“I was extremely exhausted going into that game. I tried to shoot around that morning, but I was feeling light-headed so I went to the hospital for an IV.” This was Connecticut Sun forward Theresa Plaisance, who played in China during the WNBA off-season. She could barely breathe in the week leading up to her…
On a Sunday afternoon last August, the New York Liberty played the Seattle Storm at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn—a one-game respite from the undersized Westchester County Center the team had called home for two seasons. Everything was bigger in Brooklyn. Nearly 8,000 fans—more than three times as many as the team’s average for 2019—showed…
Welcome to TBW’s first annual WNBA mock draft! The 2020 WNBA Draft will air on ESPN this Friday night at 7pm EST. Due to social distancing guidelines, teams will log on from afar to make their selections. By night’s end, thirty-six young women, also all remote, will learn of their futures (and destinations) in the…
As the shutdown of public gatherings and spaces hurls ever closer to the scheduled start of the 2020 WNBA season, the league isn’t immune to the ramifications. The alteration of the 2020 WNBA Draft to essentially become a remote event may be just the beginning of necessary modifications. At this point, the WNBA has announced…
In an interview on the Double Clutch podcast last year, Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve shared a story about the start of her career in the early days of the WNBA when she was an assistant coach to former NBA star Bill Laimbeer on the Detroit Shock. “Bill was a great mentor to me…
With many WNBA teams diving headlong into free agency, a divide has eroded the mid-tier competition. A binary of approaches has materialized: Some franchises are win-now; others prepare solely for the future. The new CBA led to a ballooning of both player salaries and the cap. This created a free agency free-for-all that has shaken…
In this sixth episode of the Basketball by Association podcast, Arky Shea and Joel C. Cordes are joined by TBW’s Huw Hopkins to outline the upward trajectory of the WNBA and global women’s leagues, as well as the opportunities and hurdles that lie ahead. Centered around Huw’s fantastic “Meet a Few of the Many Women Creating a Basketball Renaissance”…
Before being shut down by the Coronavirus, the many levels of women’s basketball were buzzing with excitement. Maybe it was the result of multiple exciting seasons—both past, present and future in the WNBA and NCAA. Perhaps it was WNBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement and its subsequent free agency—all portending greater player movement and empowerment. Maybe…
The end of the 2019 Chicago Sky season felt unjust compared to how its regular season went. Las Vegas Aces forward Dearica Hamby’s steal and near-half-court jumper to eliminate Chicago from the postseason was beyond a knife in the back. It was like I was an unsuspecting field mouse foraging for food at night and…
Dear friends and subscribers of TBW, Much has certainly changed in our world over the past couple of months. We anticipate further changes and challenges due to COVID-19 in the near future. These hurdles supersede everything I am about to discuss, so please note this perspective that we recognize basketball (and sport, in general) as such…
