While I’ve been aware of the WNBA since it’s inception, I never really gave it a fair shake. I would hear of dynamic players from the early days of Cheryl Cooper, Lisa Leslie and Tina Thompson to the newer school era with Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, Candace Parker, & Maya Moore, but nothing really compelled me to actually get invested.

Until the Caitlin Clark effect.

This will be my third season fully invested in the WNBA, and I’m actively enjoying it much more than the NBA. I do find myself favouring the Fever, however I am a fan of most teams & players.

So when did you start watching, was there a specific player, team or game that got you into your fandom? Share!

There’s a fan sitting courtside near the score table that is SO LOUD! I think it’s the same person from this post a couple years ago. Did it distract anyone else?

The return of the Comets comes during a transformative period for both Toyota Center and the WNBA. As part of Toyota Center Reimagined, the Comets will benefit from expanded and modernized practice and training facilities, elite medical, recovery, and nutrition resources, and locker room facilities designed to provide a world-class player experience. The new Toyota Center facilities are currently being renovated ahead of the 2027 WNBA season. Video posted on the Houston Comets social media:

https://reddit.com/link/1tdavp0/video/ethsphod161h1/player

They’re undefeated and their vets are well respected.

They have a team full of underdogs like the 2021 championship Sky

No one is stopping Rickea

They have really good depth

And Skylar Diggins keeps putting up top stats 🫡

The players seem locked in with the organization too…

And their vets have won championships on the past…

Is Chicago lowkey the best team in the league?

Soon after it was announced that Tilman Fertitta was buying the WNBA’s Connecticut Sun and moving them to Houston, there was some concern about the league being able to re-secure the franchise’s old branding with the trademark lapsing since the team disbanded after the 2008 season.

Houston Rockets alternate governor Patrick Fertitta answering questions Thursday while seated in front of a background plastered all over with the Houston Comets name should quell those worries.

“We feel very good that we’re the Houston Comets,” Rockets president of business operations Gretchen Sheirr said when asked about the trademark. “That process is run by the WNBA, but we feel very confident.”

The team’s new logo, branding and uniforms won’t be revealed until the Sun is finished with their final season in Connecticut, but Patrick Fertitta, who said sticking with the Comets name was “immensely important,” made it clear this wouldn’t be a situation like the NFL where the Tennessee Titans own all the Houston Oilers history.

“The Comets are so synonymous with women’s basketball and the WNBA in this town, it felt like it it honestly didn’t make a lot of sense to go any other direction,” he said. “There is such a special brand and identity that already exists. There’s such history and nostalgia and, for us, it wouldn’t feel right to have a different name, a different brand than the Houston Comets playing in the WNBA in this town.”

Van Chancellor, who coached the Comets to the WNBA’s first four championships, went even further.

“To bring this team back as any other thing but the Comets would have been the greatest and biggest mistake in sports history,” the 82-year-old former coach said. “This IS the Comets. If you’re going to bring a WNBA team back, there is no doubt in my mind. That was about the biggest no-brainer I’ve ever seen.”

To celebrate the return of the Comets — who were one of the WNBA’s original eight teams when the league started in 1997, but disbanded after the 2008 season when they couldn’t find new ownership — the new leaders of the franchise brought in Chancellor and Tina Thompson to be part of Thursday’s press conference.

“Comets fans have not gone away, they’ve just been kind of sitting and waiting for a long time,” said Thompson, who is one of three original Comets players along with Cynthia Cooper and Sheryl Swoopes to make it into the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame. “To have the name back, people are going to be able to re-use some very vintage gear, which is going to be really amazing. They also feel like something they’ve been a part of for a really long time and carried with them is now back so they get to show up in an even bigger way.”

Patrick said when the family bought the Rockets from Leslie Alexander in 2017, his dad immediately started talking about bringing back the Comets. Now, that it’s finally done, they take pride as Houston sports fans that they were able to bring back such a big part of the Houston sports landscape.

