LAS VEGAS — Orange is definitely Courtney Williams’ color.

From the moment she put it on in 2016, her Connecticut Sun jersey felt like a second skin. Her team was her home, which is why when she was traded to the Atlanta Dream after the 2019 season, Williams felt betrayed.

In 2019, she had started every game, played nearly 30 minutes per contest and averaged 13.2 points per game for the Sun– all career highs.

She didn’t understand why the organization she loved so much didn’t seem to love her back.

“I was too emotional,” she said. “I was just feeling like, ‘Where’s the loyalty?’ But there ain’t no loyalty in business. Business is business, numbers is numbers. That’s something that I learned in that process.”

Soon, though, she realized that her trade had nothing to do with the way Sun players and coaches felt about her. That allowed her to get excited about the new opportunity.

Nicki Collen, currently the head women’s basketball coach at Baylor, worked as an assistant on the Sun staff from 2015-19 before taking over as head coach of the Dream in 2018.

Williams was comfortable with Collen – after all, she’d been part of her Sun family – so the move started to feel like it could be a perfect fit.

“It was lowkey kind of a no-brainer for me since she was over there,” Williams said.

Collen coached Williams in Atlanta for just one season. She departed a week before the 2021 slate of games began to take the head coaching job at Baylor.

But even after Collen’s exit, Williams thrived. Her minutes increased, and so did her points, assists, rebounds – everything.

In 2021 she played 34.4 minutes per game in her second season with the Dream, averaging 16.5 points, 6.8 rebounds, 4 assists and 1.1 steals per game. The South Florida alum was making her mark on her new organization, and the basketball world took notice. Her play earned Williams an All-Star nod – the first of her career.

But the situation soured after that.

In October, Williams posted a video on YouTube of her and teammate Crystal Bradford getting involved in an altercation near a food truck outside an Atlanta club. The 39-minute video was deleted, but footage of the fight circulated on Twitter, leading to the Dream’s decision not to re-sign Williams for the 2022 season.

“The behavior in the video is unacceptable and does not align with our values as an organization,” the Dream said in a statement released the next day. “We are taking this matter very seriously and working with the league to gather more information and determine next steps.”

Williams apologized on Twitter for making light of the situation in the YouTube video, but her agent Marcus Crenshaw claimed the Atlanta Dream had known about the altercation for months and expressed frustration with the organization only choosing to address it when the video emerged and went viral on social media.

“Right now, the team is trying to act like they have the morals, and (they’re) making (the players) some sort of scapegoats by saying they got put off the Dream because of the altercation,” Crenshaw said on a Girls Talk Sports TV Instagram Live.

Whatever the circumstances, one thing became clear: Courtney Williams would no longer be a part of the Atlanta Dream.

Before the incident, Williams said she expected nothing but good things in Atlanta.

“Obviously that’s not how it played out,” she said. “So that kind of ended up hitting me in the mouth. But I mean, overall, I think any experience that you go through that helps you grow. It molded me into who I am now.”

Now, Williams understands the business of basketball. She’s also learned from the mistakes she made in Atlanta.

And while she was away, the Sun came to a realization as well: They needed Courtney Williams in Connecticut.

Without her, in 2020 and 2021, the Sun lost in the WNBA semifinals – to Las Vegas, and then to Chicago.

Williams provides both skill and spark to the roster.

“She’s on a roll right now,” teammate Natisha Hiedeman said after Williams scored 12 points in the Sun’s Game 5 win over the Sky in the WNBA semifinals. “And that’s what we need from her. That’s definitely what’s expected from her, and she just has that mindset where she’s never too high or never too low. Like her energy is the same all the time. She deserves to play good because she’s just a great teammate all the time.”

For Williams, the love she gets from her fellow Sun players is enough to melt away the negative impact of her exit from Atlanta.

She hates the way it went down, but the end result was worth it. It was a blessing in disguise, she said, because it brought her home.

“Everything happens for a reason, right? The good, the bad, the ugly,” she said. “It molds us and it also shows you who really for you. It’s easy to rock with somebody when it’s all roses and sunshine, but it’s like, ‘Who’s rocking with me when it’s not?’ Connecticut did.”

After her breakup with Atlanta, Williams got calls from Sun stars DeWanna Bonner, Jonquel Jones and Alyssa Thomas. They were all rocking with her, and they wanted her back in a Sun uniform.

Turns out there is some loyalty in business. The Sun showed Williams that when they re-signed her before the 2022 season.

After two years away, returning to Connecticut felt like she’d never even left, Williams said.

Now, she wants to repay her squad with a WNBA Championship.

Sporting a purple half-moon bruise under her left eye – an injury sustained during her iconic jump-ball battle with Kahleah Copper during the semifinals series – Williams looked out over the Aces court Monday as her team put up shots.

They mean everything to her.

And Williams doesn’t care that her team has been overlooked throughout this postseason. They rock with her and she rocks with them. Forget the haters.

“We already know what it is and what it ain’t,” she said. “We don’t even trip on none of that. Them folks want to be where we at. So, I’ll tell them to sit down, grab they popcorn and watch us do what we do.”

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.

Cameron Brink already has her rookie of the year pick for the upcoming WNBA season, and it’s Indiana-bound star Caitlin Clark. 

