The Las Vegas Aces want to take their talents to a different type of game –”Family Feud.”

On Sunday, Kiah Stokes posted on X (formerly Twitter) about the game show, asking if there was any way the two-time reigning WNBA champions could be featured as contestants. She even wanted to take the pitch directly to host Steve Harvey.

“Can we go on ‘Family Feud’??” she wrote, speaking about the Aces. “Who got Steve’s number?”

The Aces have had quite the championship tour, which already has included attending Usher’s residency in Las Vegas. And everyone – including the Aces’ social media admin – appeared to be on board with a potential “Family Feud” appearance.

“Let’s goooooo!! I’m down someone let Steve know!!” A’ja Wilson wrote.

“Count me in!!!!” Alysha Clark added.

“Oh yeah I guess I shoulda asked if y’all would be down,” Stokes responded.

Meanwhile, the Aces kept tweeting out Steve Harvey reactions with various captions, including calling out Sydney Colson – whose answers would undoubtedly warrant a classic Harvey reaction.

“We would be doin’ the most,” Colson wrote Monday.

Social media drama swirled around the LSU basketball team Thursday, with former Tigers and current WNBA players stirring the pot.

The kerfuffle started with posts by the mothers of Angel Reese and Flau’jae Johnson, each seemingly directed at the other. Reese’s mother Angel Webb Reese complained about text messages with grammatical errors on Instagram Stories, and then Johnson’s mother Kia Brooks called out mother and daughter in her own post.

“You definitely know about grammar errors when your daughter got a 2.0 or less GPA. … Stop being petty, fake and hateful, and take responsibility for you and your daughter’s actions,” Brooks wrote.

While neither Reese nor Johnson addressed the posts on their own social media platforms, former teammates Alexis Morris and Jasmine Carson jumped into the fray.

All four players won the national championship with LSU in April. Morris and Carson now are playing overseas, while Reese and Johnson are still with the Tigers, whose title defense got off to a rocky start.

“Switched up to gang up on me, now y’all fallin’ out,” wrote Morris, who got herself into hot water on social media earlier this year after calling out WNBA veterans.

In another post, she wrote: “Can we just all get (along)? Heck no that’s over with.”

Morris also stood up for LSU head coach Kim Mulkey, writing: “You can’t pay me to bash Kim!”

“Y’all better hope I don’t say nothing,” Carson wrote.

WNBA players also got in on the action, with Las Vegas Aces guard Sydney Colson writing: “I wanna see LSU play LSU cuz what’s goin onnn??”

Washington Mystics center Shakira Austin tried to offer advice, writing: “Listen I’m ALL for speaking your truth, if everybody told their story we all know 75% of coaches would not have a job. But don’t let no quick attention cause any harm to your brand. The best thing is to focus on what’s next bc these folks still gonna get contract extensions…”

NCAA basketball champion Flau’jae Johnson and WNBA champions Sydney Colson and Theresa Plaisance all share a passion for their sport and a flair for entertainment.

But they definitely don’t share musical talent, as seen on the latest episode of Colson and Plaisance’s unscripted comedy series “The Syd + TP Show.”

In one segment of the show, the Las Vegas Aces players crash Johnson’s studio time, much to the LSU guard’s chagrin. Colson’s attempt at rapping includes a Chuck E. Cheese reference.

“Look Flau, you want these bars or not?” Colson asks Johnson. “Because we’re trying to be the realest and the illest in the league, you know? They say you’re the best, so show us the best.”

Luckily for Colson and Plaisance, Johnson provides a demonstration of her own skills at the microphone. The LSU sophomore balances her burgeoning basketball and music careers, with the Tigers preparing to start their title defense months after Johnson dropped a 13-song mixtape with Jay-Z’s Roc Nation under its Equity Distribution platform.

“I love making records. Like, I can spit and enjoy freestyling, but I love making songs because I can show my versatility,” Flau’jae told Revolt in August. “I cannot wait for the fans to start hearing my new music.”

While Colson and Plaisance might not have rap careers in their futures, they’re showing off their own talents through their comedy show, which is produced by TOGETHXR, Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort and Fubo.

“I feel like our sense of humor and our personalities are what could attract people to basketball, if they don’t already watch it,” Colson told Forbes.

Sydney Colson isn’t usually a trash-talker, she says. But she is leaning into the persona after the Las Vegas Aces’ 2023 WNBA title win over the New York Liberty.

The 34-year-old guard continued post-WNBA Finals run Thursday with an appearance on “The Daily Show,” in which she discussed her viral mimicking of Sabrina Ionescu’s “night night” celebration but also the impact of the championship series as a whole.

