The past week has been bursting with news about the business of women’s basketball:

Aces top WNBA team valuations

For the first time, Sportico shared its estimated valuations of WNBA franchises. Together, the league’s 12 teams are worth $1.16 billion, with the Las Vegas Aces coming in as the most valuable at $140 million. The Seattle Storm and New York Liberty follow at $135 million and $130 million, respectively. Not coincidentally, all three of those franchises have sparkling, new practice facilities. The Phoenix Mercury, set to have their own dedicated space in a shared facility with the NBA’s Suns, already are fourth-most valuable team at $105 million.

As the average franchise valuation is $96 million, the $50 million expansion fees for the Golden State Valkyries, debuting in 2025, and the Toronto franchise, scheduled to debut in 2026, stand as significant deals. And as noted by Just Women’s Sports, the valuations could empower the WNBPA when they likely opt out of the current CBA at the end of this season and begin to negotiate the next labor agreement.

More updates about investigation into LVCVA-Aces deal

On Tuesday, Steve Hill, Las Vegas’ tourism chief, was interviewed by the law firm Kobre & Kim, LLP as part of the WNBA’s investigation into the possibly impermissible sponsorship deals that the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority (LVCVA) presented to Las Vegas Aces players in May. Hill has contended that the LVCVA adhered to WNBA policies when arranging the $100,000-per player sponsorships.

On Wednesday, Howard Megdal published an interview with Hill at The IX. Asked by Megdal to clarify what he meant when he told members of the Aces, “The offer is really simple. We want you to just play, keep repping Las Vegas. And if you get a three-peat, that will be icing on the cake,” Hill asserted:

The rep Vegas part is where the deliverables are, right? I’ll tell you what we met by ‘just play’. And that was not off the cuff for me. The message there is, we want these ladies to have the opportunity to be able to make a choice for themselves that is not driven by I gotta go to Europe to play in the offseason. We want them to stay in town. We want them to rep Vegas year round. And many of them don’t have that option. And so we wanted to lift that burden and give them the option for staying in town. Just play stay in town, rep Vegas.

Megdal, however, identifies some lingering inconsistent, or at least unclear, details. While Hill had stated that the Aces organization knew nothing about the deal, the LVCVA first had to complete a $250,000 sponsorship agreement with the organization for use of the team’s logo in promotional materials. That was finalized on May 3. Hill emphasized to Megdal that this arrangement was not facilitated by Aces owner Mark Davis, who is purportedly friendly with Hill, although Hill described their relationship as “cordial, but not social” to Megdal.

Furthermore, league sources have stressed to Megdal that defining the sponsorship deals as team marketing agreements, as appears the case, violates of the CBA, which permits each WNBA team to spend a maximum of $150,000 annually on team marketing and promotional agreements.

Megdal engages with several other questions about the nature of the LVCVA-Aces deal in his reporting, while also estimating how successful the investigation may, or may not, be in securing the records necessary to come to a clear conclusion. Dig into his details here.

Julia Koch purchases minority stake in Liberty

Julia Koch and her children are purchasing a minority stake in BSE Global, the conglomerate that owns the New York Liberty, as well as the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center.

The wife of the late David Koch, one of the infamous Koch brothers known for funding libertarian candidates and causes, Julia Koch is the 23rd-richest person in the world, with a net worth of $65.7 billion. Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai will remain the controlling owners of the Liberty.

A’ja leads All-Star voting

On Friday, the WNBA released the first round of All-Star voting returns, and A’One is No. 1.

The Las Vegas Aces’ A’ja Wilson, who leads the league is scoring and rebounding, is the top vote-getter, with 217,773 votes. The Indiana Fever’s Caitlin Clark follows in second with 216,427 votes. Clark’s teammate Aliyah Boston, the New York Liberty’s Breanna Stewart and the Dallas Wings’ Arike Ogunbowale round out the top five.

How about a few players who are putting together All-Star-worthy seasons and deserve a bit more love? Check out the All-Star cases for the Seattle Storm’s Nneka Ogwumike (No. 13; 89,023), the Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington (No. 24; 50,338) and the Minnesota Lynx’s Kayla McBride (No. 30; 32,449).

Keep casting ballots for your faves through June 29. Rosters will be announced on July 2.

There hasn’t been much winning happening for the Los Angeles Sparks, but they had their biggest loss of the season last week against the Connecticut Sun. No, not because they lost 79-70, one of five losses the team has suffered during their current road trip.

