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The WNBA regular season starts today, May 14. I started a similar thread in 2023 and I didn't do a great job of updating it over the summer, as I focused instead on the NBA Summer League and foreign trips taken by various men's and women's college basketball teams. No promises, but I'll try to do better this year.
This pro league is in some ways the most unforgiving, because there are 12 teams and 12 roster spots, which creates a significant barrier to the many collegiate and international women trying to make it as rookies. It seems like it would be easier to increase the roster size than the number of teams, but no one asked me, so...
Meet the Golden State Valkyries; the team name was announced today. I would have asked actress Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in the Marvel movies) to do the narration for this intro, but I guess that singer Kehlani, a native of the Bay Area, makes sense too. The team begins play next year. Following suit is a Toronto franchise that will become the 14th team in 2026.
The WNBA rosters were finalized Monday, and Duke can claim three pros. Descriptions are from GoDuke's earlier article about training camp. (Elizabeth Balogun was invited to the Atlanta Dream for camp, but was waived May 4.)
Chelsea Gray, Las Vegas Aces
Elizabeth Williams, Chicago Sky
Lexie Brown, Los Angeles Sparks
There are also two former Blue Devils in the league who Duke can't officially claim: Celeste Taylor, drafted by the Indiana Fever in the 2nd round, and Azura Stevens, on the Sparks roster and entering her 7th season as a pro. (According to AP News, Taylor is one of four 2nd round rookies to make a roster. The others are Nika Muhl in Seattle, and Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin in Las Vegas.)
Gray (lower left leg) and Stevens (left arm) will not play in their teams' season openers. ESPN's injury report says Gray is expected back May 18, while Stevens' return is estimated for June 22.
I'll write something up later about the non-players in the league with Duke connections. Here are the opening night games and links:
Liberty-Mystics, 7pm ET, ESPN3
Fever-Sun, 7:30pm ET, ESPN2/ESPN+/Disney+
Lynx-Storm, 10pm ET, ESPN3
Mercury-Aces, 10pm ET, ESPN2/ESPN+/Disney+
ESPN's scoreboard pages are pretty good with showing what future games are televised, and not just on their networks. There's a Thursday game (Liberty-Fever) on Amazon Prime and a pair of Friday games (Mystics-Sun and Storm-Lynx) on cable channel ION.
This pro league is in some ways the most unforgiving, because there are 12 teams and 12 roster spots, which creates a significant barrier to the many collegiate and international women trying to make it as rookies. It seems like it would be easier to increase the roster size than the number of teams, but no one asked me, so...
Meet the Golden State Valkyries; the team name was announced today. I would have asked actress Tessa Thompson (Valkyrie in the Marvel movies) to do the narration for this intro, but I guess that singer Kehlani, a native of the Bay Area, makes sense too. The team begins play next year. Following suit is a Toronto franchise that will become the 14th team in 2026.
The WNBA rosters were finalized Monday, and Duke can claim three pros. Descriptions are from GoDuke's earlier article about training camp. (Elizabeth Balogun was invited to the Atlanta Dream for camp, but was waived May 4.)
Chelsea Gray, Las Vegas Aces
Gray recently wrapped up her 10th WNBA season overall and fourth with the Las Vegas Aces in 2023, helping the team post a 34-6 overall record – the most regular season wins in WNBA history – and lock up the No. 1 overall seed en route to capturing their second straight WNBA title. Gray earned her fifth WNBA All-Star selection during the year averaging 15.3 points, 7.3 assists and 4.0 rebounds per game – her assist average checking in at No. 3 in the WNBA.
Elizabeth Williams, Chicago Sky
Entering her ninth season in the league, Williams looks to help the Sky pick up right where they left off after closing the 2023 campaign with an 18-22 record that included wins in six of their final eight games to secure the eighth and final playoff spot. In her eighth season in the league, Williams played in all 40 contests and averaged 9.8 points on 51.4 percent shooting, a team-best 1.5 blocks and 5.8 rebounds per game.
Lexie Brown, Los Angeles Sparks
Heading into her seventh WNBA season and third as a member of the Sparks, Brown is coming off a 2023 season that saw her start 11 of the 12 games she played in. The Suwanee, Ga., product was putting up splits of 12.4 points, 2.4 assists and 2.1 boards in 30.3 minutes while shooting 49 percent from the field and knocking down her threes at a 42-percent clip, before having to take two separate pauses due to a non-COVID illness and miss the final 26 games of the year. Brown and the Sparks agreed on a two-year contract extension in February.
There are also two former Blue Devils in the league who Duke can't officially claim: Celeste Taylor, drafted by the Indiana Fever in the 2nd round, and Azura Stevens, on the Sparks roster and entering her 7th season as a pro. (According to AP News, Taylor is one of four 2nd round rookies to make a roster. The others are Nika Muhl in Seattle, and Dyaisha Fair and Kate Martin in Las Vegas.)
Gray (lower left leg) and Stevens (left arm) will not play in their teams' season openers. ESPN's injury report says Gray is expected back May 18, while Stevens' return is estimated for June 22.
I'll write something up later about the non-players in the league with Duke connections. Here are the opening night games and links:
Liberty-Mystics, 7pm ET, ESPN3
Fever-Sun, 7:30pm ET, ESPN2/ESPN+/Disney+
Lynx-Storm, 10pm ET, ESPN3
Mercury-Aces, 10pm ET, ESPN2/ESPN+/Disney+
ESPN's scoreboard pages are pretty good with showing what future games are televised, and not just on their networks. There's a Thursday game (Liberty-Fever) on Amazon Prime and a pair of Friday games (Mystics-Sun and Storm-Lynx) on cable channel ION.
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