***official 2024/25 women’s college bball thread*** paige gets her title and will soon be beat up and abused in the wnba (1 Viewer)

[pollardsvision]

Some pretty big trade deadline (ish) deals.

Dijonai to Minny for essentially Diamond Miller and a 2nd.
Great trade for both teams, IMO.
Dallas was smart to get rid of her, and Minny was smart to pick her up.

Dijonai is a fantastic player, but immature. She thrives in a strong culture, which the Lynx, of course, are. She was great with AT and Steph White. She pretty much carried the Lynx to victory down the stretch last night.
And still, I think Dallas had to get rid of her. Young team, young coach.
That **** she pulled with Koclanes was inexcusable. Best thing he did was benching her, and other players (like Haley) rose up and took her minutes on merit.

She's both a player that would swing a title, but also a bench player on an 8-21 team.
I think it's going to work out for everybody.

My 2 favorite teams made a big one. Sykes to Seattle for AC and a 1st (Seattle had 3 of them).

Sykes is fantastic, but the Mystics just keep making smart moves. They are in Playoff contention, but that's probably not a good thing. They have a great young core, and more picks is what they need.

I don't think Sykes is going to get Seattle over the hump, but it's worth a shot.
Still can't quite pinpoint what's wrong with Seattle, but lack of depth and 3 point shooting is surely part of it.

She's not going to fix the 3-point problem (I don't know what trade target would have), but she gives them depth as a good scorer and another lengthy defender. Gabby, Skylar, and Slim can make for a hellacious perimeter defense.

I don't think it's enough to overcome Minny, NY and Indy, but it's worth a shot.

 

[pollardsvision]

And I'm predicting the Sparks are going to steal the 8 seed, after looking horrible early in the season.

Brink is back. Still has the foul trouble problem, but her presence is huge.

Plum is Plum. Rickea is finally catching fire. Azura is having a MIP season. Hamby is Hamby. Allemond coming back from EuroBasket has been huge.

Even with Brink, they still aren't a good defensive team, but they can score with anybody.

 

[pollardsvision]

Minny is so good even without Phee.

But Dom is the real deal.

She's still a 19 year old doing 19 year old things. it ain't perfect.

But she looks so much more confident than 2 months ago.

I don't know if it will be 2 years or 5 years, but soon, she will be an unsolvable problem.

 

[Phil Elliott]

Is green now the unofficial color of the WNBA?

You can bet on that!

 

[Ghost Rider]

Is green now the unofficial color of the WNBA?

You can bet on that!

Purple now making a charge for 2nd place.

 

[FarFromHome]

When is Clark back is I can start box score surfing again? I'm such a tool. Ha ha

 

[Navin Johnson]

When is Clark back is I can start box score surfing again? I'm such a tool. Ha ha

She's still DFL in 3P%. HTH

 

[pollardsvision]

Sparks are not going to be a fun matchup for anybody in the Playoffs.

That offense is absolutely on fire. They were the first team in WNBA history to score 100 points in 4 of 5 games, and then they scored 100 again last night.

Plum, Hamby, and Azura are the veteran engines, but it doesn't stop there.

Rickea seems to be taking the leap.
With the small height discrepancy between a guard and a forward/big in this league, there's not a lot of true dominant wings. She's quickly making her case to become the best, along with Gabby.

And holy hell, Brink is back and that changes everything. Obviously she's a great shot blocker but she changes everything defensively.

Hell, against the Fever she shut down Kelsey in space. Nobody slows down Kelsey in space.

Brink hitting 3's now too. When she can get fully healthy she might really just be a cheat code.

They are deep too. If they can stay healthy they can make even the Lynx or Liberty sweat in a series.

 

[pollardsvision]

Pretty impressive performance for the Lynx without Phee.
Dijonai is fitting in perfectly. Play great defense, get boards, and knock down the open shots provided in a Lynx offense.

Liberty are loaded with talent, but none of it seems to work well without Stewie.

 

[pollardsvision]

Paige back today, which is great because Paige vs. Citron is must-see TV.