In the latest edition of Kelley on the Street, host Kelley O'Hara caught up with Brink in New York hours before the Stanford phenom went No. 2 overall to the Los Angeles Sparks at the 2024 WNBA Draft. When O’Hara asked who would win the WNBA's rookie of the year, she answered without pause.

"Caitlin Clark," she said, while a fan commented that she thought Brink would take home the award. Brink later added that the extra foul granted to WNBA players will be "good for me."

"I hope it’s me," Charisma Osborne, who was later drafted by the Phoenix Mercury, said when asked her ROY prediction. "But, I don’t know — we’ll see."

Watch more of Kelley on the Street:

Maria Sanchez issued a statement on Thursday, confirming recent reports that she has requested a trade from the Houston Dash. 

In it, she revealed that the club has been aware of the request "since late March."

"This has all taken a toll and isn’t an easy thing to talk about, but I want to confirm that I’ve requested an immediate trade," she wrote. "My expectations and reasons have been clear. I trust that my current club’s management will honor my decision in a timely manner and proceed with accepting a trade."

"I’m eager to refocus and dive back into what I love most: playing football," she concluded.

Thank you, everyone, for the outpouring of kindness and support. pic.twitter.com/gcnN7dhCJU

— Maria Sanchez (@Maria17_7) April 19, 2024

Reports of Sanchez's trade request first surfaced on ESPN last week, and were later confirmed by multiple sources. 

In December of last year, Sanchez signed a three-year contract with the Dash valued at $1.5 million including bonuses and an option year. It was the largest contract in NWSL history at the time — a figure that would be eclipsed by multiple contracts in the following months. 

Sanchez spent the offseason as a restricted free agent, meaning that Houston could match any other team's offer to retain her rights. Should the Dash trade Sanchez, her current contract terms would remain intact, limiting potential buyers to teams able to afford to take on an inking of that size.

The Dash has yet to address the trade, instead reiterating to ESPN that Sanchez is "under contract, a choice she made in free agency at the end of 2023." 

Both the NWSL trade window and transfer window close tonight, April 19th, at 12 a.m. ET. The window will stay closed through the next 11 regular season games, reopening on August 1st, 2024.

The four-time league champion Seattle Storm unveiled their new practice facility on Thursday, with Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel dubbing Interbay's Seattle Storm Center for Basketball Performance the team’s "new home."

"It's just such a special space," Brummel told Fox 13 Seattle. "I think when the players get here, it's gonna be overwhelming."

The sprawling 50,000-square-foot, $64 million property is just the second designated practice facility to be designed and built expressly for a WNBA team, with the Storm further noting that 85% of all design and engineering team members involved in the project's construction were women and people of color. The finished product holds two professional indoor courts, two 3x3 outdoor courts, a state-of-the-art locker room, and players' lounge, plus designated areas for strength and conditioning, kitchen, dining, and nutrition, and recovery. 

"This facility reflects our commitment to providing our athletes an exceptional environment that supports their growth, health, and performance," said Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder in an official team release. "It’s built for women, by women, embodying our dedication to leading the way in professional women’s sports."

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For their part, the team can't wait to make the faciilty their own.

"It's amazing," Storm guard Jewell Loyd told Fox 13. "Not having to drive everywhere around, knowing you have access anytime of the day to get into the gym, to workout." 

Head coach Noelle Quinn said she predicts the team is "never going to leave this building."

"Which is a good thing for me," she continued. "You talk about having an edge in performance. We want our athletes to not only perform on the court, but get whatever they need."

All of the Storm's staff and operations will now live under one roof, and the team also has plans to launch a youth basketball program operating out of the building.

The Caitlin Clark effect is quickly making its mark on the big leagues, as WNBA host teams around the country rush to upgrade their Fever games to larger arenas in order to accommodate surging ticket sales.

With Clark mere weeks away from her Indiana Fever debut, both the Las Vegas Aces and Washington Mystics have officially relocated their scheduled home games with head coach Christie Sides' squad. On Thursday, the Mystics became the latest to adjust their plans, moving their June 7th matchup from Entertainment & Sports Arena in Southwest DC to the more centrally located — and much larger — Capital One Arena "due to unprecedented demand."

The Mystics home court's capacity taps out at 4,200, while Capital One Arena — home to the Wizards, Capitals, and Georgetown Hoya's Men's Basketball — can fit nearly five times that crowd at some 20,000 spectators.

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"The move to Capital One Arena will allow for additional fans in the stands as well as premium hospitality options, including Suites and the all-new all-inclusive courtside Hennessy Lofts," the team announced via Thursday's press release.

The Aces were one of the first teams to switch venues, aiming to take on the Indiana Fever in front of as many as 20,000 fans inside T-Mobile Arena on July 2nd. That’s a sizable a boost from their home venue, which holds just 12,000.

For those still planning to face the Fever in their home arenas, ticket prices have skyrocketed. Previously scheduled construction has already forced the LA Sparks to relocate their first five games — including their May 24th clash with the Fever — to Long Beach State's Walter Pyramid. The temporary venue is quite the downsize, holding just 4,000 in comparison to Crypto.com Arena's near-19,000. As of Friday, the get-in price for that game started around $400.

Despite fans launching a Change.org petition urging relocation, the Chicago Sky say they're unable to move their June 23rd Fever meeting from Wintrust Arena's 10,000-seat facility to the 23,500-seat United Center due to a concert. Tickets for that game start around $325 as of Friday.