The Phoenix Mercury have had a disappointing start to the 2023 season, but that puts them in the lead in the race for the No. 1 pick for the 2024 WNBA Draft.

The four teams with the worst record at the end of the season all will have a shot for the top overall pick via the WNBA draft lottery. And as the WNBA season continues, teams get a better idea of if they have got a shot at one of the NCAA’s best.

The draft should be stacked with talent, with possible selections including Iowa senior Caitlin Clark, UConn redshirt junior Paige Bueckers and LSU fourth-year junior Angel Reese.

While each of these star players has at least one more year of eligibility remaining, they are far from the only talent on offer. Tennessee’s Rickea Jackson, Virginia Tech’s Elizabeth Kitley and Ohio State’s Jacy Sheldon all are in their final year of eligibility and could have been first-round picks in 2023.

The Mercury (2-9) sit alone at the bottom of the league just over a quarter of the way into the season. Next comes the Seattle Storm (3-9), then the Minnesota Lynx (4-9). Chicago (5-8) rounds out the lottery spots, with the Sky on a five-game losing streak after beginning the season 5-3.

But the Sky’s offseason moves could come back to bite them, as they don’t even have a draft pick in the first round in 2024. Instead, their pick will go to the Dallas Wings, who also reserve the right to swap first-round picks with Chicago in 2025.

Seattle Storm great Sue Bird had her jersey retired Sunday in a nearly three-hour long ceremony after the Storm’s 71-65 loss to the Washington Mystics.

Bird, the No. 1 pick in the 2002 WNBA Draft, played 19 seasons in the league — all with the Storm. The 13-time WNBA All-Star — a league record — led the Storm to four titles and retired as the all-time league leader in assists (3,234).

And now, her No. 10 will forever hang in the rafters of Climate Pledge Arena. Bird became one of two WNBA legends to have her jersey retired Sunday, along with Minnesota Lynx great Sylvia Fowles.

“I’ve got to give my sister the ‘line of the night’ award,” Bird quipped to the media afterward. “I walked in the back with my family. I was like, ‘Was that too long?’ My sister was like, ‘You played here for 21 years. They can listen to you for an hour.'”

Bird’s speech lasted nearly an hour and a half, with a lot of ground for her to cover.

“I didn’t anticipate it being that long, but the truth is, I don’t know that I could have taken anything out,” Bird said. “That’s what this has meant to me. It was just so important for me to say names and point people out and tell them what they’ve meant. I’m already thinking of things I wish I would have said.”

A number of others also spoke about Bird’s impact on Seattle, including longtime Storm teammate Lauren Jackson, who flew in from Australia and called her “the true GOAT.” The teammates’ jerseys will hang right next to each other after the Storm retired Jackson’s No. 15 jersey in 2016.

“Sue’s legacy to Seattle, to (USA Basketball), to the WNBA and to our beautiful game is one that I don’t think will ever be matched by anyone,” Jackson said. In addition to her career in Seattle, Bird also won five Olympic gold medals (2004, 2008, 2012, 2016, 2021), one of just two USA Basketball players to do so.

“The one thing I really wish I would have said — it just kind of escaped me — was how amazing it’s going to be in the rafters, yes, but it’s going to be even more amazing to be next to her,” Bird said.

Bird’s longtime partner Megan Rapinoe co-hosted the event with Seattle rapper Macklemore. The USWNT star congratulated Bird on “arguably the best career that anyone has ever had in the history of any sport ever.”

And while Bird returned for one final season in 2022, there aren’t any plans to pull a Tom Brady and make a surprise return.

“I will forever miss it, and that’s OK,” she said. “I think some people try to avoid missing it when they’re in my seat up here, and the reality is I’m always going to miss it. There’s going to be be days — tomorrow, a year from now, five years from now — where I’ll probably even cry because I miss it and get emotional because I miss it. That’s just a part of it.”

In her first game back at Climate Pledge Arena since leaving the Seattle Storm for the New York Liberty, Breanna Stewart dealt with a deluge of emotions.

“It was an emotional rollercoaster of a day for me,” Stewart said after the game, earning her a supportive pat on the back from Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello.

Competing with a black eye she picked up over the weekend, Stewart struggled in the first half of Tuesday night’s game, scoring eight points.

“In the first half, I was just floating. I don’t think I was really doing anything,” she said.

The two-time WNBA Finals MVP gave herself a halftime pep talk to help turn things around: “I was like, ‘C’mon, let’s get my s— together.”