“It’s incredible. I think about when I came in the league in 2011 and what it looked like then versus what these arenas will look like today and how many times we’ll see players on commercials, on TV shows, on just a variety of things,” she said. “It wasn’t anything I ever expected to see in my time that I was playing.

“But especially as a young Black player, to see women that look like me doing it and killing it, I was like, I just got to keep working.”

And while she had some choice words for the doubters after of the Aces’ series-clinching win, what host Desus Nice described as her “villain era” wasn’t planned. But she’s embracing it.

“I didn’t even know I would be in it,” she said. “I’m trolling people at this point online because I don’t care. They’re like, ‘You only had 2 points. She’s got 2 points, how is she on ‘The Daily Show’?”

As for the newfound rivalry between the Aces and the Liberty? For Colson, it’s based out of respect for one another.

“It’s like when you got a sibling or you got cousins you grew up with,” she said. “You rag on each other. You joke on each other, but you love them.”

A’ja Wilson did not see Usher at the Las Vegas Aces’ WNBA championship parade. But she could be seeing him very soon.

Wilson offered up multiple invites to the eight-time Grammy Award winner, but ultimately the “DJ Got Us Fallin’ In Love” singer couldn’t attend the parade. Rapper 2 Chainz performed following the team’s parade and celebration.

Still, Usher didn’t let Wilson’s invites go unanswered. He replied Wednesday on a social media, writing: “I wish I could’ve been there, but pull up to my show… I got U.”

“Shoutout to the defending champs, the Vegas Aces. A’ja Wilson, I got your message, I see you, I hear you,” he said in the accompanying video. “Couldn’t be at the parade but wanted to send this out to you to say congratulations to you and all the lovely ladies that once again did it again.”

He then extended an invite to Wilson and the rest of the Aces squad to come to his “My Way” Las Vegas residency show.

“I wanted to invite you to come see the show, come see me do it my way here in Vegas,” he said. “We stick together, we love one another. Congratulations on this day and I’ll see you soon.”

Sydney Colson later took to social media, saying that Wilson had hit up the team group chat about the invite.

“A’ja hit us in the group chat talkin bout WE are invited to go see Usher, but now that I’m seeing the video…SHE was invited,” she wrote. “Which is cool, that’s fine! But why lie to ur teammates?”

Wilson responded jokingly, writing: “Lolololololololol syd scores 2 points in game 4 and think she can get usher tickets awww.”

New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu used Steph Curry’s signature “night night” celebration after hitting a key 3-pointer in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals.

When the Las Vegas Aces clinched the 3-1 series win over the Liberty in Game 4, Sydney Colson remembered.

As the Aces celebrated Wednesday’s 70-69 win and their second straight WNBA title, Colson shared a message with ESPN’s Holly Rowe and with the crowd at New York’s Barclays Center.

“People wanted to count us out because we had two of our starters down, but they don’t know we’ve got some dogs on this team,” Colson said. “So I’ve got two words to say: night night!”

Colson later clarified to reporters that Ionescu told her to “take her ass to the bench” earlier in the season. The 34-year-old Aces guard took issue with the trash-talking, tweeting on Wednesday that “if you play in my face and start being disrespectful, then ima match that energy.”

As Colson mentioned, Las Vegas played the deciding game of the series without two of its five starters. Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes were sidelined with foot injuries sustained in Game 3, pushing Colson and Aces forward Cayla George into much bigger roles on Wednesday night.

Colson played 14 minutes off the bench, while George started in place of Stokes and matched her season high with 11 points in 30 minutes.

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Sabrina Ionescu performed the "night night" celebration after hitting a key 3-pointer during New York's Game 3 win. (Bruce Bennett/Getty Images)

Sydney Colson believes in the WNBA’s potential to grow. But first, she said in an interview with Gilbert Arenas, the league needs to actively court more women fans.

“Y’all should have been getting beauty deals for women,” Jones said. “There should’ve been skin deals, lipstick, feminine products, tampons. There are so many things that should be easy, like, low hanging fruit.”

Colson, 34, a point guard for the Las Vegas Aces, has been in the league since 2011, when she was drafted by the Connecticut Sun with the No. 16 pick in the WNBA Draft. She’s seen the WNBA grow in that time but believes there’s even more room.

She has developed an audience of her own, with 139,000 Instagram followers, and is set to star in an unscripted series for Ryan Reynolds’ Maximum Effort alongside Theresa Plaisance. The show, called “The Syd + TP Show” will follow Colson and Plaisance’s efforts to become the faces of the WNBA despite being bench players.