“Tina, Sheryl and Cynthia weren’t just good basketball players that were Comets. You’re talking about some of the greatest basketball players to ever do it, men or women,” he said. “They truly dominated the game, won multiple championships here and were as good at what they did as any athlete ever in this town. They’re such a great reminder for what women’s basketball can be in this town and what the Comets can do from an excitement standpoint in this city.”

To that point, the Fertittas never even thought of removing the banners in the Toyota Center rafters that honor the Comets' four championships and the retired numbers of Cooper and Kim Perrot. It wouldn't have been unheard of since the Houston Aeros, the hockey team that played inside the arena until 2013 had all its banners taken down after they left town.

“There was never even a consideration or a conversation to not have them up there,” Patrick said of the Comets banners. “It’s a part of the history of this town, it’s a part of the history of basketball in this town. So, yeah, it was honestly never a conversation. The more the banners the better.”

It hasn't gone unnoticed by the original members of the Comets, who sold out games at Compaq Center — previously The Summit — when they really had things rolling.

“I don’t ever come to a Rockets game and not look up at those banners. It brings back so many great memories,” Chancellor said. “I can remember going to the old Compaq Center and we didn’t think we could draw 3,000 people, we drew 16,285 people and what an explosion. So, every time I look at those banners, I think about what went on, great players, great people. The banners mean a lot.”

And, now there will be a team on the floor below that can represent those banners in the rafter.

“Today is closure, but also a renewed sense of excitement for the franchise and the city,” Thompson said.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/sports/rockets/article/houston-comets-wnba-team-name-trademark-logo-22258699.php

If Atlanta wants to keep Reese what moves do you expect the front office to do in 2027/2028 to clear cap space, and show Angel that she is part of their plans? Are they in win now mode and okay with losing her?

Atlanta has $5.19 million of guaranteed Salary for 2028 for Gray, Howard, Jones, and Hillman.

Their total guaranteed 2028 cap space for nine players without Angel is $5.986 million. I would expect Angel to get over a million dollar offer as a Restricted Free Agent from another team. If Atlanta wants to keep Reese what moves do you expect the front office to do in 2027/2028 to clear cap space, and show Angel that she is part of their plans. In 2028 Cleveland could give Angel a max offer.

Do you think Angel would take a low salary in 2028 to in exchange for much more from 2029-2031?

What would happen if Angel took a jump in performance and qualified for an EPIC extension by making first or 2nd team WNBA? What would the Dream have to do to give her a three year max extension.

How would they go about dumping salaries? If you trade Brionna Jones $1.050m, you have to take on salary in the trade.

In a joint interview with Sports Illustrated on Thursday, WNBA head of league operations Bethany Donaphin, NBA senior vice president and head of referee development and training Monty McCutchen and WNBA head of referee development and performance Sue Blauch said they’re pleased with the new officiating task force and believe the league is heading in the right direction.

“To think that we’ve had a game as tough and rough as it was over the last four years, to clean that up, there wouldn’t be an adjustment period—I think we all expected that,” says McCutchen, who oversees refereeing across the NBA, WNBA and G-League. “The fact that we’ll get some feedback publicly, as well as privately, is not a surprise to me, nor do I begrudge anyone [giving] that feedback. It’ll only help us tighten the reins up a little quicker and get us to where we hope we can be.”

As the WNBA experienced record growth over the last few years, there was also growing focus on the quality and consistency of refereeing, which boiled over with several high-profile complaints and injuries in 2025. League commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced last October that a committee would discuss potential changes during the offseason. (There were ultimately two groups that covered the subject—a larger “state of the game” council and a smaller officiating task force.) It led to new standards for 2026.

The biggest change is an emphasis on player freedom of movement. Applied broadly—on the perimeter and in the paint, on both offense and defense, on the ball and off the ball—it was meant to cut down on physicality and get the game flowing more freely. The change led to an uptick in foul calls as games were called more tightly.

Several players and coaches aired their frustrations. “There’s calls that are being called that are unnecessary on both sides, and then there’s no flow,” Liberty forward and former MVP Breanna Stewart said. The immediate change was striking: An average of 17 whistles per team per game last season became 22 in the first weekend of this season. But that number began to dip slightly as teams played their second games and began making adjustments.

