Target is getting a WNBA makeover, with the retail giant announcing a new merch line of exclusive WNBA-licensed apparel in collaboration with fashion brand The Wild Collective this week.
With pieces "made for those who play by their own rules — on and off the court," the drop features both overall league-branded merch as well as designs highlighting six WNBA teams: the Minnesota Lynx, the Chicago Sky, the New York Liberty, the Indiana Fever, the Golden State Valkyries, and the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces.
The collection includes "statement jackets, reworked jerseys, and everyday streetwear-inspired pieces, all carrying The Wild Collective's signature mix of premium materials, tailored fits, and fashion-forward details," and all in women's or unisex cuts, according to this week's release.
Target is far from the latest retailer buying into the women's basketball game, as growing demand for the WNBA has numerous companies outside of the traditional sportswear realm linking up with the league and its stars.
In just the last two months, for instance, Danish toymaker LEGO snagged four-time WNBA MVP A'ja Wilson for the company's YouTube Shorts series, while Chicago Sky star Angel Reese teamed up with fashion brands Juicy Couture and Victoria's Secret.
How to purchase from the WNBA x Target collection
All pieces in The Wild Collective's WNBA merch line at Target are now available for purchase both online and in select stores.
The Toronto Tempo has officially landed a sideline leader, with the 2026 WNBA expansion team announcing ex-New York Liberty boss Sandy Brondello as their inaugural head coach on Tuesday — and making her one of the league's highest-paid coaches in the process.
"This is the place I wanted to be," Brondello said during her introductory press conference. "To build a team from the ground up — that really excited me."
Brondello joins the Toronto Tempo as a two-time championship-winning coach, claiming her first title with the Phoenix Mercury in 2014 before taking the New York Liberty to the top in 2024.
The first-ever Canadian WNBA team is also doubling down on their choice, with multiple reports valuing Brondello's multi-year contract at over $1 million annually.
The 57-year-old Australian — a three-time Olympic medalist as a player — will join the Mercury's Nate Tibbetts and Las Vegas Aces boss Becky Hammon as the only known WNBA coaches earning seven-figure salaries.
That said, Brondello could have banked even more, with Front Office Sports reporting that a different WNBA team offered her a more lucrative offer, but Brondello deemed Toronto a better fit.
"From my first conversations with the Tempo organization, it was clear we share the same vision: to build a world-class franchise that competes at the highest level, to create a strong and dynamic culture, and to root everything we do in clear and consistent values," Brondello said in team statement.
"This is a place that's serious about doing things the right way — about excellence, about people, about community — and that's exactly the kind of environment every coach wants to be part of."
As the offseason coaching carousel nears its final turn, teams are stretching resources as they prep for big spending — and a contentious new CBA — in 2026.
With the October 31st WNBA CBA deadline just days away, more than 70 elected officials are weighing in, sending a letter voicing support for the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) to league commissioner Cathy Engelbert and NBA commissioner Adam Silver last Friday.
"This new CBA deal is an opportunity to set the record straight that women are valuable workers who deserve to be paid accordingly and treated fairly," the letter states.
The lawmakers also urge the league to "bargain in good faith to reach a fair CBA" before the current agreement expires.
Mayors, council members, and assembly members from seven WNBA markets signed the document — including New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani — as WNBA leadership continues facing increased scrutiny.
"We all want to be able to take in a full season, but we know...what [the players] deserve to earn," said New York City council member Tiffany Cabán, a longtime NY Liberty fan who spearheaded the effort.
The action represents a growing number of politicians applying public pressure to commissioner Engelbert, with the letter's 70 lawmakers joining the 85 members of the Democratic Women's Caucus and House Democratic Caucus, who penned their own letter last month.
As external pressure builds, hope is dimming for an agreement by Friday, with WNBPA senior advisor and legal counsel Erin D. Drake telling The Athletic on Tuesday that "it takes two to tango, and it has been difficult to find a beat, to find a rhythm, and to find the same sense of urgency [from the WNBA]."
As all eyes turn to the WNBA this week, the question remains whether a new CBA or deadline extension will be on Friday's docket.
"We're still going to be negotiating until [it's] done," promised Drake. "We just don't know how long that is going to take, unfortunately."
Another WNBA team has reportedly landed a leader, with the Seattle Storm rumored to have tapped former New York Liberty and Memphis Grizzlies assistant coach Sonia Raman as the team's newest head coach.