Colson has been a key role player for the Aces as they look to repeat as WNBA Champion. Earlier in the season, her teammate, A’Ja Wilson, scored 53 points against the Atlanta Dream, tying the league’s all-time record for points in a single game.

Colson believes more of an emphasis on scoring could bring additional fans to the league.

“With scoring, that could be a thing that men and women want to see, and kids, you want to see a fast-paced game. I want to see somebody score 53 points in a game,” Colson said. “There are definitely things they could be doing to grow the game, and the viewership.”

The confetti had barely settled from the Las Vegas Aces’ 2022 WNBA championship. Yet Becky Hammon already was evaluating ways in which her team could improve.

Sure, the Aces had just hoisted the trophy. But a new season was brewing, bringing with it new challenges and, more importantly for the Las Vegas coach, new opportunities to get better.

When she thinks of that 2022 squad, one weakness stands out: defense.

“Being an average defensive team wasn’t good enough,” Hammon said. “So I’ve challenged them. These women are not average at anything they put their hands in. So why would we settle for anything less than great defense every night?”

This season is different. The Aces hold a 13-1 record heading into Thursday’s superteam clash with the New York Liberty. They started the year with a seven-game winning streak, which included close calls against the Dream (87-92), the Fever (84-80) and the Sun (90-84) – but in each instance, the Aces held off their opponents, and in every case, it was because of their defense.

“A goal of ours is to stay top three of the league defensively,” A’ja Wilson said. “That’s where we need to aim, and we’re trying our best to do that.”

The Aces finally dropped a game on June 8, a 94-77 loss to the Connecticut Sun. Of that game, Hammon said the Sun “kicked our ass,” on both ends of the floor. Las Vegas gave up its highest point total of the season, allowing the Sun to shoot 57.1% from 3-point range. A career-high 41 points from DeWanna Bonner didn’t help.

But after the dismal performance, the Aces bounced back with six consecutive wins, many of them fueled by – you guessed it – defense. The streak included a 96-63 win against the Seattle Storm and a 93-62 win against the Minnesota Lynx in back-to-back games, their lowest point totals allowed this season.

In 2022, the Aces gave up 84.1 points per game, which ranked ninth in the 12-team league. This season, that number is down to 77.4, good for second-best in the WNBA. It wasn’t a major offseason overhaul that led to the improvement but rather a combination of key signings and a change in mindset.

Candace Parker was, of course, the Aces’ most high-profile signing during the offseason, and the 16-year veteran provided an instant defensive upgrade. At 6-4, she makes for a scary defensive combination with Wilson inside, but she also can match up with guards on the perimeter.

While the 2020 Defensive Player of the Year may be nearing the end of her career, she’s still a skilled defender, and her 1.5 steals per game so far this season is her highest mark since 2017.

Alysha Clark also joined Las Vegas in the offseason, and while not as high-profile as Parker, she also is another experienced player with a strong defensive skill set. A two-time All-WNBA Defensive team selection, Clark allows the Aces to play a smaller lineup, either to combat guard-heavy opponents or to bring pressure in the backcourt that speeds up the game.

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Offseason addition Alysha Clark helps the Aces flex their defensive muscles. (Ethan Miller/Getty Images)

And 6-3 center Kiah Stokes is making an impact off the bench, playing more minutes – up from 15.3 to 18.5 – and averaging a career-high 1.5 blocks per game. Wilson, last season’s DPOY, points to Stokes as the player that holds the Aces’ defense together.

“Kiah’s the anchor to our defense,” Wilson told the Hartford Courant on June 7. “A lot of people say that it’s me, but I pass that to Kiah 100%. She is just always at the right place at the right time and I trust her, like guards trust us and then I trust Kiah when she’s behind me. So she literally holds it down.”

The offseason additions and Stokes’ increased role takes care of the X’s and O’s of the team’s defensive attack, but a large part of Las Vegas’ improvement comes from approach.

The 40-game WNBA schedule comes with quick turnarounds, and teams often play with just one day between games. The Aces take advantage of their limited practice, devoting even the smallest windows of time to defensive drills.

“Even though we don’t have a ton of time, we’ll just do a quick drill to make sure people are talking and active, and being as physical as we can be,” Sydney Colson said.

The team’s mindset has changed too, with defensive assignments becoming more of a priority. Everyone has turned up the intensity, and Hammon says that early in the season when Kelsey Plum wasn’t shooting well, it was the guard’s defense that kept her in games.

The team is bigger and stronger thanks to additions in the offseason, but if everyone isn’t contributing on defense, then there are breakdowns.

