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      WNBA Playoff Preview: The Sun Are Ready to End the Storm's Reign

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      Connecticut has the league’s best record, but Seattle has the best track record. But none of that may matter if the Las Vegas Aces hit their stride.Had the Connecticut Sun not saved their fan appreciation night for the last game of the W.N.B.A. regular season, Coach Curt Miller may have preferred to forfeit.Already comfortably holding the No. 1 seed, Connecticut (26-6) wanted a win — but didn’t need one. The Sun just needed to stay healthy. Connecticut got the win — a 20-point blowout of Atlanta for its 14th victory in a row — but lost DeWanna Bonner for the game because of back tightness in the first quarter.The sight of her hobbling toward the locker room was anxiety-inducing for a fan base with high expectations. With everyone on the court, the Sun believe this is their year to bring the franchise’s first championship to Connecticut.But A’ja Wilson, last season’s most valuable player, and the second-seeded Las Vegas Aces (24-8) believe it is their year to win. After all, Wilson took the Aces to the finals in 2020, despite Las Vegas being without several key players because of injuries and medical exemptions. The Aces were swept by the Seattle Storm at the league’s Florida bubble. But now the All-Star center Liz Cambage is back, and Las Vegas’ formidable and explosive starting backcourt of Chelsea Gray and Riquna Williams has dominated and the team has gotten key contributions from the second-unit firecrackers Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young.A finals pitting the league’s best offense (Las Vegas) against the league’s best defense (Connecticut) would make for a fun battle for the W.N.B.A.’s 25th title crown. But when playoff action begins Thursday, with two single-elimination games, six other teams will be out to disrupt any potential storybook endings.Here’s what to expect.First Round: Single EliminationNo. 5 Phoenix Mercury (19-13) vs. No. 8 Liberty (12-20)The Liberty ended the regular season the way it began: with a glimmer of hope that the franchise can reclaim its bygone glory. A hot start earned Sabrina Ionescu honors for player of the week and Walt Hopkins the season’s first award for coach of the month, but the success did not stick.Before defeating the Washington Mystics in their final regular-season game, the Liberty had lost eight consecutive games. And while the win kept their playoff hopes alive, the Liberty’s ticket to the postseason came down to losses by two other teams on the final day of the season. Now, the Liberty must overcome a bleak 5-11 road record to win against a Phoenix team that thrives when cornered and happens to be peaking at the right time.The Mercury compiled a 10-game winning streak after the Olympic break but dropped their last three games with Diana Taurasi sidelined by an ankle injury. Yet even in its season-ending loss, Phoenix turned in one of its best performances of the season on the steam of role players like Sophie Cunningham and Shey Peddy.But Phoenix would be remiss to overlook the Liberty.The Liberty can force the Mercury into a scrappy battle if: Natasha Howard, the Liberty’s rebounding leader, can get the team second-chance scoring opportunities and involve Sami Whitcomb, the Liberty’s best 3-point shooter; Betnijah Laney, the team’s leading scorer; Michaela Onyenwere, the leading candidate for the Rookie of the Year Award; and Jazmine Jones, who can own the paint. A Liberty win is unlikely but not impossible.No. 6 Chicago Sky (16-16) vs. No. 7 Dallas Wings (14-18)Led by a combustible duo known as Marike — Marina Mabrey and Arike Ogunbowale — the Wings battle harder and smarter than their upside-down record indicates. Coach Vickie Johnson, in her first season, has persuaded players to buy into her rotation experiments. The result is a young and tough squad that fears no foe and has picked up wins over Chicago, Phoenix and Seattle.Candace Parker, a six-time All Star, won a championship with the Los Angeles Sparks. She’s the second-leading scorer, and top rebounder, for the Sky.Jonathan Daniel/Getty ImagesCandace Parker has made an undeniable impact in her first year in Chicago, helping the team to a seven-game winning streak in June. But the team has since limped to the finish. For the postseason, the Sky will be evenly matched with the Wings, though they play two different styles of basketball — with Dallas strong on the outside, and Chicago at its best inside. The Wings rank second in the W.N.B.A. in second-chance points per game (12.3) and lead the league in offensive rebounds per game (10). To win, the Sky will need to play better defense.Second Round: Single EliminationNo. 3 Minnesota Lynx (22-10) vs. Lowest-Seeded Winner in First RoundMinnesota achieved a level of success that seemed impossible after a series of injuries and absences left Coach Cheryl Reeve relying on multiple players on seven-day contracts. Minnesota started the season on a four-game losing streak that ended with the arrival of Layshia Clarendon from the Liberty in late May.Aerial Powers averaged 18 points per game in September, including a 27-point outburst in the season-closer against Washington. So, if Clarendon remains healthy, Sylvia Fowles continues her double-double ways and Powers stays hot, the Lynx should be able to handle whichever team advances to play them.A true title run, however, depends on Napheesa Collier finding the consistency that has thus far eluded her.Jewell Loyd scored 37 points in the Storm’s final regular-season game, a welcome close to an up-and-down post-Olympic run for Seattle.