remain in a tier of their own at the top of the WNBA standings with one month left in the regular season. The Seattle Storm continue to knock on the door, currently just two games back of the first-place Sky and playing their best basketball of the season.

The Aces made a splash this week, signing Kelsey Plum to a contract extension that will keep her with the team through 2024. In the middle of a dominant season, the All-Star Game MVP was on track to be one of the most sought-after free agents on the market this offseason. With Plum re-signed, the Aces will return their entire core for the 2023 season, showing their commitment to the current team under head coach Becky Hammon.

The Minnesota Lynx made a strong push the last two weeks, but have since dropped two of their last four games to remain in 11th place at 10-17. Following a tough travel swing, the Lynx have five days to rest and regroup before they host the Connecticut Sun in a back-to-back series this weekend. Minnesota’s playoff hopes are still very much alive as four teams are currently log-jammed in the standings, fighting for the eighth and final spot with nine games left to play.

D.C. gets stingy

In their first 21 games of the season the Mystics allowed their opponents 76.1 points per game on 43 percent shooting from the field. In their last six, Washington has flipped the script, allowing a league-best 72 points per game on 41 percent shooting.

Despite inconsistencies with the rotation and the occasional rest days for Elena Delle Donne, the Mystics have put themselves in a perfect position to make a playoff run. Currently fifth in the standings at 16-11, Washington sits just four games back of the top seed.

This Mystics team has parallels to last year’s Chicago Sky, who started the season on a losing streak and peaked at the right time to win their first WNBA championship. If the Mystics can continue to rely on their defensive tenacity, stay healthy and keep Delle Donne on the floor, they have enough offensive firepower to make anything happen at the end of August.

Connecticut gets reinforcements

On Monday, the Sun added Bria Hartley to their roster for the remainder of the season.

The ninth-year guard was traded from the Phoenix Mercury to the Indiana Fever in a three-team deal with the Chicago Sky in February that also included Diamond DeShields and Julie Allemand. Hartley averaged 8.7 minutes and 2.5 points in just 10 games for the Fever before she was waived last Friday.

Her divorce agreement with Indiana for $175,911 made her an affordable pickup for the Sun, who were dealt a tough blow at the beginning of the season when they lost starting guard Jasmine Thomas to an ACL injury. Without Thomas, Connecticut’s backcourt has lacked depth and experience on both ends of the floor, and the Sun have struggled with turnovers and defense at the guard position.

In 2020, Hartley had one of the best seasons of her career while playing at full strength for the Mercury, averaging 14.6 points, 4.5 assists and shooting 39 percent from the 3-point line in 25 minutes per game. If the former UConn standout can rediscover even just a portion of that form this season, the Sun’s bench will be even more dangerous down the stretch.

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The 2020 WNBA champion Storm are in the midst of a late-season push. (Steph Chambers/Getty Images)

Storm hit their stride

After going 11-7 to start the season, Seattle is 6-1 since June 29 and is riding a four-game win streak into Wednesday’s game against the Sky.

The most glaring difference between the Storm’s first 18 games and last seven is their offensive production. While they aren’t shooting any better from the 3-point line, their overall field-goal percentage has increased along with their pace of play. The Storm have done a much better job of not settling for jumpers, and instead being aggressive and getting to the free-throw line more consistently.

Defensively, Seattle is also giving up fewer points to opponents, averaging 72 points conceded in the last seven games. Take a look at some of the Storm’s key statistics during the two stretches.

First 18 games vs. last seven

PPG: 78.7 — 86.0
FG%: 42.0 –46.6
TO per game: 13.3 — 14.6
RPG: 32.0 — 36.0
SPG: 8.5 — 9.6
FT attempts: 14.1 — 18.9
Defensive rating: 96.0 — 87.7
Pace: 95.47 — 99.09
Opp. PPG: 76.9 — 72.3

This is a big week for the Storm as they look to extend their winning streak on the road against Chicago on Wednesday and Phoenix on Friday. They return home Sunday to play the Atlanta Dream.

Week 11 Power Rankings

  1. Chicago Sky (19-6) —
  2. Las Vegas Aces (18-7) —
  3. Seattle Storm (17-8) +1
  4. Washington Mystics (16-11) +1
  5. Connecticut Sun (16-9) -2
  6. Atlanta Dream (11-14) —
  7. Dallas Wings (11-14) +4
  8. Phoenix Mercury (11-16) +2
  9. Minnesota Lynx (10-17) -1
  10. Los Angeles Sparks (10-14) -3
  11. New York Liberty (9-15) -2
  12. Indiana Fever (5-22) —

Rachel Galligan is a basketball analyst at Just Women’s Sports. A former professional basketball player and collegiate coach, she also contributes to Winsidr. Follow Rachel on Twitter @RachGall.

Washington Mystics star Elena Delle Donne revealed her first signature sneaker Thursday to the Washington Post’s Kareem Copeland.

The DELDON 1 is expected to be available for purchase in October, Copeland reported. The Nike sneaker features the star’s EDD logo and will have multiple colorways.