The goal for the Aces? Zero breakdowns.

“Sometimes things change game by game,” Colson said. “But it’s also the MO that we have. We want to be more physical, we want to compete on every possession.”

Former LSU basketball star Alexis Morris was met with backlash Wednesday after she took to Twitter to criticize WNBA veterans for remaining in the league too long and taking up roster spots.

The 5-9 guard was selected in the 2023 draft by the Connecticut Sun but was waived by the team last week, adding her name to the long list of roster cuts this preseason.

In a series of now-deleted tweets, Morris – who previously had spoken about the difficulties of transitioning to the WNBA – argued that if roster spots cannot be made available to the rookies then teams should “cut the vets.” But she also put some of that blame onto the veterans themselves.

“The vets gotta know when to cut the net, and pass the torch bro,” she wrote. “If you knocking at 35, hang it up and I mean WIRED HANGER ‘Hang it up.'”

Morris’ tweets caused a stir on social media, with WNBA veterans pointing to their own long and winding roads in the league.

“It’s clear people don’t understand how much we respect people’s journeys and the grind,” Los Angeles Sparks guard Lexie Brown wrote

As Minnesota Lynx guard Kayla McBride noted, rookies should be aware that everyone around them is “on their own journey too,” even if McBride doesn’t usually talk about her own.

“Don’t speak on someone else to make yourself feel better,” she wrote. “We all got stories. Just go write yours.”

McBride also noted in a later tweet that she isn’t “coming for anyone personally” and that the Lynx rookies, a group that includes No. 2 overall pick Diamond Miller, have been “great.”

“As a whole the WNBA (is) fighting for respect and each of our stories look different. And should be respected,” she wrote. “Respect the grind. Respect those around you. It’ll get you a long, long way.”

A number of the league’s rookies have been cut from WNBA rosters already, with just 18 out of 36 draftees remaining on WNBA rosters as of Thursday morning. That number could diminish as teams finalize rosters.

With just 144 roster spots available, many players have been calling for expansion in order to help with both development of players and the league.

Sydney Colson has been cut multiple times but currently is a member of the Las Vegas Aces. On Wednesday, she noted a shift in the league compared to a few seasons ago, when more veterans had been cut to save cap space.

“The interesting part is that several vets (who were still capable players) didn’t make rosters years ago because of cap space and it was cheaper to keep rookies,” she wrote. “As someone who’s been cut several, and I mean SEVERAL, times… it’s tough and not a great feeling, but it doesn’t mean it has to be the end of your career. Grind, have a chip on your shoulder, and work to get back.”

Still, other players pointed out the lack of support that rookies receive. Former WNBA player and No. 3 overall pick Devereaux Peters noted that her first four years in the league “were absolute hell” but she was able to figure it out.

“I was blessed with vets that went out of their way to help me gain my footing,” she wrote. “But also a great deal was me operating in a way I wouldn’t have preferred. But I think a lot of these younger players in general don’t really understand how this league works and we should be helping them too. Because not everyone has players to reach out to, to help them along.”

As the second season of Athletes Unlimited basketball begins, its players want to set the record straight: AU is not just a feeder for the WNBA.

Sydney Colson serves as the chair of the player executive committee for Athletes Unlimited and also plays for the Las Vegas Aces. And ahead of AU’s opening night Thursday, the 33-year-old guard pushed back at the notion that the league could become the WNBA’s version of the NBA G League.

“The WNBA and AU are completely separate,” she said Tuesday. “By no means are we trying to make this a G League. It’s not a mini WNBA.”

While there is some crossover between the two leagues, as a number of players have opted to join Athletes Unlimited during the WNBA offseason, Colson said the goal is to expand the player pool.

“This is to give more women opportunities to play in the States, not just the same women,” she said. “It’s very important to us as a [committee] to not turn this into just another league for WNBA players to come in and overtake.

“There are a lot of capable overseas athletes who aren’t afforded the opportunity to come and play in the WNBA, to ever get on a training camp roster, to be on a team. So for us, it is very important to our core of this league to keep it that way and to always give more people opportunities.”

That doesn’t mean AU doesn’t have any support from the WNBA. This year’s hoops season will be streamed on WNBA League Pass, which Colson called a “big deal” that “speaks to the support of this league.”

But most importantly, the talent this year has grown, as evidenced by the league’s scrimmages last week.

“We just have way more depth in our talent from top to bottom,” Colson said.

The second season of Athletes Unlimited basketball will feature Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud, Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, Chicago Sky newcomers Isabelle Harrison and Courtney Williams and more star power.