Nothing more real than a former Fever player from last season, Brianna Taylor, calling out Fever GM Amber Cox for her victim-playing bullshit.
Congratulations to Bayou Barbie Angel Reese on winning the 2026 KIA WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award. She received 46 of the total 74 votes (Gabby Williams second place with 20 votes) and continues to cement her place in W history. For the regular season, Reese ranked third in steals per game (1.8) and also finished third in total defensive rebounds (315) while leading the league with 12.1 rebounds per game. She set single season W records with 521 total rebounds and 206 offensive rebounds. She also set the single-game rebounds record with 26 against the LA Sparks in August.
San Francisco's Chase Center will host an Unrivaled game on Monday, January 11th 2027 at 7pm. Tickets go onsale very shortly: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/1C0065366FB54A1E
Olivia Miles of the Minnesota Lynx was awarded the WNBA Rookie of the Year with the news being delivered to her by her parents. She was the first unanimous ROY since Aliyah Boston a couple years ago.
The gap between Miles and the next options was so wide that any vote not for Miles would have been questioned for its integrity and/or bias.
Congratulations to Miles. Hopefully she rebounds from her disappointing game 1 performance tomorrow night.
The New York Liberty entered halftime down 40-44 but behind Breanna Stewart's dominant performance they outscored the Lynx by 20 points in the second half to win 91-75. Despite being guarded by Phee for the game, Stewie scored 34 points on 11-18 shooting and 10-12 from the free throw line. She also added 12 rebounds, 6 assists, 2 steals, and 2 blocks.
Leonie Fiebich had the most efficient game for the Liberty tallying 16 points (6-7 fg), 8 rebounds, 3 assists, 1 steal, and 1 block.
The Lynx were outrebounded 38-23 in the game and that was one of the biggest differences in the second half with the Liberty being able to secure defensive rebounds and deny the Lynx extra opportunities to score.
Olivia Miles' first career WNBA playoff game was not very memorable as she finished with 11 points on 3-12 shooting (1-4 3pt) while adding 8 rebounds, 1 assist, 1 block, and a team high 4 turnovers.
Box Score: https://www.espn.com/wnba/boxscore/_/gameId/401918014
AP Player of the Year A'ja Wilson scored 38 points on an extremely efficient 15-19 shooting and 6-7 from the free throw line in the Aces victory over the Indiana Fever in game 1 of the first round of the WNBA playoffs. She also added 16 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals, and a monster 4 blocks.
Jackie Young also had a double double with 21 points (8-14 shooting), 10 assists, 2 rebounds, and 3 steals for the Aces.
On the Fever side, Aliyah Boston was the only starter who played with anything remotely indicative of efficiency scoring 18 points on 7-12 shooting and pulled down 8 rebounds, 4 assists, and 1 steal. Raven Johnson came off the bench for 14 points on a stellar 6-7 shooting and also had 1 assist and 2 steals.
Box Score: https://www.espn.com/wnba/boxscore/_/gameId/401918015
The biggest surprises for me were Cheryl Reeve winning Coach of the Year over Sydney Johnson who turned the Mystics into a playoff team with 8 rookies on their active roster. Natalie Nakase was also more deserving of the award than Reeve imo.
The other surprise is Reese being selected as Defensive Player over Gabby Williams. Reese had a great season, but I felt like she wasn't as consistent in the first half of the season as she was in the second half of the season. Gabby on the other hand has been consistently a defensive stalwart the entire season.
Player of the Year: A'ja Wilson
Coach of the Year: Cheryl Reeve
Rookie of the Year: Olivia Miles
Defensive Player: Angel Reese
6th Woman of the Year: Janelle Salaun
Most Improved Player: Jessica Shepard
Comeback Player: Caitlin Clark
All-Rookie Team: Olivia Miles, Flau'jae Johnson, Azzi Fudd, Sydney Taylor, Kiki Rice, Pauline Astier
All AP First Team: A'ja Wilson, Breanna Stewart, Kelsey Mitchell, Olivia Miles, Caitlin Clark
All AP Second Team: Angel Reese, Rhyne Howard, Gabby Williams, Paige Bueckers, Jackie Young
Storm Rookie Flau'jae Johnson broke Breanna Stewarts franchise rookie scoring record last night ended her season with 626 points. She also became the first rookie in WNBA history to score 600 points, 200 boards, 100 assists, 50 steals, and 28 blocks in a season. Stewie scored 621 points in her 2016 rookie season.