The actual defeat happened four minutes into the game, when Cameron Brink went down with a non-contact injury.

It didn’t look good in real time as she screamed in agony and had to be carried to the locker room. The following day, the worst-case scenario became a reality as the organization announced she had torn her ACL.

Brink’s absence is devastating for the young Sparks. She was averaging 7.5 points, 5.3 rebounds and 2.3 blocks per game and started in all 15 of her games. Replacing her is impossible, but that is the task for Sparks head coach Curt Miller.

Li Yueru’s chance to shine

If Los Angeles’ first game sans Brink is any indication, Yueru will be the new starter and get most of Brink’s minutes in the rotation. It may seem like a lot for Yueru, but the Chinese center has shown flashes of brilliance and will now have a longer leash to make mistakes and learn from them at the WNBA level.

Against the New York Liberty, she had a modest three-point and two-rebound game. Hopefully, she can come into her own and continue to improve so the Sparks can add to their four-win total.

Which bench player will step up?

With the lineup short another player, the bench becomes much more important. The Sparks have struggled to get consistent production from the non-starters, but they have players with the potential to do so.

Lexie Brown was shooting 41 percent from 3-point range last season, but her average has fallen to 30 percent in 2024. If she can provide consistent outside shooting again, it could help the team increase its 77.3 points per game total, which is the third lowest in the league. Zia Cooke is a guard who has rarely seen the floor in 2024 but finally got an opportunity versus the Liberty and played well. She ended the game with 13 points on 4-for-7 shooting. Rae Burrell is another player who has been glued to the bench before getting some run with Brink out. She took advantage of her time, playing 22 minutes and scoring 11 points while grabbing four rebounds against New York.

Brink’s absence is not good for this franchise, but if this trio can step up, it could show that they are also part of the Sparks’ future and help the team win some games as they attempt to return to the playoffs for the first time since 2020.

Don’t forget Azurá Stevens

Azurá Stevens has yet to make her 2024 debut, and she is a player who could very well help turn this season around. In 2023, she had a career year, averaging 10.8 points and 5.9 rebounds. It was thought that another year under coach Miller’s guidance could take her to another level, just like it has for Dearica Hamby. She is currently recovering from surgery on her left arm, and no further updates have been given, but she is expected to play sometime this year.

The path forward will be a rocky one for Miller and the Sparks. This year was always more about the young players’ development than a win-loss record. Now, one of the most important players will not get that development, and the team will likely lose more due to her absence.

Basketball, however, never stops, and no WNBA team will give the Sparks grace because of their bad luck. The games will continue, and Miller must find the right starters, develop his other rookie, Rickea Jackson, and see if bench players like Brown, Burrell and Cooke can step up and help this team win some games.

Let’s all hope Brink has a healthy recovery and the Sparks can spend the rest of 2024 finding out who should be on the roster in 2025.

The Minnesota Lynx are off to their best start in years, and we’re reaching the point in the 2024 WNBA regular season where rumblings of a Lynx championship are getting louder.

There’s good reason for that. At 12-3, Minnesota is off to its best start to a season since 2017, and you don’t need to remind Lynx fans how things ended for that team. Minnesota won its fourth championship in seven seasons in 2017, bookending perhaps the longest dynasty in WNBA history, and while the Lynx of 2024 look significantly different than their most recent title-worthy iteration (save, of course, for head coach Cheryl Reeve), there’s plenty reason to get excited about them as a title contender.

For starters, forward Napheesa Collier is playing arguably the best basketball of her career, and that’s a high bar to clear. Collier established herself as a true superstar last season and has done nothing to lose that status in 2024; she’s one of two WNBA players to be averaging at least 20 points and 10 rebounds per game (Las Vegas’ A’ja Wilson is the other), and she’s doing her part as a playmaker, too, chipping in a career-high 3.6 assists per game.

It’s Collier’s defense that truly sets her apart, however. During her Rookie of the Year campaign in 2019, she quickly became known as a versatile, athletic and intelligent defender, and she’s taken that to new heights in 2024, posting career-highs in defensive rebounds (7.5), steals (2.4) and blocked shots (1.5) per game. Collier, Wilson, and Seattle center Ezi Magbegor are the only three players in the WNBA who are averaging a combined 3.8 steals and blocks (or “stocks”) per game; according to Across the Timeline, that threshold has only been reached 28 times in WNBA history.

