When folks complain about the compacted schedule (necessitated by the FIBA Worlds happening end of September) my answer/solution is to eliminate the ASG every two years. Of course, that means players don’t get their bonuses AND we don’t get bonus coverage from those who regularly cover the W and those who suddenly discover it exists – even if it’s for one game.
Speaking of which: Feast your eyes.
AP: WNBA All-Stars, gathered in Minnesota, proud of bigger brand
Maya Moore, arms outstretched and her right hand gripping a basketball, has been on billboards this summer in Los Angeles, Minneapolis and New York. She’s in the same “wings” pose as the classic photo of Michael Jordan, whose Nike shoe line includes Moore, the Minnesota Lynx forward, as an endorser.
WNBA games are attracting more viewers. The star power around the league has rarely, if ever, been this deep or this strong. There’s a long way to go to capture more attention in the crowded mainstream of American sports, but these women have been busy building a bigger brand.
“You travel around, you see people interested, you hear the buzz,” Phoenix Mercury guard Diana Taurasi said. “We have a lot of work still to do, probably, but it is trending in the right way, and we’ll take that as a positive.”
For @WNBAinsidr, Nick is taking a look at every All-Star.
.com: All-Stars Excited For Debut Of New Format
ESPN Media Zone: Star-Studded Verizon WNBA All-Star Game 2018 on ABC Airs Saturday
SB Nation: 7 reasons why the 2018 WNBA season is one of the best ever
Swish Appeal: A’ja’s first All-Star Game
ESPN: Breanna Stewart and Sue Bird leading Storm to top of WNBA at All-Star break
Last year, Seattle gave up exactly as many points per game as it scored (82.6), and its defensive and offensive ratings matched as well (104.7). Hughes set out to fix that. He said he used analytics more than any other time in his 17-year WNBA head coaching career to illustrate the tenacious defense he wanted — getting stops, forcing turnovers and letting the offense flow from there.
ESPN: More mature Angel McCoughtry leads surging Atlanta into All-Star break
“Charles Barkley said this to me, ‘Appreciate it while you can,'” McCoughtry said Wednesday before the practice session with Team Candace Parker at Target Center. “And I thought about that: I need to appreciate all these moments. Sometimes we take them for granted.
“You know, in four or five years, I might not be playing anymore. I’ve really learned to give my all every day.”
Listen up! Paying Homage; Tiffany Hayes – LaChina Robinson goes 1-on-1 with Dream G Tiffany Hayes who talks about her big halftime shot, her exclusion from the All-Star selection and more. Plus, Around the Rim pays homage to the Shootaround podcast by bringing back the “Cocktail Napkin” segment with the one and only WBB analyst Debbie Antonelli.
Sports Illustrated: Yes, She Can: Lindsay Whalen Embraces the Challenge of Life on the Court and the Sideline
NH Register: Connecticut Sun star Chiney Ogwumike humbled by WNBA All-Star honor
In 2004 Cheryl Reeve was an assistant with the Charlotte Sting, paying her dues in a fledgling league and about to enter her fourth season coaching in the WNBA.
Some of the players taken in the first round of the draft that spring? Diana Taurasi, Alana Beard, Lindsay Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson. They were about to enter a league put on the map by the likes of Dawn Staley, Lisa Leslie and Sheryl Swoopes. Reeve remembers wondering how this bunch of kids was going to follow that opening act.
They did OK.
Click through to catch at the Star Tribune’s coverage:
- Calls come for bigger salaries, more teams as WNBA gains stability • LYNX
- The best of all worlds as Brunson, Taurasi and Bird meet at Target Center • LYNX
- WNBA All-Stars, gathered in Minnesota, proud of bigger brand • LYNX
- After playing careers end, WNBA stars must get about their business
Ditto with Twin-Cities: Minnesota gets WNBA All-Star Game when ‘league has probably never been better’
Rebekkah Brunson, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi posed for photos together Friday in the Target Center press conference room, three record-breakers who have proven to be the best at what they do.