Other Storm rookie records Flau'jae broke this season:
3-Pointers made: 60 (passing Sue Bird)
Steals: 57 (passing Lauren Jackson)
It was a difficult and challenging season for the Storm who had their worst record in franchise history finishing at 8-36, but at least the future is bright with players like Flau'jae on the roster.
Houston's Toyota Center will host an Unrivaled game on Friday, February 12th 2027 at 7:30pm ET.
Tickets can be purchased here: https://www.toyotacenter.com/events/detail/unrivaled
Wilson continues to cement her legacy in basketball history. Wilson became the first WNBA player in history to record multiple 1,000 point seasons. She first achieved this in 2024 with 1,021 points and after last night's game against the Storm she is again at 1,021 points and still has two more regular season games remaining.
Minnesota Lynx' Olivia Miles has set the WNBA single-season rookie scoring record with 790 points over a span of 40 games, besting Caitlin Clark's record of 769 points over a span of 40 games two seasons ago. Miles has been a defining generational talent during her rookie season, also being the fastest player to 350 points/100 rebounds/100 assists reaching that in 21 games. She also set the rookie record for most 3-pointers made in a game (eight) against the Valkyries back in June.
Like her Team USA teammate Angel Reese, Paige Bueckers is also setting new records in the WNBA this season. Following her team's victory against the Phoenix Mercury, Paige ended with 26 points on 10-19 shooting from the floor which brought her total points over her first two seasons to 1,515. The previous record was held for nearly 2 decades by W legend Seimone Augustus who had 1,513 points in her first two career seasons.
Congratulations to Buckets for this honor.
Angel Reese continues to set new benchmarks for the league as she becomes the only player in WNBA history to ever amass 500 rebounds in a single season. In tonight's victory against her former team Chicago Sky, Reese pulled down 10 boards. For the season she has a league leading 12.4rpg and is averaging a career-high 16.5ppg. When she's on the floor she's making plays to enable the Atlanta Dream to be more successful. Team player.
Kelsey Mitchell finished with 33 points on 12-17 shooting (7-11 from 3pt) while leading the Indiana Fever to defeat the injury plagued Toronto Tempo 103-85 today. Mitchell finished the game with a season total of 1023 points, surpassing A'Ja Wilson's previous record set in 2024 with 1021 points.
Congratulations to MVP Candidate Kelsey Mitchell.
Detroit will host an Unrivaled game at Little Caesars Arena on Monday, January 11th 2027 at 7:30pm.
Tickets: https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/08006529EF3EA624
There's going to be so many more changes as teams make a playoff push and then heading into the offseason. I hope nobody else endures a season ending injury as just hearing about them is devastating as a fan.
Seattle Storm have signed Jaylyn Sherrod to their second development contract spot.
Golden State Valkyries have activated Cecilia Zandalasini
Connecticut Sun have activated Kennedy Burke
Minnesota Lynx signed Aari McDonald
Minnesota Lynx waived Eliska Joklova
Los Angeles Sparks hired Ariana Andonian as General Manager
Even though she came off the bench during the tournament, Angel Reese still left her mark out on the court. She finished first in FG%, first in blocks, second in rebounds, second in steals, and second in free throws made on the team. For anybody who watched the games, when Reese was on the floor the team's energy and dynamic was different, for the better, because she was creating extra chances and being disruptive to the opponent where she needed to be.
Some are going to say she's not an elite individual player, but this FIBA World Cup performance tells me she's an elite TEAM player. This matters to Coach Lawson, Sue Bird, and the LA28 Committee that's going to decide the 12 player roster.
Congratulations to Reese for another Championship for her collection.