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesNo. 4 Seattle Storm (21-11) vs. Highest-Seeded Winner in First RoundEven amid personnel changes — Alysha Clark, Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb departing in free agency before the season and Noelle Quinn assuming head coaching duties with the season already underway — Breanna Stewart, Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd let the rest of the league know just how serious they are about winning a third title in four seasons.But the Storm were not the same after the Olympic break, losing six of their 11 games, including a 32-point blowout to Chicago at home.Seattle was without Stewart (foot) for its last two matchups. And Loyd, in the season-ender, poured in 37 points. The Storm’s title chances improve with Stewart in the mix. But if she can’t play, or plays hobbled, Quinn has a deep well of talent to draw from — starting with Loyd.Semifinals: Best-of-FiveConnecticut’s Jonquel Jones, left, and A’ja Wilson of Las Vegas, right, could find themselves facing off for a championship soon. Each has lost in the finals.Dana Jensen/The Day, via Associated PressNo. 2 Las Vegas Aces (24-8) vs. Highest-Seeded Winner in Second RoundWilson and Cambage may be recognized as the team’s biggest stars, but they are not alone. Coach Bill Laimbeer has stacked his roster deep with superstars calling themselves a second unit. When Dearica Hamby, a two-time winner of the Sixth Woman of the Year Award, comes off the bench alongside a pair of gritty, former No. 1 draft picks at guard, Plum and Young, play intensifies, pace quickens and momentum shifts. Understanding Wilson and Cambage’s tendency to draw a lot of defenders, Laimbeer expects his second unit to feast on the scoring opportunities this presents.And they have — Plum, in particular. Her frenetic energy on defense has worn down offenses and her willingness to compile 30-point shooting performances when needed has kept the Aces in games. If Las Vegas makes a return to the finals, it will be because of its second unit and the steady, sometimes unsung, contributions of Williams and Gray.No. 1 Connecticut Sun (26-6) vs. Lowest-Seeded Winner in Second RoundIf Plum is the secret weapon for the Aces, the Sun’s is Brionna Jones: a 6-foot-3 forward who showcased a range of talent in increased minutes in 2020 that inspired Miller to keep her in the starting lineup. Remarkably light on her feet, Jones has sharp court awareness and quick hands that allow her to be at the right place at the right time for collecting rebounds and scoring on putbacks.And while Jones dazzles with the best spin moves in the game, Jonquel Jones keeps her head down, coolly carving up defenses and thwarting offenses. Their performances have been fostered by a complete team approach and riding the hot hand. Any player, whether Bonner, Briann January or Natisha Hiedeman, could go off for big buckets at any time. But Connecticut’s quest for a franchise-first title runs through the Joneses. More

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      The W.N.B.A.'s Seattle Storm Are Winners. The City Should Fully Embrace Them

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      Inside the arena, Seattle Storm fans bring the passion. Outside, the city has yet to fully embrace a team that has won four W.N.B.A. championships.SEATTLE — What do I have to do around here to buy a cap that reps the best team in women’s basketball?That’s what I was thinking last week as I walked the streets of downtown Seattle, home of the W.N.B.A. champions, the Storm.In sports paraphernalia shops, I hunted for a green-and-gold Storm cap, a T-shirt, or maybe a replica of the team’s new black jerseys, anything that would show off my love for one of the premier teams in sports.What I found were stores filled with Seahawks, Mariners and Washington Huskies swag. I saw eager customers buying caps affixed with the ice blue “S” that represents the Kraken, the new N.H.L. team in town. The Kraken’s first game isn’t until next month.Each time I asked for Storm merchandise, I was met with bewilderment and surprise. One salesperson suggested Storm gear would surely sit untouched because of the demand for Russell Wilson jerseys. Another told me she could sell me a Storm bumper sticker, but she wasn’t sure where it was.Disappointed, I drove to a nearby suburb and found a sporting goods store in a mall. Here my question was answered with this:“Who are the Storm?”A series of championships has still not generated broad support outside core fans.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesIn their 21 years of existence, the Storm have been remarkably consistent. They hold four W.N.B.A. titles. The first came in 2004. The last in 2020. As the league heads into this season’s playoffs, which start this week, they are once again among its top four teams and stand a good chance of repeating as champions.Leading the reigning champions are three athletes of remarkable distinction. Jewell Loyd is an offensive spark plug with a game fashioned after Kobe Bryant, who was one of her mentors. Breanna Stewart, the league M.V.P. in 2018, is possibly the best player in the women’s game. Sue Bird, one of her sport’s few breakout stars, has spent her entire professional career in Seattle.These three women helped the United States win the gold medal at the Tokyo Olympics. At the opening ceremony, Bird carried the American flag in the parade of athletes.That’s who the Storm are.And yet in the stores I visited last week and on the streets of a city that touts itself as deeply progressive, I saw nothing to indicate that Seattle has a W.N.B.A. team, let alone passion for one.Merchandise is a metaphor, a signpost of something else: cultural capital. They don’t call all those hats, shirts, jerseys and sweatshirts “swag” for nothing, and the prevalence of it — or, in this case, the lack of it — speaks to something profound.The signal sent when gear is so hard to find and so rarely seen? Women remain an afterthought, which hits especially hard for a team sport played predominantly by Black women.The players notice.