The Phoenix Mercury will spend their final two games fighting for one of the last two WNBA playoff spots. But they will do so without Skylar Diggins-Smith.

The All-Star guard will miss the team’s two remaining regular-season games due to personal reasons, starting with Friday’s contest against the Dallas Wings, the team announced Thursday afternoon.

For Phoenix’s win Saturday over New York, Diggins-Smith was listed as out with a non-COVID illness. In the team’s loss Wednesday to Minnesota, the All-Star guard was once again absent, this time listed as out for personal reasons.

Two days ago, Diggins-Smith tweeted that the WNBA has to “decide what we want our game to look like” before saying that the league, players and officials all have “very different views on how our game should be played.” Four days before that, she tweeted that she was in “survival mode.” As of Thursday, Diggins-Smith’s Twitter account has been deleted.

Diggins-Smith last played on Aug. 4 against the Sun, contributing a team-high 16 points. The game took place hours after teammate Brittney Griner was sentenced to nine years in a Russian penal colony.

After that game, Diggins-Smith said Griner’s imprisonment has taken a toll on the team during a challenging season for the Mercury.

Skylar Diggins-Smith had some powerful words on teammate Brittney Griner.pic.twitter.com/e4ytrxJs9A

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“It’s heavy. It’s just heavy y’all,” Diggins-Smith said. “Y’all asking these questions don’t really take away from our trauma. You just add to our trauma. We can break down and cry in front of y’all, so you can see how we feel. I don’t know what else to really say about it. It’s our sister. This is not some random Jane off the street. It’s not anything we’re politicizing. It’s a human being and this is our real life friend and real life sister.

“Now I don’t expect everybody to give a damn, but we really do. We come out here and we’re still supposed to play this game. Nobody even wanted to play today. How are you supposed to approach the game, approach the court with a clear mind, and the whole group is crying before the game because you try to honor her, and you try to come out and still play hard for her.”

Phoenix head coach Vanessa Nygaard said Wednesday that the Mercury found out before the game that Diggins-Smith would be out.

“We have gone through this earlier on Saturday,” the coach said. “We’re just one day at a time moving forward. We’ve seen everything this year, so whatever gets thrown at us, we’re ready to just lace them up and go.

“It’s such an honor and a privilege to play this game and we’re so blessed every day that we get to go out and play in front of our great fans. So whoever we have available is going to come out and battle for our team. We still have fight, and we’re going to be ready to go. That’s what our fans deserve.”

Issues beyond Griner’s detention in Russia have plagued the team this season. In May, Diggins-Smith and Taurasi traded words and had to be separated by teammates while on the bench.

When Taurasi didn’t make the All-Star game, Nygaard praised the selection of Diggins-Smith but suggested the event wasn’t really an All-Star game without Taurasi. In response, Diggins-Smith sent out a tweet with the clip and a clown emoji that was seemingly directed at the coach.

As the trade deadline approached in July, reports emerged that the team was exploring the possibility of a trade involving Diggins-Smith.

Phoenix also agreed to a contract divorce in June with Tina Charles, who later signed with Seattle.

“I’m a strong believer that whatever adversity is thrown at me as a person, as a coach in my development, it’s all for me,” Nygaard said after Wednesday’s loss to Minnesota. “This is something that’s going to help me and make me personally better. I believe that for our team, too. Challenges and things that come to us forces us to try new things.

“I’m extremely proud to have coached this group tonight. That group that’s in the locker room, they are a tough group and they are so resilient. I don’t think anyone can imagine some of the challenges they’ve faced, but they’ve never quit. They’ve never given up.”

Stakes are sky-high for Wednesday night's Cy-Hawk Series clash, as undefeated No. 10 Iowa State welcomes unbeaten No. 11 Iowa to Ames for the highest-ranked NCAA women's basketball matchup in the cross-state rivalry's history.

"[If] you grew up in the state, just there's nothing like it," Iowa head coach Jan Jensen said of the historic series. "You've dreamed, you've watched those big football matchups when you're little, you watched the basketball games when you were little, and to get to be in one — boy, it doesn't get much better."

"[It's] one of those things where it truly is a rivalry, because teams [go] back and forth and have their streaks and wins and losses," echoed Cyclones boss Bill Fennelly.

The red-hot Hawkeyes enter Wednesday's game with the head-to-head advantage having won three straight against the Cyclones — and eight of the last nine in the series.

That said, the Cyclones have the nation's leading scorer on their side, with junior center Audi Crooks's 27.6 points per game showcasing unmatched efficiency in the 2025/26 NCAA season.