Stewart went on to record 25 points and 11 rebounds in New York’s 86-78 win, handing her old team its third straight loss to start the season.

In doing so, Stewart became just the second WNBA player to record at least 25 points and 10 rebounds in a first game against a former team, according to ESPN Stats & Info. The other WNBA player to achieve the feat was Chamique Holdsclaw, who scored 27 points and 10 rebounds for the Los Angeles Sparks against the Washington Mystics in 2005.

Sabrina Ionescu added 20 points in the win, while Courtney Vandersloot contributed 11 assists.

For the Storm, Jewell Loyd recorded 26 points, while Ezi Magbegor added 12 and recorded a career-high 14 rebounds.

“So weird to play against Jewell. We really haven’t done it since college,” Stewart said of her former WNBA teammate. “We still had the competitors in us, but also very light-hearted. Like, at one point, I slapped her in the face, and it was like, you know, we were in practice. I wish her and Ezi and (Mercedes Russell) the rest of them nothing but success.”

Earlier this month, Stewart made some Storm fans a little salty when she told a packed crowd at Barclays Center that she “made the right decision” in choosing the Liberty. But the former Storm star received a warm welcome at Climate Pledge Arena. After the game, she also got a hug from retired teammate Sue Bird, who had a front row seat to Tuesday night’s game.

Stewart isn’t the only player on the Liberty facing down a former team this week. On Saturday, New York defeated Jonquel Jones’ old team, the Connecticut Sun. On Friday, New York will tip off against the Chicago Sky, Vandersloot’s former team.

“We were joking in the locker room about it being a revenge tour,” Ionescu said.

New Las Vegas Aces teammates Kelsey Plum and Candace Parker didn’t exactly see eye-to-eye during their WNBA season opener against the Seattle Storm.

As the Aces rolled into halftime with a commanding 43-28 lead, Plum chided Parker in an interview with ESPN’s Holly Rowe.

“Candace Parker, she’s wearing all black shoes with white socks. Which is, like, criminal, but she can pull it off,” Plum deadpanned.

“She’s the GOAT so we’re gonna let her do it today, but then we’ll talk to her about it after the game, right?” Rowe replied. (Video of the interview is embedded below.)

Fans took to social media to debate the fashion choice. Even “Art But Make It Sports” – a Twitter account dedicated to juxtaposing iconic sports moment and works of art — weighed in, comparing Parker’s shoe-sock combo to The Matador Saluting, a painting by Édouard Manet.

“Call me Smooth Criminal (Michael Jackson Vibes),” Parker replied on Instagram.

The Aces won the game 105-64. The 41-point margin broke the WNBA record for largest margin of victory by any WNBA team in a season opener, per ESPN Stats & Info. Plum and Jackie Young recorded 23 points each, while four other Aces players also scored in the double digits: Chelsea Gray (14), A’ja Wilson (13), Candace Parker (12) and Alysha Clark (10).

Still, the Aces’ rout was overshadowed by the absence of head coach Becky Hammon, who served the first of a two-game suspension after a WNBA investigation found she made comments to Dearica Hamby about her pregnancy, violating the league’s Respect in the Workplace policies. Hammon has denied the claims. Assistant Tyler Marsh served as acting head coach during Saturday’s contest.

The WNBA prioritization rule could keep Gabby Williams from taking the court for the Seattle Storm this season.

Under the new rule, which went into effect beginning this season, players must return to their WNBA teams before the start of the regular season in order to be eligible to play. Williams is playing with French team ASVEL and likely will not return in time, which would make her the lone player who ended the 2022 season on a WNBA roster to miss the 2023 season due to the prioritization rule.

The 26-year-old forward had entered into concussion protocol with her French team, which could have provided the Storm with a loophole. If her injury, and not her league play, had prevented her from returning to the United States in time for their season opener on Saturday, would the prioritization rule still have applied?

The Storm had asked the WNBA for clarification, head coach Noelle Quinn said after practice Tuesday. But Williams seemingly rendered the point moot by returning from concussion protocol to play in ASVEL’s game Wednesday.

Williams entered into concussion protocol following a May 9 contest in which she got hit in the head, but she played in the first game of the French league’s best-of-three championship series. The second game of the series is set for Saturday.

While most international leagues moved up their seasons to enable WNBA players to return to their teams for the preseason, the French league did not. And starting next season, the deadline will get even tighter, requiring players to return by the start of training camp or May 1, whichever comes later.