“You don’t see us repped as much as we should be,” Loyd told me, still sweating after a hard practice last week. “It is almost impossible to find a jersey. We are like a hidden gem. To put all of this work into something and we are not seen, what else do we have to do? We’ve won championships here and brought value to our city, and yet you can’t find a jersey?”Storm guard Jewell Loyd is one of the team’s stars.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesThere is nuance to this story, though. True, in its 25th year, the W.N.B.A continues to struggle for hearts and minds. But after last season, when the league burnished its reputation for excellence and solidified itself as a leader in the fight for social justice, it is also making inroads.While viewership for most sports is declining in an era of cable television cord-cutting, the W.N.B.A.’s national broadcast ratings are on the rise. Player salaries are climbing, too, and several of the league’s stars feature in national advertising campaigns for large corporations. Eight players signed deals recently to represent Nike’s Jordan Brand, a number once unthinkable. In a first, one enduring star, the Chicago Sky’s Candace Parker, fronts the popular NBA 2K video game.The league has also successfully courted backing from companies such as Google, Facebook, AT&T, Nike and Deloitte, the professional services firm helmed by Cathy Engelbert before she moved to the W.N.B.A. in 2019 to serve as its commissioner.When I interviewed her last week, Engelbert spoke of the need to change and amplify the league’s narrative. She hailed the devoted, diverse, youthful and socially progressive fan base. She wants the W.N.B.A. valued in new ways that go beyond old metrics like Nielsen ratings.When I mentioned I rarely saw Storm gear in Seattle, my hometown, she hardly seemed surprised.“We need to do better” at marketing and telling the league’s story, she said. If that happens, sales of merchandise will rise, along with overall popularity. “I mean, everyone should know who Sue Bird is,” she said. “She happens to be one of our household names, but we don’t have enough of them.”The commissioner also singled out the importance of selling the game by highlighting individual stars and the intense rivalries among players and teams, akin to how the N.B.A. grew when Magic Johnson and Larry Bird came to that league.The Storm’s Sue Bird is one of the sport’s best-known celebrities.Lindsey Wasson for The New York TimesOne such rivalry, between the Storm and the Phoenix Mercury, was on full display on Friday night.It was Seattle’s final regular-season game. Both teams had qualified for the playoffs, but much was on the line, including bragging rights between two organizations that have a history of epic clashes. More important, the winner would also get to skip the postseason’s first round.At that game — played 30 miles north of Seattle because the team’s typical arena is being renovated — I finally found rabid fans wearing their Storm swag. Caps, T-shirts, socks, face masks, sweatbands. A few fans donned green-and-gold shoes with player autographs. Some wore the uniforms of Bird, Loyd and Stewart from the Olympic team.Before 6,000 spectators instead of the 2,000 typically at the Storm’s temporary home, the teams put on a showcase of flowing, fast-paced basketball. Despite being without Stewart, who is nursing a foot injury, Seattle came out firing. Loyd hit a barrage of midrange jump shots and deep 3-pointers. On her way to a career-high 37 points, she scored 22 in the first quarter.The Storm won, 94-85, delighting a boisterous, fun-loving crowd. It was easy to feel the team’s intensity and to see how its firm base of loyal and diverse fans powered the W.N.B.A.But outside of such fans, away from its arenas, the league mirrors society and its inequities. All you need to do is walk the streets of Seattle and shop for a Storm cap to see that. More

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      Breanna Stewart’s Golden Journey to Motherhood

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      “I went from one emotion to the next,” the W.N.B.A. star said. “From winning a gold medal to realizing, OK, I’m going home, and my daughter is going to be born in less than 24 hours.”Breanna Stewart is ready to tell her secret.She kept it for months: During the first half of the current W.N.B.A. season, as captain of the Seattle Storm; in Tokyo this month, as she led the United States to Olympic gold in women’s basketball.Only a few close friends, which included a pair of teammates, knew of her and her wife’s private joy.“We just wanted to share this with a very close circle,” she told me last week, referring to herself and her wife, Marta Xargay. “Just to have this special time in life to ourselves for a while.”Many consider Stewart the greatest female basketball player of this era. Now they can also call her a mom.Stewart and Xargay’s gestational surrogate carried an embryo that had been seeded in one of Stewart’s eggs. Four days after winning a gold medal and most valuable player honors at the Tokyo Games women’s basketball tournament, Stewart experienced a moment that she said could compare with nothing else: the birth of her first child. “It took my breath away,” she said. “The most important moment of my life.”The no-fanfare birth of Ruby Mae Stewart Xargay is a story of love and family in the modern age — without limits. It shows how female sports stars are pushing past tradition and finding a level of power that extends to every aspect of their lives.