The GIST: Looking for more tea? Enter: The WNBA, where a cuppa is served on the daily, from buzzy off-court headlines to spicy on-court action. Order up.
🥵 Indiana Fever’s DeWanna Bonner reportedly has no interest in returning to the team: The league veteran has missed the last five games due to personal reasons. One of the six-time All-Star’s preferred landing spots? The Phoenix Mercury, where she’s already won two titles — and would reunite with her partner-in-hoops and -life, Alyssa Thomas.
👶 Rookie class continues to shine: The odds-on favorites for this season’s Rookie of the Year are hooping — Dallas Wing Paige Bueckers has found her stride in June, putting up 12 points in last night’s 68–55 win over the Atlanta Dream, while Washington Mystic Kiki Iriafen added another double-double to her résumé in a tightly-contested 68–64 victory over the Minnesota Lynx.
❤️🩹 Injuries continue to wreak havoc on the defending champ NY Liberty: The Libs have lost three of their last four games; however, there is some reprieve coming with Sabrina Ionescu (neck) expected to be back just in time to play her hometown team, the surging Golden State Valkyries, tonight 10 p.m. ET.
🔥 The league’s 15th expansion team might have a name: According to trademarks filed by the WNBA last week, Portland will resurrect the name used by the city’s first women’s pro team in the early 2000s.
- In other expansion news, the Valkyries are the league’s most valuable franchise ($500M), eclipsing both the Liberty and Fever and becoming the first women’s sports team to reach the mark. Cha-ching.