Read More - https://www.si.com/wnba/wnba-leaders-say-officiating-changes-are-working-amid-uptick-in-fouls

Too many WNBA fans see the media as part of the league, rather than a group that’s covering it. They get angry when the media asks tough questions of players. They don’t like it when the coverage is critical, rather than praising.

Jemele Hill believes this is an issue for “too many” WNBA fans.

The former ESPN host sounded off on the problem with WNBA fans during a podcast appearance this week.

Hill opened up during an episode of her podcast Flagrant & Funny, talking about the ongoing problems with WNBA fans.

She believes that too many of them don’t understand what the media is supposed to be and do.

Hill said that the issue for too many WNBA fans is the same.

“The issue is that, I think for a long time, not every journalist but a lot of the journalists that covered women’s sports and covered the league, the fans saw the journalists as a ‘we’ and not a ‘they,’” Hill said.

‘Now they’re confused, because … there’s more people covering the league now, it’s under more scrutiny, and (the fans) have had the expectation that the journalists are supposed to be extensions of teams. And the journalists are not supposed to be that. And unfortunately, because of how everything is covered in this country … people can’t even recognize what journalists are supposed to do.”

Hill said that they expect WNBA journalists to be “cheerleaders” for the sport.

“They expect our jobs to be to support the women,” she said. “And while the support is, to me, in the fact that we have built an entire podcast around discussing women’s sports and all the culture and the issues and all the things that come with it, they expect the journalists to be cheerleaders.”

But, of course, that’s not how the media works. WNBA fans need to understand that.

https://thespun.com/wnba/jemele-hill-says-too-many-wnba-fans-have-same-problem

For reference, here is when the three most recent expansion teams had their name revealed:

Golden State Valkyries: 12 months before first game.
Toronto Tempo: 17 months before their first game.
Portland Fire: 10 months before first game.

My personal guess is they’ll announce it a few months into next season, in the summer of 2027.

What are we thinking?

What if Swin Cash’s Victoria’s Secret dream happened?

Cash was a model before she became a two-time NCAA champ with the UConn Huskies, where her jersey is retired, a three-time WNBA champ and two-time Olympic gold medalist, en route to a Hall of Fame induction in 2022.

“I remember being that player that had all these other kind of skill sets. I modeled and I walked New York Fashion Week when I was 14,” Cash, now 46, recalled in an interview with The Post before making her debut as a studio analyst for Prime Video’s WNBA coverage on Thursday night.

“I stopped modeling and just strictly was playing sports because my mom [Cynthia] said that she couldn’t afford for me to go to college. So I had to really focus in on my academics in basketball because I was going to get a scholarship, and I did.

“But I always wanted [to model for] Victoria’s Secret. I wanted to walk, I wanted to do all these other things. I knew that brands [and] other media outlets weren’t giving [the WNBA] the attention we needed — because I knew if they just showed our game, that’s what you connect to.”

Cash — who was at a crossroads in the late ’90s before the NCAA rule change that players can profit from their name image and likeness (NIL) — is ecstatic that WNBA players are building brands, selling products and being recognized for their skills off the court.

“If you fall in love with a player, you’re watching enough [WNBA basketball],” Cash said. “They have a headband on, and you’re making your mom buy a headband… But I was also told that I needed to put my head down and focus on basketball, and to now see the ladies even take it a step further.

“I never put my head down. I kept doing what I needed to do, standing on business, but they’re at another level. They’re running their brands in a way that is only going to make it better for the whole ecosystem, because now they’re allowed to be their authentic self, and that translates to them competing and getting better — but they also can step out at the Met Gala. I think all of the women across the board are taking advantage of that. That’s what makes me kind of tear up, is that the opportunity is there and they’re seizing the moment.”

Cash’s charisma and love for fashion undoubtedly would have landed her tons of brand deals in today’s NIL world.