"Audi's tough," Jensen said about the Iowa State star. "She's just really, really incredible…. When you let her get it, she's pretty accurate."

How to watch Iowa vs. Iowa State in the 2025 Cy-Hawk Series

The No. 11 Hawkeyes will visit the No. 10 Cyclones in the 2025 edition of the Cy-Hawk Series at 7 PM ET on Wednesday, with live coverage airing on ESPN.

The Washington Spirit are all in on forward Trinity Rodman, with club GM Nathan Minion telling reporters that the 2025 NWSL runners-up are working "pretty much daily" to re-sign the free agent despite salary cap concerns.

"I think everyone's trying to work together to get a deal in place," said Minion, acknowledging that the NWSL and the Spirit are actively working with each other to retain the 23-year-old star. "[We're] trying to figure this out and trying to get a resolution that can hopefully keep Trinity here with us for a long time."

"The reality is our current salary cap structure — it was built for a different era of women's soccer," said the DC club's recently hired president of soccer operations Haley Carter. "We're going to need mechanisms that allow NWSL clubs to compete for not only players from overseas, but our own players."

The NWSL vetoed the multi-million dollar offer from the Washington Spirit to keep Rodman last week, with the NWSLPA subsequently filing a grievance claiming the league violated the USWNT attacker's free agency rights by blocking the deal.

"These are nuanced conversations, and I would love to just toss the salary cap out the window and pay the players," said Carter. "But we also have to appreciate that, pragmatically, it isn't always payroll that's going to keep our athletes here. It's investment in other things as well."

"We are going to have to start getting creative, I believe, because it's bigger than just one team," continued Carter. "It's bigger than just one player. It's about the league's ability to keep its best players in this league as we continue to grow."

The NWSL transfer and hiring market is ramping up, with both the 14 existing clubs and two incoming expansion teams busy bolstering their 2026 ranks just weeks into the offseason.

Last week, Bay FC announced that England U-23 head coach Emma Coates will become the 2024 expansion club's second-ever manager, with fellow England youth national team and WSL staffer Gemma Davies joining Coates's NWSL crew as an assistant coach.

"I'm truly honored and super excited to build on the strong foundations that have already been established and to implement a clear identity both on and off the pitch," Coates said in Thursday's statement. "[Bay FC] shares my passion for people, performance, and culture, which I believe are fundamental to sustained success."

"Emma is not only an excellent coach, but she also has a proven track record of developing players to compete at the highest levels of both the domestic and international game," remarked Bay Collective CEO Kay Cossington. "Emma has consistently demonstrated an ability to bring players and teams to the next level with clarity, care and purpose. She understands what it takes to build environments where people thrive and perform at their best."

"Bay FC is gaining not only a great coach, but also someone that understands women's football and our athletes inside and out."

While Coates will wrap up her nearly three years at England's U-23 helm to join Bay FC in the coming days, three other NWSL teams are still searching for permanent sideline leaders this offseason, as the Kansas City Current, North Carolina Courage, and Portland Thorns continue to conduct coaching searches.

The Thorns joined the leaderless ranks in late November, parting ways with manager Rob Gale following the team's NWSL semifinals exit.

Reigning WNBA champion A'ja Wilson picked up yet another honor this week, as TIME crowned the four-time league MVP its 2025 Athlete of the Year on Tuesday.

The Las Vegas Aces center became the first player in WNBA history to win a championship, Finals MVP, league MVP, and Defensive Player of the Year in the same season, with the 29-year-old sweeping the league's awards this year.

"This year, I collected everything," Wilson said in her TIME interview. "I don't really talk much sh-t — I mean crap. I kind of let my game do it."

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Wilson described the Aces' midseason slump as a focusing agent in her 2025 TIME Athlete of the Year feature, with the skid launching the team on course to their third championship win in four years.

"I think 2025 was a wake-up call that I needed, to let me know that I can't be satisfied with anything," said Wilson. "There's somebody out there that's going to try to take your job. You need to make sure you're great at it, every single day."

Wilson also spoke to the strained relationship between players and WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert, whose leadership came under fire in October as CBA negotiations kicked into high gear.

"I only know Cathy by when she hands me trophies," Wilson said. "If that's her true self, thank you for showing that. Thank you for saying those things. Because now we see you for who you are, and now we're about to work even harder at this negotiation."

With the latest CBA extension expiring on January 9th, Wilson promised that the players are all-in on negotiations through the holiday season.

“All of us are going to be at the table, and we're not moving until we get exactly what we want."