“We’re kind of moving forward thinking we will not have her,” Quinn said. “Obviously, we lose a lot of defensive prowess and versatility offensively with Gabby, but we’ll just find it somewhere else with the group that we have and evaluate there.”

Williams knew what the prioritization rule could mean for her WNBA eligibility, telling reporters in September that while she would “love to return to the WNBA,” she needed to prioritize her career.

“What’s best for my career, what the WNBA decided to do with players like me, it’s complicated,” she said.

Williams’ ASVEL teammate Marine Johannès plays for the New York Liberty but does not have more than two years of WNBA experience, which means the prioritization rule does not apply to her.

Chicago Sky center Astou Ndour-Fall opted out of the 2023 WNBA season due to her overseas commitments, becoming one of the first dominoes to fall in the wake of the controversial new rule.

The prioritization rule requires WNBA players to return from overseas play by the time the league opens its season on May 19. Players who fail to do so will be ineligible to play in 2023, and Ndour-Fall will be one of them. Seattle Storm forward Gabby Williams could be another.

How does the prioritization rule work? And how did it come to be? Just Women’s Sports breaks down the answers.

How does the prioritization rule work?

The rule requires players to prioritize the WNBA over international leagues. It was codified in the 2020 collective bargaining agreement but goes into effect for the first time for the 2023 season.

Players with more than two years of experience in the WNBA must report to their teams by May 1. If they do not, they will be fined. And if they miss the start of the regular season on May 19, they will be suspended for the year.

In 2024, the consequences will get even harsher: Players will be suspended for the whole season if they do not join their WNBA teams by May 1 or the start of training camp, whichever is later.

What’s the problem?

Many WNBA players head overseas in the offseason to supplement their WNBA incomes. Last offseason, almost half of the WNBA’s 144 players went overseas, per the Associated Press.

Players can make much more money abroad then they do in the U.S.-based league.

Breanna Stewart, for example, signed a supermax one-year deal with the Seattle Storm in 2022. The deal was worth $228,094, just a fraction of the $1.5 million per year she made for Russia’s UMMC Ekaterinburg. Though she left the Russian club for Fenerbahce in 2022, she likely earned another large payday.

The WNBA holds its season in the summer, while international leagues play in the winter, which has allowed players to stay on the court throughout the year. But some international leagues’ late-season schedules have conflicted with the start of the WNBA season in recent years.

How did it come to be?

The prioritization rule was negotiated as part of the WNBA’s latest CBA, which was signed in 2020 and runs through 2027.

“The owners really stepped up on the compensation side for the players in this collective bargaining cycle, and I think the kind of quid pro quo for that was prioritization, showing up on time for our season,” WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert said ahead of the 2022 WNBA Finals.

The WNBA Players Association agreed to the clause as a concession to the league so they could make gains in other areas of the CBA.

“The league was in a place of not negotiating without it,” WNBA legend Sue Bird said of prioritization. “We wouldn’t have got the money, the maternity leave, without it. I’m not defending it… I want the WNBA to be the only league people play in. I want it to thrive so we never have to go overseas.”

What’s next?

Several players have indicated that as long as salaries in international leagues eclipse those in the WNBA, the prioritization clause will remain an issue.

Emma Meesseman, who has not signed with a WNBA team for the 2023 season, has said the rule is unfair to non-American players.

Former Seattle Storm center and WNBA champion Simone Edwards died Thursday at the age of 49 after a battle with ovarian cancer.

Edwards, who was born in Jamaica and earned the nickname the “Jamaican Hurricane” from Storm fans, played junior college basketball in Oklahoma before starring for the Iowa Hawkeyes from 1994 to 1997. She helped lead Iowa to a Big Ten regular-season championship title in 1996 and the Big Ten tournament title in 1997.

After her successful college career, she joined the New York Liberty in 1997 – the WNBA’s inaugural season – as a developmental player. She didn’t play in the league, though, until 2000, when she joined the Seattle Storm for their first season.

She spent six seasons in Seattle, averaging 5.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game. A member of the Storm’s first-ever championship team in 2004, she retired from the WNBA ahead of the 2006 season. At the time, she was Seattle’s all-time leader in rebounds, games and minutes played.

She was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2021.

“Our Jamaican Hurricane was a warrior on and off the court,” the Storm tweeted Thursday. “With her indefatigable energy and optimism, she brought happiness to so many. Our thoughts and condolences are with Simone’s family and loved ones at this time.”