“This is about controlling my own destiny,” Stewart told me. “It’s about making decisions that fit me, fit my family and where we want to go, where we want to be, and not waiting.”Though still rare, having children and returning to competition is not new for the best female athletes. In recent years, a small number of mothers, about 10 or so, have played in the W.N.B.A. each season.But Stewart, 26, and in her prime, is helping chart a new course. Having missed the entire W.N.B.A. season in 2019 because of an Achilles’ rupture, using a surrogate afforded her the chance to keep her career going without another interruption.She is now the most prominent player to become a mother since the Women’s National Basketball Players Association championed a trailblazing labor agreement that set a new template for how sports leagues should treat women. Formalized in 2020, that labor deal did not just increase leaguewide salaries. It also ensured full pay for maternity leave, boosted access to child care and provided significant financial support for child adoption, surrogacy and egg freezing so that players can have children when the time is right.Stewart during the gold medal game of the Tokyo Games against Japan.Doug Mills/The New York Times“I’ve always known I wanted to have a family, always wanted to be a younger mom,” Stewart said. “It will not be easy, but why can’t I be the best player, a mom and have a child in the way we have done?”Stewart pulled this off in what for her is typical fashion — carefully and tactically.In 2017, her second year as a pro, she revealed in an essay that she is a survivor of sexual abuse endured in her childhood, using the public disclosure to advocate on behalf of other survivors. As an emerging star in a predominantly Black sport, Stewart had not spoken out much on matters of race. But starting last summer, after listening to her peers and getting involved in protests in the Seattle area, she began speaking loudly for Black justice.For a long time she was quiet, too, about her relationship with Xargay, a now-retired Spanish basketball player with whom she had fallen in love while the two played on a Russian Euroleague team in 2019. But in May, Stewart posted to social media a picture of their engagement. The couple married on July 6 in a small ceremony atop their downtown Seattle condominium, details Stewart had not made public until now.Stewart and Xargay decided they wanted a child in the summer and fall of 2020, as they huddled together through a W.N.B.A. season played in a bubble in Bradenton, Fla.When the season finished, they interviewed surrogates and searched for the right sperm donor. Using an egg frozen during Stewart’s 2019 rehab, the pregnancy took hold. Then there were months of Zoom check-ins with the surrogate and her Idaho doctors.All the while, Stewart had to keep her focus on basketball, which proved particularly challenging in Tokyo. So long as the baby didn’t come early, birth would be induced just after the Games.Stewart said she had to compartmentalize as never before. “When it was game time at the Olympics, I focused fully on the game,” she said. “When I was off the court, I could think of Marta and the baby.”In keeping with her private nature, Stewart was quiet about Ruby to her fellow members of the U.S. national team. She told me that only her Storm teammates and close friends, Jewell Loyd and Sue Bird, knew what was going on behind the scenes. Bird is a founder of TOGETHXR, the media company for which Stewart filmed a documentary about her surrogacy journey.“I went from one emotion to the next,” Stewart said. “From winning a gold medal to realizing, OK, I’m going home, and my daughter is going to be born in less than 24 hours.”What a week she would experience. The gold medal mission accomplished, Stewart flew home with the team, arriving in Los Angeles on Aug. 8, a Sunday. From there she boarded a private plane to Boise, where Xargay and the surrogate waited. Last Monday afternoon, at the Birkeland Maternity Center, in Nampa, Idaho, Stewart and Xargay watched Ruby slip easily into the world.The brown-haired girl’s wailing shrieks filled the room. She weighed 9 pounds 4 ounces. “I was in shock, seeing a baby being born in front of me,” said Stewart, who stands an angular, broad-shouldered 6 feet 4 inches. “I felt like crying. I also just felt the love that was in the air.”Stewart cut the umbilical cord. Soon, she and Xargay held Ruby for the first time. They laid their baby on a bed. They placed the freshly won gold medal at Ruby’s side.On Thursday, Stewart was back to basketball. She flew alone to Phoenix, where the Storm played the championship game of the W.N.B.A.’s inaugural Commissioner’s Cup, a midseason tournament featuring the teams with the best records from the league’s two conferences. Stewart scored 17 points, missing just two field-goal attempts, and the Storm defeated the Connecticut Sun, 79-57.When the game was done, she pulled her team around her in the locker room.“I just wanted you guys to know that Marta and I had a baby,” she remembered saying to a sea of stunned faces. “It was like, ‘Wait, neither one of you are pregnant, so how can that happen?’”As she explained, her teammates showered her with hugs.Stewart told me she would miss only two Storm games to bond with Ruby and to rest. When the Storm play the Liberty for the second time this week on Friday night, she will be there.There is no slowing down in professional women’s basketball. The top players go from battling through W.N.B.A. seasons in America to months spent overseas, seeking to maximize their earnings while still in their prime.It is a grinding treadmill Stewart has been on since she left UConn in 2016. She will not stop. Only now she will have baby Ruby along for the ride, and no more secrets. More