 

[pollardsvision]

That was beautiful.
Paige was kicking *** as always. Dallas was trying to blitz the hell out of Sonia and Kiki.

But you can't keep Sonia and Kiki down.

 

[Alex P Keaton]

That was beautiful.
Paige was kicking *** as always. Dallas was trying to blitz the hell out of Sonia and Kiki.

But you can't keep Sonia and Kiki down.

Good game. Fun watch.

Ogunbowale just isn’t a winning player. Massively overrated. (by herself more than anything)

 

[pollardsvision]

That was beautiful.
Paige was kicking *** as always. Dallas was trying to blitz the hell out of Sonia and Kiki.

But you can't keep Sonia and Kiki down.

Good game. Fun watch.

Ogunbowale just isn’t a winning player. Massively overrated. (by herself more than anything)

She's so fun when she's on, but I agree.

 

[pollardsvision]

Brink v. Malonga last night was really fun, and should be for years to come.

Brink only played 11 minutes, but dominated in those 11 minutes. Including a couple more 3's. She's now 7 for 15 from 3 on the season.
If she stays healthy, she's going to be an MVP one day.

Malonga with her 2nd straight 20 point double-double (I believe also the youngest player ever with back to back 20 point games).
She's come a long way, though she still has a lot of work to do defensively. She got torched by Hamby (and Brink) a lot of the game, including the final minutes that sealed the game.
Hamby is a tough cover for anybody, and certainly is for a 19 year old kid.

In other news, A'ja dropped the league's 1st ever 30-20 last night.
If Phee's injury lingers (and AT and the Mercury hit a cold stretch), A'ja might be playing her way back into the MVP conversation.

 

[pollardsvision]

How the WNBA (and I really mean the NBA because they are calling the shots) handles the sell of the Connecticut Sun could get interesting. So far, it's not a good look.

The Mohegan Tribe currently has 2 offers to buy the team. Both for $325 million with an additional commitment of a $100 million practice facility.
One is the Boston group that would move it there.
One is Marc Lasry (Milwaukee Bucks owner) that says he's committed to keeping the team in Connecticut (Hartford).
Mohegan would prefer the team to stay in Connecticut.

WNBA (NBA) doesn't want to approve either of these.

Before we get into the (W)NBA's bullshittery, let's remember what the Mohegan Tribe did.

A lot of NBA owners of WNBA teams back in the day didn't care too much about it. It was like their kid's lemonade stand. Small investment. If It makes money, great. But I'm not dumping a bunch of money into it, and if things get tight, I just want out.

That's exactly what the Orlando Miracle did. They just wanted out.

They dumped it for $10 million to the Mohegan Tribe. Any numbers of NBA owners could have had it for pocket change.

Mohegan, with their very limited resources, treated it like a real sports team. Pretty well run organization for a couple decades. Perfect owners when the league is small.

Mohegan is now trying to do a good thing again. They don't have the resources, and certainly not the location in Uncasville, CT, to meet the needs of a franchise now. And they've got a chance to make nice profit on their great investment a long time years ago.
They are trying to sell, with an eye on keeping the team local if they can.

(W)NBA is preventing them from doing this. There are 2 big offers on the table from legitimate sources that they aren't approving.

One reason we know is that the (W)NBA would rather have that $325 million as an expansion fee than see it go to the Mohegan Tribe. Understandable why the (W)NBA wouldn't be excited about that, but the Mohegan's should have the right to sell their asset in a responsible way (which they are doing).

We'll see how it goes, but it looks shady right now.

I must admit that I don't trust the NBA running this process.
They made the initial investment, but it's pretty obvious they only did it to gain control over professional women's basketball in the US. Both in case it ever became popular, but also to own/control a potential competitor (at a tiny cost).

The WNBA's best interest is not necessarily aligned with the best interests of the NBA and it's owners. That's always a tricky spot.

We're already seeing it with all the expansion bids from non-NBA owners being completely ignored. The Clevelend, Detroit, Philly announcements seem so completely rushed. Just gives the feeling of wanting to cash quick and give kick backs at the same time. They got the rapidly increasing expansion fees locked in 4-5 years out, which makes zero sense.