Delle Donne has worn the sneaker throughout the season, including a Pride colorway last Thursday in Seattle.

Speculation about the shoe has ramped up as the two-time WNBA MVP continued to rock it on the court, but Thursday brought the first confirmation of the shoe as a signature model. Delle Donne previously served as the face of the Nike Air Zoom UNVRS, but the DELDON 1 will be her first signature sneaker.

Breanna Stewart is currently the only other WNBA player with a signature sneaker. The Stewie 1 for Puma is slated for release this summer. The Stewie 1 will make Stewart just the 10th WNBA player with a signature shoe, and the first in a decade.

Before this year, the most recent signature shoe for a WNBA player was Candace Parker’s Adidas TS Ace Commander in 2010. Other WNBA players to have signature shoes include Diana Taurasi, Rebecca Lobo, Dawn Staley and Sheryl Swoopes.

“Women in the sneaker industry deserve a lot more than they’ve gotten in the past, and I hope that as we’re seeing change in a lot of different directions, the sneaker industry is going to be one,” Stewart said.

An action-packed week in the WNBA kicks off Tuesday. Just Women’s Sports has three matchups to watch, starting with Tuesday’s rematch between the Mercury and the Mystics.

Phoenix Mercury vs. Washington Mystics

Tuesday, June 14 @ 7 p.m. ET on ESPN

While the Mystics are 9-6 overall, their record doesn’t necessarily tell the tale of their talent. When these two teams faced off Sunday, the Mercury got the best of the Mystics in overtime, but Washington was without Elena Delle Donne.

Still, following the loss, Mystics coach Mike Thibault didn’t mince words about the team’s performance.

“Wasted opportunity — that’s all I’ve got,” he said. “This is the most frustrating one of the year. Chance to beat a good offensive team, playing good defense for the most part, and let them off the hook.”

With 12 lead changes and 13 ties over 60 minutes in Sunday’s game, Tuesday’s rematch has the potential to be just as enticing – particularly with the addition of Delle Donne. In her appearances time this season, the Mystics have gone 6-3. She’s been averaging 15.8 points, 6.1 rebounds and 1.1 blocks in 26.3 minutes per game.

Las Vegas Aces vs. Dallas Wings

Wednesday, June 15 @ 1 p.m. ET

The Dallas Wings prove an interesting study, despite having lost their last three. After beating the Storm by 17 points on June 3, they lost to Las Vegas by six points. Then they dropped two straight to Seattle by a total of six points. 

Arike Ogunbowale was ejected from Sunday’s game against Seattle after kicking a ball into the stands. Former No. 1 overall pick Charli Collier can’t stick in the lineup. Regardless, the team has the talent to threaten top-tier teams like the Aces, who lead the league.

A’ja Wilson has been a dominant force for an Aces team that has plenty of firepower. But guard Jackie Young remains out with an ankle sprain after being a major contributor to the team’s offense through 11 games, averaging 19.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 3.9 assists.

Seattle Storm vs. Connecticut Sun

Friday, June 17 @ 7 p.m. ET on CBS Sports Network

The Storm and the Sun are near the tops of their respective conferences, and Seattle has hot lately, winning its last three. Storm star Breanna Stewart leads the league in points, averaging 21.7 per game.

Meanwhile, Connecticut boasts two of the league’s best rebounders in Jonquel Jones (8.7 per game) and Alyssa Thomas (8.4 per game). Thomas also ranks in the top five in the league in assists with 5.8 per game.

These two teams matched up on June 5, with Connecticut coming out on top following a 32-point fourth quarter. But the two teams kept it close to the end, and Friday could offer another riveting contest.

Full Schedule:

  • Tuesday
    • Phoenix Mercury vs. Washington Mystics @ 7 p.m. ET
    • Seattle Storm vs. Minnesota Lynx @ 9 p.m. ET
  • Wednesday
    • Las Vegas Aces vs. Dallas Wings @ 1 p.m. ET
    • Phoenix Mercury vs. Indiana Fever @ 7 p.m. ET 
    • Atlanta Dream vs. Connecticut Sun @ 7 p.m. ET
  • Thursday
    • Washington Mystics vs. New York Liberty @ 7 p.m. ET
  • Friday
    • Seattle Storm vs. Connecticut Sun @ 7 p.m. ET
    • Atlanta Dream vs. Chicago Sky @ 7 p.m. ET
    • Phoenix Mercury vs. Dallas Wings @ 8 p.m. ET
  • Sunday
    • Seattle Storm vs. New York Liberty @ 12 p.m. ET
    • Connecticut Sun vs. Washington Mystics @ 2 p.m. ET
    • Chicago Sky vs. Indiana Fever @ 3 p.m. ET
    • Los Angeles Sparks vs. Dallas Wings @ 4 p.m. ET
    • Minnesota Lynx vs. Las Vegas Aces @ 6 p.m. ET

Elena Delle Donne is back, and she might be better than ever.

After missing the majority of the past two seasons due to herniated discs in her back, which led to two separate surgeries, the forward is fully healthy.