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      Seattle Storm Coach Dan Hughes Retires Midseason

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      Hughes, tied for the third most wins in league history, handed control to Noelle Quinn, who won a title with Seattle as a player.SEATTLE — Seattle Storm Coach Dan Hughes abruptly announced his retirement on Sunday, six games into the season, saying the rigors of being a head coach in the W.N.B.A. has taken a toll.Hughes, 66, said he would continue to serve as an assistant coach for the United States at the Tokyo Olympics, but he handed over the duties of leading the Storm (5-1) to assistant coach Noelle Quinn.“After over 40 years of coaching basketball, I want to finish my career with the focus and determination with which I started,” Hughes said in a statement. “The Seattle Storm is in amazing shape, after two championships and a terrific playoff run in 2019, I would like to announce my retirement from the W.N.B.A. I believe now is the right time because the team is performing well, but the rigors of being a head coach in the WNBA have taken their toll on me. I look forward to coaching with U.S.A. Basketball at the 2021 Olympics, then leveraging my experience to give back to the game in other ways.”Hughes has coached in the W.N.B.A. for 20 years with stops with the defunct Charlotte and Cleveland franchises, San Antonio and Seattle. He has coached the second-most games in league history (598) and is tied for third in victories with 286.Noelle Quinn, middle, playing in the 2018 W.N.B.A. finals.Elaine Thompson/Associated PressHughes arrived in Seattle in 2018 and helped lead the Storm to their third W.N.B.A. title in his first season. He missed part of the 2019 season after having surgery and being treated for a cancerous tumor in his digestive tract, and he was not cleared to be with the Storm in the W.N.B.A. bubble in Bradenton, Fla., during the truncated 2020 season that ended with Seattle’s fourth title.Hughes twice won the W.N.B.A. coach of the year award, in 2001 with Cleveland and in 2007 with San Antonio.“It is rare when a leader has the foresight to make changes at the pinnacle of their career,” Lisa Brummel, a co-owner of the Storm, said. “Under Dan’s leadership, the Storm have won two championships and he has built a great coaching staff here in Seattle. His dedication to his craft is second to none and his legacy is perfectly exemplified by his unselfish nature and ability to see all that lies ahead.”Quinn, 36, joined Seattle’s coaching staff in 2019 after winning the first title of her playing career with the Storm in 2018. She handled head coaching duties earlier this week in a 90-87 win over Connecticut while Hughes was attending his son’s graduation.“I am excited to hand the reins to Noelle,” Hughes said. “She is well positioned to do this job and I am proud to have mentored her during my time here. I look forward to her and the team’s ongoing success.”Assistant coaches Gary Kloppenburg, Ryan Webb and Perry Huang will remain on the team’s staff and work with Quinn. Kloppenburg was the head coach last season in the bubble. More

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      W.N.B.A. Preview: Don’t Bet Against the Aces in the West

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      The return of Liz Cambage and Kelsey Plum makes Las Vegas even more formidable. Did we mention it still has A’ja Wilson, the reigning M.V.P.?The W.N.B.A. begins its 25th season on Friday with the returns of some big-name veterans and the debuts of promising rookies.“Rosters are stacked with incredibly talented veterans, and the last few rookie classes are bringing a whole new element to the fierce competition within the league,” W.N.B.A. Commissioner Cathy Engelbert told The New York Times.Below, our reporters tell you what to expect this season in the Western Conference. (And here’s what to expect in the East.)Las Vegas AcesA’ja Wilson of the Aces won the Most Valuable Player Award in 2020 and led them to the finals.Mike Carlson/Associated PressA medical exemption (Liz Cambage) and torn Achilles’ tendon (Kelsey Plum) kept two of Las Vegas’s key players out for the 2020 season. In their absences, A’ja Wilson (Most Valuable Player Award) and Dearica Hamby (Sixth Woman of the Year Award) notched award-winning seasons. Angel McCoughtry, in her first season with the franchise, added playmaking and veteran poise, and the Aces made it to the finals.Cambage and Plum are back, along with JiSu Park, but little else is familiar.Kayla McBride, a fan favorite, signed with the Minnesota Lynx in free agency, and Las Vegas brought in the former Los Angeles Sparks’ guards Chelsea Gray, as a starter, and Riquna Williams, in reserve.Plum will come off the bench.Gray, who had been playing overseas, joined the Aces just 36 hours before the Aces’ preseason game against her former team, so there’s an acute need to develop chemistry. Coach Bill Laimbeer set forth simple goals heading into their regular-season start on Saturday: Get to know one another better, stay healthy and improve conditioning.Simple goals, but not easy ones.McCoughtry tore an anterior cruciate ligament on Saturday, and is expected to miss the season. McCoughtry’s absence will slow the chemistry-building process, as will Plum’s: A member of the U.S.A. Basketball 3×3 team, she will miss a week at the end of May while competing in an Olympic qualifying tournament.Dallas WingsDallas Wings guard Arike Ogunbowale was the league’s leading scorer last year, averaging 22.8 points per game.