Could be wrong. But I worry about the NBA's management of this.

 

[pollardsvision]

Pretty awesome Sunday lineup.

Fever with an insane comeback against a plucky Sun team

Sparks-Mystics was a really good one.
Plum and Hamby held on the best they could. Love watching Hamby against younger, bigger bigs. She's just craft as hell. IMO, she's a bit like Phee without the great defense.
But the Mystics kids were just too much. Kiki kicked *** all game, and then Sonia took over the 2nd half, as she generally does.

Wings-Aces wasn't much, but A'ja keeps making a late season push for MVP.

This year's MVP race feels like last year, but the opposite. Last year, it was obvious early on that A'ja was going to win it and there really was no denying it. But you just kept feeling like Phee might really be the best player in the world.

This year, Phee pretty well wrapped it up early unless A'ja went on a incredibly insane run. A'ja is now on an incredibly insane run.
PIcking between these 2 is just impossible.

Still got Mercury-Storm and Valkyries-Dream coming, which should both be good games.

 

[pollardsvision]

And most importantly, Happy Sue Bird Day!

Her statue unveiled today. First ever in the W.

 

[pollardsvision]

Both teams just throwing haymakers.

Phoenix is probably going to win. AT is unstoppable.

But as much as Seattle has a tendency to lose games like this they can grit out a win against anybody.

And Dom might be skinny and 19 years old, but she's going to be a stud in this league for a long time.

 

[pollardsvision]

Nneka!

 

[pollardsvision]

AT is just ridiculous.

 

[pollardsvision]

I don't know what's crazier.....

A. Paige dropped 44 points last night on just 21 freaking shots.

B. She played 36 of 40 minutes, and was + 12. But they lost. It was a disasterous 4 minutes without her.

In fairness to her teammates, Rickea caught absolute fire as soon as Paige went to the bench (and those were really good Brink minutes too). LA went on a 20-3 run at the end of the 1st/early 2nd, which Paige was on the bench for a lot of.

 

[pollardsvision]

She won't be a star, but Maddy Siegrist is going to be a really good player if she can ever get a stretch of good health

Dallas is a mess, but they've got Paige, another high lottery pick coming, some interesting young players in Maddy, Zaza, Geiselsoder, and Quinerly.

You add Betts, Fudd, or Awa Fam to this and things get interesting.

Aces are on a tear, and A'ja probably won't leave, but I still think she has a good chance to. Some other teams might make a lot of sense (Valks?), but Paige, a high lottery pick, and some young talent could be interesting even if the facilities aren't quite there yet.

Probably won't happen because the Wings are a terrible franchise, but she was drafted to a terrible franchise in San Antonio. Vegas has a a practice facility and cash, so they aren't a poverty franchise, but they've also gone almost 2 years without a freaking GM.

Won't happen, but A'ja and Paige with a ton of depth could do some real damage.

 

[pollardsvision]

Such a great game with the Storm and Mystics.

Nneka throwing it down, but the young ones just ****ing going at it.

Sonia and Kiki doing what they do. Sug doing Sug. Love that woman.

But the Shakira-Dom matchup is more than worth the price of admission. Those young bigs just ****ing throw it down against each other.

Shakira has the physical tools to be an MVP candidate one day, but she's got a lot to work on. Days like today show that potential.
Her and Dom just battle it out.

Of course, Nneka finished this barn burner off.

 

[Navin Johnson]

I used to coach the mens team at Wasserburg. Some of the women would ask to train with us and, as a former girls HS coach, I always obliged. Three are in the league right now, Emma Cannon, Leonie Fiebich, and Shey Peddy and a fourth, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, played for the Liberty before COVID. Glad to see Shey tearing it up and making the most of her hardship contract

 

[pollardsvision]

I used to coach the mens team at Wasserburg. Some of the women would ask to train with us and, as a former girls HS coach, I always obliged. Three are in the league right now, Emma Cannon, Leonie Fiebich, and Shey Peddy and a fourth, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, played for the Liberty before COVID. Glad to see Shey tearing it up and making the most of her hardship contract

You must be a pretty damn good coach.