Building out her early head coaching career in the NCAA's Division III leading the MIT Engineers, Raman spent four seasons as an NBA assistant in Memphis before joining Sandy Brondello's Liberty staff for the 2025 WNBA season.
According to a Friday report, the Seattle Storm have offered Raman a multi-year deal, and the hiring will make her the first-ever WNBA head coach of Indian descent.
With the Dallas Wings as well as both 2026 expansion teams the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo also recently locking in their new locker room leaders, Seattle's sideline news means that only 2024 champions New York remain without a manager well into the WNBA offseason.
Reports indicate that Raman initially caught the Liberty's eye, after Brondello parted ways with the team following New York's first-round exit from the 2025 WNBA Playoffs.
Raman will replace Seattle's 2021-2025 head coach Noelle Quinn, taking over a Storm roster centered around 2025 WNBA Draft overall No. 2 pick and All-Rookie team honoree Dominique Malonga plus an anticipated 2026 lottery pick.
The Toronto Tempo have apparently landed a head coach, with The IX Sports reporting Wednesday that the WNBA expansion side tapped ex-New York boss Sandy Brondello as their sideline leader for the team's 2026 season debut.
The Liberty parted ways with Brondello following New York's first-round exit in the playoffs last month — less than a year after the 20-year WNBA coaching veteran led the team to their first-ever championship.
Toronto expects to make the deal with Brondello official in the next few days, as soon as the parties finalize the terms of the contract.
After her dismissal from the Liberty, Brondello reportedly fielded significant interest from several WNBA teams, opting to join the upstart squad as the Tempo continues to build out their front office.
Toronto brought on WNBA champion Monica Wright Rogers as GM in February 2025, later appointing longtime LA Sparks assistant GM Eli Horowitz as the new franchise's assistant GM and senior VP of basketball strategy.
With the Tempo now following fellow 2026 expansion side Portland in securing sideline leaders this month, the WNBA now has three vacancies remaining in its coaching carousel, with the Seattle Storm, Dallas Wings, and New York still searching for their next leaders.
Both the Toronto Tempo and the Portland Fire will now hope for clarity from the league's ongoing CBA negotiations in order to prep for an expected expansion draft and free agency period in early 2026.
The No. 1 Minnesota Lynx land in Phoenix on Friday night, looking to secure a crucial Game 3 win against the No. 4 Mercury after seeing their best-of-five 2025 WNBA semifinals tie at one game apiece back home.
"Our response to [Phoenix] was a little bit uncharacteristic," Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve said after the Lynx blew a 20-point lead to cede Tuesday's Game 2. "We needed to go get buckets, and we had good opportunities. We weren't strong enough, we weren't tough enough."
"Nobody said this stuff was gonna be easy," she added.
Coming off just their third home loss all year, Minnesota's backs are now against the wall, forced to either take two games from the Mercury on the road or shoot for a decisive Game 5 back in Minneapolis.
The Lynx went 14-8 when traveling this year, nearly mirroring Phoenix's 15-7 home record — not to mention the Mercury's two postseason home wins that sent the defending champion New York Liberty packing in the first round.
Other than the strength and toughness noted by Reeve, a key to Minnesota's success on Friday will be avoiding the turnovers that led to their Tuesday downfall.
"It's frustrating, but it's a series," said Lynx forward Napheesa Collier. "So we need to go to Phoenix and take care of business."
How to watch Minnesota vs. Phoenix in the 2025 WNBA semifinals
The No. 4 Mercury will host the No. 1 Lynx for both of their weekend clashes in the 2025 WNBA semifinals, starting with Friday's Game 3 at 9:30 PM ET, airing live on ESPN2.
Game 4 will follow at 8 PM ET on Sunday, with live coverage of the clash airing on ESPN.
The New York Liberty cleaned house this week, officially parting ways with 2024 WNBA championship-winning head coach Sandy Brondello while starting the search for a new sideline boss — with some reported "big swings" in mind.
Multiple league sources told The Athletic that New York is aiming for high-profile candidates, with the Liberty likely scouting coaching talent from both the NBA and the NCAA.
With top New York Liberty stars Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones entering free agency, the pressure is on for the front office to prove that hiring a new head coach will offset the issues that emerged during the team's injury-plagued 2025 run.
WNBA teams have tapped into a diversified head coaching pool in recent years, with Golden State Valkyries boss and 2025 Coach of the Year Natalie Nakase highlighting a rising generation of managers with a mix of men's and women's basketball experience.