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressAs the first W.N.B.A. team ever to have the top two picks in the draft, the Dallas Wings had a unique opportunity to fortify an already young, developing group.They added Charli Collier of Texas, who was the consensus No. 1 pick, and Awak Kuier, a 6-foot-4 center from Finland. One of Dallas’s biggest weaknesses last season was interior offense. Wings Coach Vickie Johnson told reporters last week that Collier’s scoring in the paint had stood out, and that should earn her playing time.She will be a good scoring punch alongside forward Satou Sabally, last year’s No. 2 overall draft pick, and guard Arike Ogunbowale, who almost led Dallas to the playoffs last season as the league’s leading scorer, averaging 22.8 points per game.Moriah Jefferson played just nine games a year ago but will be a part of the regular rotation this season now that she’s healthy, and Tyasha Harris earned valuable experience overseas and is expected to contribute more than her 6.9 points per game from last season.Then there’s the fifth-year veteran Allisha Gray, who may be the glue for the roster of third- and second-year players.Los Angeles SparksWith the departures of Candace Parker and Chelsea Gray, Nneka Ogwumike, right, is expected to fill a leadership role.Mike Carlson/Associated PressFor the first time since 2007, the Los Angeles Sparks will be playing without Candace Parker, who led the team to their third championship in 2016. Parker, a free agent, signed with her hometown Chicago Sky in the off-season, but the Sparks have a fair amount of star power on deck to attempt the unenviable task of replacing her. The sisters Nneka and Chiney Ogwumike will be joined by the free agency acquisitions Amanda Zahui B — whose job will be to help fill the Parker-size hole in the paint — Erica Wheeler and Kristi Toliver, both veteran guards.Beyond that, the Sparks will look to make the most of what seems like a transition season. Young guards like Te’a Cooper and the second-round draft pick Arella Guirantes will undoubtedly find strong mentorship in Toliver, a W.N.B.A. champion and recent N.B.A. assistant coach. Nneka Ogwumike will be compelled to step into a leadership role with the departure of not only Parker but the Sparks’ 2020 second-leading scorer, Chelsea Gray, and fourth-leading scorer, Riquna Williams. Guard Brittney Sykes will also be returning to the team as one of just a few familiar faces to help ease the transition, but Ogwumike is the centerpiece of the new-look Sparks.Third-year Sparks Coach Derek Fisher hasn’t been able to capitalize on his team’s impressive regular-season records in the postseason. With so much change on this year’s roster, it seems unlikely that Los Angeles will make a deep run in 2021. But the Sparks have the talent — both veteran and up-and-coming — to challenge any team in the league.Minnesota LynxSylvia Fowles is returning to the Lynx lineup this season after being sidelined by a calf injury last year.Chris O’Meara/Associated Press“She just looks like a coach that knows how to win,” forward Rennia Davis said of Lynx Coach Cheryl Reeve. That assessment will be put to the test right away, though Reeve is used to challenges early in the season.Jessica Shepard, picked 16th overall in 2019, was clicking beautifully with Napheesa Collier, that year’s sixth overall pick, when Shepard went down with a knee injury six games into her pro career. Now Davis, the ninth overall pick in this year’s draft, is out indefinitely with a foot injury.But after missing the rest of the 2019 season and all of 2020, Shepard is back.Sylvia Fowles is back, too.After setting the career rebounding record in 2020, Fowles was sidelined by a calf injury that forced her to miss most of the season. Yet the Lynx persevered, nearly upsetting the Seattle Storm in Game 1 of the semifinals before losing the series in a sweep. Reeve said she will restrict Fowles to roughly 24 minutes per game and diversify offensive schemes so that her title-winning veteran doesn’t have to carry the load.But with Collier and Kayla McBride, who signed on as a free agent, arriving late from playing overseas, Reeve will have to improvise once again. So far, forward Natalie Achonwa, who joined in free agency, has made herself irreplaceable to a team seeking to shore up its defense beyond Fowles. Aerial Powers, who won a championship with the Washington Mystics in 2019 and averaged 4.9 rebounds per game last season, is expected to help that effort.Seattle StormBreanna Stewart is hoping to lead the Seattle Storm back to the W.N.B.A. finalsChris O’Meara/Associated PressThe reigning champions had a surprisingly eventful off-season, headlined by their decision to trade their starting center Natasha Howard to the Liberty for the No. 1 overall pick in the 2021 draft. They then flipped that pick to the Dallas Wings in exchange for the third-year forward Katie Lou Samuelson and a 2022 second-round pick. They also lost starting guard Alysha Clark, who, along with Howard, was key to Seattle’s success on defense during their 2018 and 2020 title runs. Clark signed with the Mystics in free agency.But the finals M.V.P. Breanna Stewart, the star shooter Jewell Loyd and perhaps most impressively Sue Bird have all returned to the Storm to compete for the W.N.B.A.’s first back-to-back titles since the Sparks won in 2001 and 2002. Bird will be in her 18th season, a feat of longevity unmatched by any of her peers currently competing — although Candice Dupree, who signed with the Storm in the off-season, also has double-digit seasons under her belt.With Stewart, the Storm don’t need to find another once-in-a-generation player among their young talent. They do, however, need to figure out who in that pool will best recreate the alchemy of their title teams, positioning Jordin Canada as the point guard of the future and finding a go-to center in either Mercedes Russell or Ezi Magbegor. If they can do that and keep Stewart, Loyd and Bird healthy, the Storm have a better chance than most teams to make history as the only five-time W.N.B.A. champions by the end of this season.Phoenix MercuryThe Phoenix Mercury have the triple threat of, from left, Brittney Griner, Diana Taurasi and Skylar Diggins-Smith.Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressBrittney Griner’s back. Skylar Diggins-Smith is back. And Diana Taurasi, often referred to as the GOAT, is too.Sprinkle in teammates like Brianna Turner and Bria Hartley, and newcomers like Kia Nurse and Megan Walker, and the Phoenix Mercury are focused on returning to their championship-winning ways.“You just see all these pieces,” Taurasi said, adding, “And if we can all get on the same track and on working toward the same goal, I think we can do some special things this summer. But that’s just all nonsense if we don’t come in and put the work in every day.”The Mercury finished with a 13-9 record last season, losing to the Minnesota Lynx in the second round of the playoffs. With an eye toward a deeper playoff run, they acquired guard Nurse and Walker in an off-season trade with the Liberty. Hartley, an eighth-year guard, is working her way back after a knee injury, and more offense could come from Turner.But the biggest impact is likely to come from the Big 3 — Griner, Diggins-Smith and Taurasi — who accounted for much of the Mercury’s scoring last season. Taurasi averaged 18.7 points and 4.5 assists per game; Diggins-Smith averaged 17.7 and 4.2; and B.G. averaged 17.7 points and 7.5 rebounds in 12 games.“We have pretty good chemistry,” Coach Sandy Brondello said. “We grew a lot together as a team last year. Hopefully we can continue to build on that.” More

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      Jewell Loyd Is in the Gym, Building Her Game and a Community

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      WNBA Champion Jewell Loyd at The Warehouse outside of Chicago.Credit…Nolis Anderson for The New York TimesSkip to contentSkip to site indexJewell Loyd Is in the Gym, Building Her Game and a CommunityA trying year, on and off the court, helped Loyd finally embrace herself as an elite Black female athlete.WNBA Champion Jewell Loyd at The Warehouse outside of Chicago.Credit…Nolis Anderson for The New York TimesSupported byContinue reading the main storyFeb. 27, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETThe Warehouse gym is a little off the beaten track, plopped south of an interstate highway, behind a hidden road.“You have to be kind of a real O.G. baller to know where it is,” Jewell Loyd said.Loyd, fresh off a second W.N.B.A. championship with the Seattle Storm, is that type of baller.The gym, in Northbrook, Ill., hosts one of the many courts where Loyd honed the game that earned her the nickname “Gold Mamba” from Kobe Bryant. It’s home to the courts where, years earlier, she and her brother, Jarryd Loyd, witnessed future pros like Dee Brown and Iman Shumpert nurturing their skills during lively pickup games and lengthy training sessions.Over the years, as the siblings journeyed and established themselves professionally, the Warehouse loosened its grip as a community beacon. “The gym lost its importance, in our opinion, to the community, I would say probably a decade ago,” said Jarryd, who played in college at Valparaiso before embarking on an overseas professional career.The siblings had been looking into buying a gym when Jarryd received an alert on his cellphone that the Warehouse had hit the market. The pair, along with a couple of private investors, are negotiating to buy it, envisioning the space as a renewed incubator for future generations of ballers in the know.The commitment goes beyond money.“It’s a safe space,” Jewell Loyd said. “It’s really for the community. I want to make sure that people have a chance to do what I’m doing, and it starts with a dream. And if you can build that dream in a place that you get constantly reminded that you can achieve it, I think that’s the beautiful thing about the building.”Loyd is at a pivotal time in her life, after a trying year on and off the court in 2020. A few seasons back, she pinpointed this winter as an opportunity for a break from her overseas career, predicting that she would need time off after the Tokyo Olympics.The Olympics, delayed by the pandemic, haven’t happened yet. Still, the planned breather came at an ideal time: Loyd’s mentor, Bryant, his daughter Gianna and seven others died in a helicopter crash in January 2020. Then the W.N.B.A. played out its season in the isolation of a bubble environment in Florida, dedicating the year to Breonna Taylor, a Black woman who was killed by the police in Louisville, Ky.“In the end, it wasn’t easy being in there,” Breanna Stewart, Loyd’s Seattle teammate, said of the bubble at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla. “Basketball 24/7 — and we both love basketball — but when it’s all you see, and you see the same people over and over and over again, it can get very redundant.”She added: “Jewell and I are ones that love to be in the gym. And so to constantly see each other in the gym was what helped motivate us individually and then us as a team.”Seattle Storm players Breanna Stewart, Jewell Loyd and Mercedes Russell raised their team flag on the roof of the Space Needle in Seattle after winning the championship in October.Credit…Ted S. Warren/Associated PressThe finals presented Loyd with a redo. The last time Seattle had been there, when they beat the Washington Mystics in 2018, she hadn’t played poorly, but she was inconsistent. “I actually was very disappointed, even though we won a championship, in how I played,” Loyd said. “You might think that’s selfish, but knowing that I felt like I could do more than what I did.”