Peddy, Fiebich, and Cannon are all currently Top 7 in Points Per Scoring Attempt

(Just randomly noticed that while checking on some stats to see what the chances are of Nneka making All-WNBA)

 

[pollardsvision]

I can't help but love the Sun.

AT may be gone, but her spirit remains.

Rivers is a young defensive stud. Lacan is out there bringing it with a black-eye.
Morrow aint afraid of anybody.

Mabrey and Hartley are a little dirty, but they are always ready to mix it up.

The all-time great in Tina, of course.

The team isn't very good, and won't win many games, but damn they play hard and with an edge.

But tonight, they've run into the Liberty with Stewie back. In spite of her terrible shooting from distance this year, Stewie is still one of the 5 best players in the world. She sets the tone on both ends. We saw it in the Olympics and the FInals. And this year, the team may have a million Olympians and FInals MVP's, but none of it works without Stewie.

Since Stewie turned 18, having her on your team meant a 50% chance of winning a title. She ain't as young as she once was, but there's a reason Stewie automatically makes you a title contender.

 

[pollardsvision]

Liberty are playing well, but as has happened so many times this year, somebody forgot to tell the Sun kids that they aren't supposed to be in this.

 

[pollardsvision]

Rivers with a 3!

As we watch this underdog team fight their *** off in a game they have no business being close in, let's remember the NBA is breaking all kinds of anti-trust laws to force this team out of New England.

Out of New England when multiple well financed owners want to buy them and keep them there, and into the hands of Tillman Fertitta. Whether he's broke or not, he couldn't come up with the $300 million to make a proper bid.

He's not an optimal bidder, but the NBA is trying to force the Sun to him anyway, denying a handful of bidders with deeper pockets that just don't happen to be current NBA owners.

 

[pollardsvision]

I've fallen in love with these Sun, but @Navin Johnson , your girl Fiebich probably just hit the dagger

 

[pollardsvision]

Lacan is the truth!

This team ain't got **** to play for, but they are just tough as nails.

 

[pollardsvision]

******** call, but a beautiful effort by the Sun.

 

[Navin Johnson]

I used to coach the mens team at Wasserburg. Some of the women would ask to train with us and, as a former girls HS coach, I always obliged. Three are in the league right now, Emma Cannon, Leonie Fiebich, and Shey Peddy and a fourth, Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe, played for the Liberty before COVID. Glad to see Shey tearing it up and making the most of her hardship contract

You must be a pretty damn good coach.

Peddy, Fiebich, and Cannon are all currently Top 7 in Points Per Scoring Attempt

(Just randomly noticed that while checking on some stats to see what the chances are of Nneka making All-WNBA)

I didn't get a chance to coach them up much, just gave them a chance to run with the guys on a regular basis. Leonie had no left to speak of, no matter how much crap I gave her. I wanted to ti fine tune Shey's jumper (notice how she never fully extends the elbow) but it was so damn good , I thought it best to not try and fix something that wasn't broken.

 

[pollardsvision]

Haley with another solid game last night.

Unfortunately for the Wings, the Sun have Leila Lacan. Lacan is becoming more and more of a stud with every passing week.

Lacan and Rivers are an amazing young guard combo.
Both incredible, long defenders. The long range shooting isn't their strong suit yet, but if they keep developing that, they might be unstoppable.

The 2025 rookie class is just ridiculous. They don't have a Caitlin, but 2025 has more high end depth than 2024 (and 2024 had a lot of it).

And last night, the Aces took a big one over the Dream to go on a 12-game winning streak, and take command of the 2 seed.
Amazing what the Aces have done after looking dead in the water 2 months ago.

Set up for a massive Lynx-Aces game on Sept. 4th. NFL is ballsy to go up against that.

 

[pollardsvision]

Great comeback for the Sparks last night.
I love Hamby, and Rickea is a MFing problem. Only a few true wings in the league and Rickea abused Gabby last night.