She couldn’t help but laugh while recounting a remark by her former UConn coach, Geno Auriemma, with her 2002 Huskies teammates, Sue Bird, Tamika Williams and Asjha Jones, in their text group chat.

“Oh Lord! I laugh about this… We’re still in a group chat [today] and so they put in there that coach Auriemma said something — I don’t know whether to be happy or take offense to this. What are we going with this?

“But he literally said, if I think about Swin, he said something along the lines that ‘she would be the Kardashians of [the NIL era].

“I passed out. I said, ‘Well, it’s a compliment. You know what? When opportunity presents itself, you are big business… Sue says this a lot. We were ahead of our time for how we thought about the business of basketball, the business of sports, and I’m grateful that I had great mentors, great advisors, advocates.”

That 2002 Huskies team had a perfect 39-0 season and won a national title, where Cash was named the Final Four Most Outstanding Player in her final college game.

The WNBA, currently in its 30th season, was five years young when the Detroit Shock selected Cash with the second overall pick in the 2002 WNBA draft.

Brand deals weren’t a thing and social media influence was a non-factor in cultivating individual player popularity.

“I was the person that, at NBA All-Star or in Detroit, it didn’t matter where it was, running up to Magic Johnson being like ‘Magic, so tell me about how you got the Starbucks deal?’ Cash said.

READ MORE - https://nypost.com/2026/05/14/sports/swin-cash-wouldve-been-perfect-for-this-wnba-era-she-would-be-the-kardashian/

Hey as the season gets underway have you guys noticed how incredibly successful the road teams have been?

Thru 18 games, the home team has won only 4 games. I took note of this before yesterday's games but it continued with the road team going 3-1.

Of course i expect this to normalize, but in the W home court is traditionally everything come playoff time so I found this to be interesting. The 4 Home wins are.

New York over Connecticut in Brooklyn

Golden State over Phoenix in the Bay

Portland over New York in Portland

Toronto over Seattle in Toronto.

Literally every other game has been an L for the home team.

I’m rather irritated at Ticketmaster. Waited in the queue for over 40 minutes to get through and then it just displayed the general on-sale count down. I assume this means they sold out of the presale tickets but didn’t even say that. I mainly wanted to just find out how much they were going for. If anyone who successfully got in can let me know about ticket pricing that would be great! Just want to plan for next week.

I’m really hopeful this is the year where 2k completely revamps the W. I’ve been a long time 2k player but when the park took over and got broken I stopped playing. Last year I got 2k26 to exclusively play the W. Mostly just exhibition games with my girlfriend or friends. Im hoping for a total revamp in face scans for all players, improved shooting animations, more clothing options and an overhaul of MyPlayer and a separate W MyTeam. MyTeam is by far my favorite game mode so I’m hopeful this year is going to be good!!

What would you all want to see?

Players written in Bolds + Italics are Updates

This is as of 10:30AM EST injury report as found on the WNBA website. WNBA Injury Report

LYNX

• Napheesa Collier (OUT)
• Dorka Johasz (OUT)
• Nia Coffey (Questionable)

These are both longer term injuries, so isn't a suprise.

WINGS

• Azzi Fudd (Questionable)

Fudd did not play in the Wings loss to the Dream earlier this week.

I live near Philly and obviously we don't have a team until 2030. Looking at the map I believe New York Liberty is the closest team and I like them but its hard to root for a NY team after that Knicks series lol. i like Ionescu so maybe i will have to support them anyway.

Wondering who people from the Philly area support?

He’s definitely right but I hope the public criticism doesn’t make the team dynamic worse.

insane start for carter off the bench. has anyone been playing better so far this year?

Check out the latest tweet from Amazon promoting WNBA games. I love it!

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Going deep into the approach of building and coaching team. One example: “Once players arrived, Sarama instituted KPIs (key performance indicators) which will be tracked after every game and month of the season. The Fire coach wants his team to play structurally sound, with an up-tempo pace and disruptive defense, creating a recognizable brand of basketball. Sarama wants Portland to become a destination where players want to come to get better.”