Taurasi is the WNBA record holder for points scored, Bird is the all-time assists leader and Brunson is the career rebounding leader.
All three will play in Saturday’s WNBA All-Star game in Minneapolis.
“That’s pretty cool,” said Taurasi, a Phoenix guard. “That probably will never happen again.”
Someday, when A’ja Wilson is a grizzled WNBA veteran, she admitted she might be more excited about the prospect of the All-Star break than the All-Star Game. Maybe.
Right now, the rookie star of the Las Vegas Aces, one of only two first-timers playing in Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game, is soaking it all in.
Check it out: @LA_Sparks star @Candace_Parker is at the top of her game & intends to stay there. Follow her intense workout with trainer @travellegaines in the new series THE GRIND.
Sue at WomensHoopsWorld: Atlanta fitting together to pursue a Dream Also from Sue: WNBA athletes: sport and character role models
About 12 hours after the Connecticut Sun notched an important win over the Dallas Wings Sunday, Sun forward Chiney Ogwumike was filming her teammates at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, for Instagram.
Shekinna Stricklen, who had tied the WNBA record for three-point shots in a game with eight, was asleep at the takeoff gate, sitting straight up in a chair.
“The vet, who shot eight three’s, is out!” Ogwumike marveled, with the clock on her screen reading 5:49 a.m. and her camera panning to the rest of the seating area.
Her other teammates lay across chairs or sprawled on the floor, clothing over their faces to keep out the light as they tried to get in a few more winks before boarding the plane for Connecticut.
It is a story that has been told on player and team Instagram videos all summer long.
Hello WNBAKicks: PUMA STEERS ITS HOOPS DRIVE TO WOMEN’S GAME WITH NEW WNBA DEAL
The State: One-on-one, A’ja Wilson thinks her new WNBA coach could take Dawn Staley
More from David Berri: Today’s WNBA Stars Are Very Much Like Yesterday’s NBA Legends
The stars of the WNBA will gather in Minneapolis on Saturday (3:30pm EST, ABC television) for the 2018 WNBA All-Star game. The actual game will feature the stars selected by Candace Parker facing the stars selected by Elena Delle Donne. Fans of the WNBA are quite familiar with both Parker and Delle Donne. But as Delle Donne recently told the Philadelphia Inquirer, she believes relatively few sports fans seem to know about her or the WNBA. Whether or not that is true one can debate. If you study the history of sports, though, it’s not hard to conclude that someday Delle Donne, Parker, and the other WNBA stars of today will be far better known. In fact, it seems possible that someday today’s WNBA stars will be as legendary as Julius Erving, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Elvin Hayes, Rick Barry, and Bob McAdoo.
Fansided: Courtney Paris is a WNBA No-Stats All-Star
WNBAInsidr: WNBA Rookie Report: All-Star Edition
Honestly, I’d rather watch real games, but to each their own: NBA Live 19 Wants You To Create Your Own WNBA Player In Career Mode
Shea “Just Call Me an Aces Fan” Serrano: The Casual Superiority of Breanna Stewart – The Seattle Storm star and MVP front-runner sports a signature style of play—one that will be front and center at this weekend’s WNBA All-Star Game
There’s an obvious brilliance to the way that Breanna Stewart holds a basketball, dribbles a basketball, passes a basketball, and shoots a basketball. It’s intriguing. And captivating. And part of that, yes, comes from the allure that’s just naturally attached to knowing you’re watching someone do a thing better than nearly everyone else on the planet. (It’s why movie scenes when Denzel Washington flexes are so mesmerizing, or why a plate of food that a master chef has prepared is so hypnotizing, etc.) But the other part of that is how her brand of basketball genius looks so disconnected from everything else.
Care to bet? WNBA DFS: Best All-Star Game DraftKings daily fantasy basketball lineups
Upcoming Movie Night Alert
<p><a href=”https://vimeo.com/184569126″>SUANNE BIG CROW – Story Concept</a> from <a href=”https://vimeo.com/user8154464″>750 Productions</a> on <a href=”https://vimeo.com”>Vimeo</a>.</p>
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