The Atlanta Dream's Karl Smesko, an esteemed former college coach, and Phoenix's Nate Tibbetts — who spent years as an NBA assistant coach before joining the Mercury in 2024 — also found success on the WNBA court this year.
Potential replacements fitting New York's reported bill include Los Angeles Lakers assistant Lindsey Harding, Indiana Pacers assistant Jenny Boucek, Mercury assistant Kristi Toliver, and current Liberty assistant Sonia Raman.
"[Toliver's] ready," Tibbetts said recently, singing his assistant's praises. "She's got a great basketball mind. She's got the ultimate respect of the players in this league, which is so important, and her time will come — she just needs one team to give her a chance."
Despite finishing at the bottom of the 2025 WNBA standings, the No. 12 Chicago Sky and No. 13 Dallas Wings will not be moving on from their current head coaches according to a report from Front Office Sports this week.
Dallas sideline leader Chris Koclanes and Chicago manager Tyler Marsh led their sides to identical 10-34 records in their first year at the helm — the worst in the league this season.
In contrast, 2025 playoff participants Seattle and New York are already making aggressive coaching changes, dismissing Storm boss Noelle Quinn and Liberty leader Sandy Brondello following first-round postseason exits.
While some fans criticized the presumed decision, Chicago Sky and Dallas Wings stars spoke out in support of their head coaches.
"Obviously the season didn't go how we expected, but being able to have a coach like Tyler, it was amazing through the ups and downs," Chicago center Kamilla Cardoso told reporters. "He always showed up every day with the same energy, no matter what the record was."
"The team embodies the attitude of your leader," echoed Dallas guard Paige Bueckers. "And for [Koclanes] to show up every single day at work and pour into all of us…it means a lot to us as a team."
The Liberty have officially parted ways with head coach Sandy Brondello, with the franchise announcing that it will not renew her contract for the 2026 season on Tuesday — less than one year after the manager led New York to a first-ever WNBA title.
The move follows the No. 5-seed Liberty's first-round exit from the 2025 WNBA Playoffs, with the reigning champs falling to the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury in a winner-take-all Game 3 last Friday.
"Sandy finishes her tenure in New York as the winningest coach in franchise history, and she took us to never-before-seen heights as the first head coach to lead the Liberty to a championship," New York GM Jonathan Kolb said in a franchise statement on Tuesday. "We wish Sandy the very best in her next chapter."
The firing of Brondello sent shockwaves across the WNBA, with many questioning the unprecedented move — particularly considering that New York Liberty dealt with numerous high-profile injuries throughout the 2025 season.
"I didn't love it for Sandy, I'm gonna have to be honest," Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon told reporters following the news about Brondello. "She just won a championship, she has wins in other places, and I know her to be a quality coach and a quality person."
"I am absolutely thrilled if I am Seattle, Toronto, and Portland that I was just gifted a championship-level coach," echoed Minnesota Lynx manager Cheryl Reeve. "I think a lot of Sandy, personally and professionally."
With Brondello's dismissal, the WNBA has only three head coaches with more than one season under their belt: Hammon, Reeve, and the second-year Mercury boss Nate Tibbetts.
The first round of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs ends on Friday night, when the No. 4 Phoenix Mercury and No. 5 New York Liberty return to Arizona for a winner-take-all Game 3 — with a trip to the semifinals on the line.
"The message is, 'Everybody keep our heads up. This is a series, and Phoenix is a tough team,'" Liberty star Breanna Stewart said ahead of Friday's matchup.
Still battling an MCL sprain in her left knee, Stewart hopes for more quality time on the court to help New York bounce back from the Mercury's Game 2 blowout win.
While neither team has successfully defended at home so far, Phoenix will look for a boost from the Mercury fans as they try to oust the defending WNBA champs.
"It's just nice for everyone to get a home game," said Mercury forward Alyssa Thomas. "[But] in order to win a series, you got to win on the road."
"You see how competitive, how balanced this is," said Stewart, commenting on the league's new home-away-home first-round format. "How important it is for these kind of series to be going back and forth."
How to watch the New York Liberty vs. Phoenix Mercury in Game 3
It's win-or-go-home for both the No. 5 New York Liberty and No. 4 Phoenix Mercury in Game 3 of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs on Friday.
The high-stakes matchup will tip off at 9 PM ET, with live coverage on ESPN2.