In a reply to a tweet from the WNBA, NBA star Pau Gasol expressed his “deepest condolences” to her family and friends.

Lauren Jackson, who played with Edwards on the Storm, tweeted out a video of the two of them together and said that her “heart is broken.”

“Rest in Peace beautiful Angel,” she added. “You will be dearly missed and loved every day.”

Chastity Melvin, who starred in the WNBA around the same time as Edwards, wrote that she is “so sad” to hear of Edwards’ passing.

“I thought she was going to beat this thing,” she wrote.

The Seattle Storm are valued at $151 million, a record for a U.S. women’s sports team, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday.

The Storm are selling stakes in the team to 15 investors to help finance a $64 million practice facility and business office, which is set to break ground this month, team owners Ginny Gilder and Lisa Brummel said.

As part of the sale of those minority stakes, the team has been valued at the record price, which is about 15 times more than previous sales prices for WNBA teams, per the Wall Street Journal.

The eye-popping number comes after a year of skyrocketing valuations in the NWSL.

Franchise valuations in the soccer league soared in 2022, as the Washington Spirit sold for $35 million last February, while Gotham FC was valued at $40 million in August. The Portland Thorns have been valued at $60 million, ESPN reported in December. And Angel City FC is valued at more than $100 million, per a Sportico report.

The WNBA has not had such valuations. Indeed, in 2021, Mark Davis bought the Las Vegas Aces for little more than $2 million, per reports.

The Storm are one of the most successful franchises in WNBA history, with four WNBA titles, most recently in 2020. They also have had several franchise players — including Sue Bird, who retired in 2022 after 19 years in Seattle.

Still, Gilder wants the Storm’s record valuation to become a launching pad for other teams.

“Investors don’t go off of anecdotes. They go off of [comparables],” she told the Wall Street Journal. “So hopefully, we’ve just set the floor. We’ve set a real-live floor. Not just the WNBA, but women’s soccer, women’s hockey, where women’s sports is going.”

Breanna Stewart has whittled her possible free agency destinations from four teams down to two, Rachel Galligan of Just Women’s Sports and Winsidr reported Sunday.

The 2018 WNBA MVP plans to sign with either the New York Liberty or the Seattle Storm, per Galligan. Stewart has played her first six seasons with the Storm, and she has been linked to the Liberty in the last two offseasons.

While the 28-year-old forward also was set to meet with the Washington Mystics and Minnesota Lynx when the free-agency negotiating period opened last week, those teams are out of the running.

So, between the Liberty and the Storm, which team is the best fit for Stewart?

The Storm selected Stewart with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2016 draft, and she won WNBA championships with the team in 2018 and 2020. Seattle also could be a draw for Washington native and fellow free agent Courtney Vandersloot, whose decision reportedly will factor into Stewart’s own choice.

Yet with Candace Parker announcing her decision to sign with the reigning WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, a move to the Eastern Conference could be enticing. Stewart is from New York state, and the Liberty made a splashy trade for 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones earlier this month.

Stewart certainly seems to be having fun with the free agency process, posting emoji-filled tweets and leaving fans scrambling to decipher their meanings.

She also has been vocal about making charter flights a key factor in her decision-making. The WNBA’s travel policy does not allow charter flights; teams must use commercial flights to travel to regular-season games. Liberty owners Joe and Clara Tsai have been at the forefront of advocating for changes to league travel accommodations. The team was reportedly fined $500,000 for chartering flights to away games during the second half of the 2021 season.

The Seattle Storm will retire Sue Bird’s No. 10 jersey on Sunday, June 11, during a game against the Washington Mystics, the team announced Thursday.

Bird, who retired at the end of last season, played 19 seasons with the Storm after they drafted her out of UConn in 2002.

Bird finished her career as the all-time league leaded in assists. Her total of 3,234 beats the next closest player, Ticha Penicheiro, by more than 600.

Her impact on the Seattle franchise was immense. She was drafted two years after the Storm came into existence, and she assisted on 27.5% of the baskets scored in franchise history. She also won four WNBA championships with the team.

Bird is the only player in WNBA history to play in at least 500 games, finishing her career with 580, all of which were starts. 

The point guard is the second Storm player to have her number retired. Her former teammate Lauren Jackson saw her jersey raised to the rafters of Climate Pledge Arena  last season.