In a recent interview with WSLAM, Delle Donne opened up about her journey since winning her first – and the Mystics’ first – WNBA title in 2019. Though winning a title was her “number one thing,” she recognizes that it came with a cost. She played through a broken nose, a badly bruised knee and the three herniated discs to win it all.

“It was worth every sacrifice,” Delle Donne told WSLAM about the 2019 season, in which she also became the first woman to shoot 50 percent from the floor, 40 percent from behind the arc and 90 percent from the free-throw line in a single season.

But she knew that the damage her body sustained throughout the season and the playoffs was something that she needed to address.

“It was a week or two after [the championship], of just celebration, elation and like, ‘This was all so worth it.’ It was so much fun,” she said. “It was everything and more than I ever could have imagined, and then there was that moment where it was time to end the celebration, get into rehab and see what I had done to my body.”

Initially, Delle Donne was expected to be out for three months. But the herniated discs caused severe nerve damage. Recovery was further impacted by her Lyme disease, which affected the inflammation of her injuries.

“I’ve had other injuries and pretty much the timeline was right, but this was something where I was like, ‘Am I ever going to feel better?’ There were some days I wasn’t even thinking about basketball,” she added. “It was like, I am 31 years old, and I can’t [even] go have dinner and sit down with my wife to have a meal because of the pain I’m in.”

But, after playing three games total in the last two seasons, Delle Donne is back to full health and making an impact on the court. She’s helped power the Mystics to a 3-0 start to the season.

In the Mystics’ season opener against the Indiana Fever, Delle Donne put up 21 points, nine rebounds and three assists.

She didn’t play the next game against the Minnesota Lynx, opting not to travel with the team. Both she and head coach Mike Thibault are easing her back into a heavier workload. As a result, she’ll miss the first few road games of the season.

But the missed game didn’t slow down the forward, as she again led the team in scoring with 19 points, seven rebounds and two assists for the third game against the Las Vegas Aces.

“She’s starting to look like herself, which is kind of crazy because with a back injury, it’s connected to everything,” Mystics guard Shatori Walker-Kimbrough told WSLAM. “I know some people may be expecting her to be a step slower, but to me she looks great.”

Perhaps even more frightening – at least for opponents – is that some think she might be better than before.

“I noticed that she’s a lot stronger,” her Mystics teammate Tianna Hawkins said. “She’s a lot more aggressive offensively.”

Elena Delle Donne didn’t skip a beat in her first WNBA game since last Aug. 26, helping the Washington Mystics to an 84-70 victory over the Indiana Fever.

Delle Donne contributed a game-high 21 points, adding nine rebounds and three assists. After missing the majority of the past two seasons with back issues, it was the first season opener she has played since 2018.

“My shot looked like it had nerves,” Delle Donne said. “I was struggling a little bit to get in the flow and to trust in my legs. So I guess I might call that a little bit of nerves, or it’s been a while. But I was able to play my way into it.”

The former MVP shot 50 percent through 30 minutes, going 8-of-16. She isn’t going to play Sunday at Minnesota in an effort to ease her back into playing.

“The game kind of just comes to you,” she continued. “This is a fun, exploratory season for me being back out there.

“Obviously, I want to be in every single game, but I also know the importance of having the proper rest and return-to-play protocol. We learned from last season: I don’t need to go game-game-game. I need to space it out a little and see how I continue to respond.”

Natasha Cloud had 17 points while Ariel Atkins added 15 in the win.

Kelsey Mitchell led the Fever with 18 points, three rebounds and three assists. In her first regular season WNBA game, rookie NaLyssa Smith had 13 points and 13 rebounds for a double-double while fellow rookie Queen Egbo had 10 points and six rebounds through 20 minutes.

The Fever will look to get their first win on Sunday against the Los Angeles Sparks.

Elena Delle Donne struggled with injuries for the past two WNBA seasons, but the 2019 MVP said Monday that she’s ready to compete for a championship now that she’s finally fully healthy again.

She said she feels “so much better” in comparison to last season as she sat down with the media following the start of Washington Mystics training camp.

Delle Donne returned to the court in 2021 but played in just three games before dealing with nerve pain that stemmed from her two back surgeries since 2019. In those three games, she averaged 13.7 points and 4.3 rebounds through 17 minutes played.

“It’s a newfound me,” she said. “A newfound joy of the game, knowing that this game was nearly taken from me.

“I want to win. That’s really the only thing I care about at this point…This is going to be a great year, and a great team too.”

She also credits Mike Davis, the Mystics’ and Wizards’ director of physical and performance therapy, for helping her learn how to put less strain on her back. Instead of putting pressure on her back in everything, she says she now has learned how to use the explosiveness of her legs.

Still, both Delle Donne and Mystics coach Mike Thibault said that they could keep her out of games as a precaution when there’s a big stretch of travel or a large number of games in one week.

The Mystics open their preseason on Sunday, April 24, against the Atlanta Dream, before their regular season opener against the Indiana Fever on Friday, May 6.