“There were certain spots I didn’t feel like myself,” she added.In past seasons, Storm Coach Dan Hughes counseled Loyd to not be so hard on herself, that the chips wouldn’t always fall her way.Loyd started working with a life coach and a sports psychologist. She learned to visualize herself in familiar situations, to focus and breathe, to know that a jumper taken in the finals was no different from the one she had taken a million times in the solitude of a gym like the Warehouse.“The physical stuff is easy,” Loyd said. “You can always just push through, but mentally, sometimes, it’s hard to get out of your own way.”At around the same time Loyd retreated to the her league’s bubble, Phil Handy, an assistant coach with the N.B.A.’s Los Angeles Lakers, went to his. Handy had trained with Loyd and would send her video clips, while encouraging her to stay present throughout each game.“The mental part is all about understanding the work that you’ve done and then having confidence in that work,” Handy said, adding, “Mentally, you’re already locked in because you already studied for the test.”Loyd said dedicating the season to Taylor helped her to fully embrace herself as an elite Black, female athlete.“Sometimes you get distracted from it,” Loyd said. “You know it’s there. You know what it’s about. You know that other kids have been mistreated, but you don’t always necessarily speak out on it, just because you’re a kid, you don’t know any better, whatever. But it seems now where you have to speak out about it to educate our next generation.”Loyd averaged 17.8 points, 5 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game as Seattle swept its six playoff games against Minnesota and Las Vegas.Loyd had 8 points during Game 2 of the W.N.B.A. finals.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated Press“She knew who she was, she knew what she stood for and she did that,” said Stewart, the M.V.P. of the finals. “She didn’t have to think about anything else, except, ‘This is what I do, and I’m Jewell Loyd.’ And that’s how she should be, because she’s one of the best players in the country and in the world.”The W.N.B.A. finals culminated with a 92-59 coronating victory over the Las Vegas Aces. Loyd dedicated her second title to Kobe and Gianna Bryant.“That’s the one time during the season where you can actually take a breath, is knowing that it’s done,” Loyd said. “It’s over. We did it. It’s such a great feeling.”Loyd returned home to Illinois. She is enrolled at DePaul University, honoring the vow she made to her family when she left Notre Dame following her junior season to declare for the 2015 draft. She comes from a family of educators. “If in fact she were to get hurt and can’t play anymore, what are you going to do?” said her mother, Gwendolyn Davis-Loyd, a retired elementary schoolteacher. “That’s always been the philosophy.”But Loyd said: “I think college isn’t for everyone, especially when you’re a creative, when you’re an artist and there’s other ways to learn. Sometimes college is very traditional, right to the book, and that doesn’t work for everybody.“So, half of me is understanding that sometimes you’ve got to do things that you don’t want to do.”Davis-Loyd chuckled that her daughter now sits on corporate boards, while still attending classes for biology and public speaking. As a child, Loyd learned that she had dyslexia; her deliberate march toward a degree reflects dogged perseverance.“There’s also part of me that it’s frustrating to go back to school and kind of do the same thing that happened, and kind of go through the college experience of working with my learning disability and doing all that stuff again,” Loyd said. “Just kind of gives me anxiety at times, too, but we’ll get through it.”In the last few months, Loyd has deepened her friendship with Nets guard Kyrie Irving, also a Bryant disciple, as they focus on philanthropic and community endeavors.“We believe that Kobe brought us together to do good work and to live out his legacy and pass it down,” Loyd said. “We want to do our best to do that as much as we can, as often as we can to help the next generation.”Loyd and Bryant embraced at the 2019 W.N.B.A. All-Star game.Credit…Melissa Majchrzak/NBAE, via Getty ImagesThose efforts include acquiring the Warehouse. Jarryd Loyd said the siblings hope to infuse technology into the gym by using data to guide shot selection and adding interactive gaming to make learning basketball’s intricacies more fun.All the while, Loyd is already spending hours training at the Warehouse, a place full of memories.“The women coming into the league have gotten better,” Loyd said. “People are actually training. People are actually building on their games. And it’s not just all technically, fundamentally sound basketball. The draft picks that come in, they’re ready to go. And even in college, you see players are getting better, handles are getting better, their shot, everything.”She added, “Everyone has to step up their game.”Jarryd critiques his sister’s game as perhaps only a big brother can, saying that she can still improve her playmaking, shooting percentage and getting to the rim.On a scale of 10? “I think really she’s still at a five to be honest,” Jarryd said. “I think she has another five gears to go in her growth as a player.”Considering Jewell Loyd has made two All-Star games, that is a scary thought for the rest of the league.“That’s really what is about,” she said. “How much can you push yourself?”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More