Minnesota’s chemistry is leading to efficient offense

As impressive as Collier has been, it’s far from a one-player show in Minnesota. The Lynx are shooting the ball extremely well, leading the WNBA in 3-point shooting percentage (40 percent) and ranking second in 3-pointers made per game (10.2).

With sharpshooters like Kayla McBride, Bridget Carleton and Alanna Smith all playing big roles for Minnesota, this doesn’t come as that much of a surprise. Still, there’s something to be said for a team that consistently generates high-quality looks from beyond the arc, especially when it gets those shots with consistent ball movement that every player is part of, and it’s something Lynx coaches have noticed.

“We’re always a team that has some level of chemistry. This year’s team has maturity with their chemistry,” Reeve said after the Lynx defeated the Dallas Wings last Monday. “They’re smart basketball players.”

Intangibles like chemistry and maturity are hard to quantify, but in the Lynx’s case, they do show up on the stat sheet. Minnesota leads the WNBA in both percentage of shots assisted on (78.2 percent) and assist/turnover ratio (1.69), stats that prove not only the Lynx’s care for the basketball but also their willingness to share it.

The Lynx will have a chance to improve their record against the WNBA’s best

How far can this approach take the Lynx? Their next few games should tell us a lot. While 15 games is by no means a small sample size for success, there will inevitably be chatter that Minnesota still needs to prove itself against the league’s best competition, and the Lynx will have the opportunity to do just that in the coming weeks.

Minnesota will play the New York Liberty (13-3) twice on its upcoming four-game road trip. The Lynx have already beaten the Liberty once this season; one or even two more wins against New York would not only strengthen Minnesota’s case as a championship contender, but would also narrow the gap between the two teams in the WNBA standings, and perhaps hold implications for playoff seeding later in the season.

Photo by Jordan Johnson/NBAE via Getty Images

After their road trip, the Lynx will return home to take on the Connecticut Sun (13-2) on July 4. Minnesota fell to Connecticut back in May in overtime, an 83-82 result that most would say could have easily gone to the Lynx. Just as with their regular-season series against New York, the Lynx would do well to score a victory over Connecticut, especially if the teams will be jockeying for playoff position come August and September—which they likely will.

On Friday night, the Las Vegas Aces handed the Connecticut Sun just their second—and largest—loss of the season, a 85-74 defeat. The Aces dominated the Sun for most of the night, blowing the game open in the second quarter to take a 17-point at the half.

A’ja Wilson, the current frontrunner for MVP, dominated on both ends of the floor and finished with 26 points, going 9-for-17 from the field and 8-for-8 from the line along with 16 rebounds, two blocks and two steals. “You prep yourself for these moments so they’re not unfamiliar to you,” Wilson said postgame. “You love to be in those moments that shine the brightest. I lean on my teammates a lot so I can be the best teammate for them.”

Entering the game, the two-time defending champions were 7-6 on the year, but they’re now 2-0 with All-Star point guard Chelsea Gray in the mix. Gray only scored four points on 1-for-6 shooting, but she was a game-high plus-19 in 17 minutes off the bench and undeniably made an impact.

For the Sun, Brionna Jones led the way with 18 points on 8-for-12 shooting, while also grabbing seven rebounds. She began the game with a strong 11-point first quarter, but scored just seven points the rest of the way. DiJonai Carrington added 19 points, but shot just 5-for-15 from the field. Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner combined for their lowest scoring output of the season, just 12 points. Thomas finished with six points on 2-for-6 shooting with seven assists, while Bonner had six points on 2-for-10 shooting.

Connecticut looked significantly better with Jones on the court than off of it; the Sun played the Aces even in the minutes she played, whereas the rest of Connecticut’s starters had significantly negative plus-minuses (Thomas finished a minus-17, Bonner a minus-18, Tyasha Harris a minus-19 and DiJonai Carrington a minus-10). Jones inches closer to pre-injury form as she continues to recover from the Achilles tear she suffered last year.

The Sun made a push in the third to cut the lead to single digits, but they were never able to get closer than seven points as the Aces continuously responded with timely buckets. Kelsey Plum put up 18 points on 6-for-14 shooting, while Alysha Clark added 11 points in 15 minutes off the bench.

The Sun have lost just two games this season and maintain the best record in the league (13-2). But, they fall to 0-2 against Finals teams from last season: the Liberty, who they lost to by seven points on June 8, and now the Aces. For most of the season, they held the league’s best point differential, but now have the third-highest (plus-8.8) after the Liberty (plus-9.0) and the Lynx (plus-10.6).