The disaster scenario for Seattle is still very much in play.
Trading a 1st for Sykes and missing the Playoffs is bad enough. But they traded their own pick, not the LA pick. Missing the Playoffs at the hands of the Sparks would be a real cluster.

I wish I understood what's going on with Seattle. A lot of people calling for Noelle's job. I'm not smart enough to know if that's the right move, and I hate calling for anybody's job. But the 2nd half meltdowns are not a good look. The lack of depth is certainly a problem. GM (and injuries) didn't give her much depth, but Noellle won't play the depth anyway. Seems like some even blame on that front. The oldest team in the league only playing 7 players is a recipe for disaster in the 2nd half.

However this season ends, Nneka is a stud, and Dom will be. I've said before, but Dom's touch within 6-8 feet at her age is just ridiculous.

 

[pollardsvision]

I think A'ja very well might have won the MVP last night.

It seems crazy to think A'ja freaking Wilson winning an MVP is/was improbable, but on August 2nd, it seemed almost impossible.

That was the day the Lynx beat the Aces by 50. The MVPhee drumbeat has been loud and consistently growing stronger since late last season.

A'ja put up an absolute monster season 2024, and it was basically impossible not to give her the MVP. But at the same time, many (including myself) were starting to wonder if Phee might really be the best player in the world.

Then Phee kicked absolute arse in Unrivaled, then her and the Lynx launched into a magical 2025 campaign.

Up until a few weeks ago, Phee had it won and the rest was seemingly a technicality. It was "her time" (which matters to voters for MVP in every league whether anyone wants to admit it or not), and she had done everything on her part. Absolutely dominating this season.

The only way A'ja could get back in it was to do something outrageous. That's exactly what she did.

Since the 50 point beatdown on Aug. 2nd, the Aces are 13-0. At the time, they were 9th, in danger of missing the Playoffs. They rocketed up to 2nd.
A'ja putting up absolutely silly numbers during the stretch, including the league's first ever 30-20.

Brought it sort of to a dead heat, with Phee still probably holding the edge........unless the Aces beat them last night with A'ja outperforming Phee pretty convincingly. That's exactly what happened.

Normally, I'd say it's stupid for an MVP race to come down to a single game, but in this case, I'd be fine with that.
The race is so unbelievably close, and it's going to suck to see either player not win it. They both are more than deserving. Something has to decide, so why not a late season game.

Historically, it would be a huge deal if A'ja did. It would make her a 4-time MVP, and for fans, 4 and should have been 5. The 2023 MVP vote is highly controversial. Some unnamed idiot gave A'ja a 4th place vote that cost her the MVP.

But 4 would give her the most all-time (Lisa Leslie, Swoopes, and Lauren Jackson all have 3).

 

[pollardsvision]

Playoffs mostly set.

Unfortunately for Indiana, they secured a spot.
Best thing for Indiana was to miss the Playoffs and add another lottery pick with CC and AB, but it didn't go that way.

Down to Seattle and LA for the last spot.

Seattle is almost certainly going to get it, and they need to.
Losing the Playoff spot to LA after trading away their pick for Sykes 18 days ago would be a disaster (they own LA's pick too, so they could have traded that one).

Seattle beats the Valkyries and they are in.
But as we see, Valkyries are tough as nails and beating them is never a guarantee.

If the Storm lose that game, Sparks can get in with a win over the Mercury and the red-hot Aces.
Again, extremely unlikely.

Even as a Seattle fan, I hope LA pulls this off.
I love the Storm, but they are broken and I don't think they can get fixed quickly.

Sparks are bit of a mess too, but Mama D, Plum, Rickea, Brink, Azura, Rae, and Allemond could at least make the Lynx sweat a little.

 

[pollardsvision]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

 

[Ghost Rider]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

 

[Navin Johnson]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

The NBA made $70 million off the league in 2024.

 

[scoobus]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

The NBA made $70 million off the league in 2024.

Source?

Google is telling me the league lost $40 million in 2024, although I'm admittedly not searching very hard.

 

[pollardsvision]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

The NBA made $70 million off the league in 2024.

Source?

Google is telling me the league lost $40 million in 2024, although I'm admittedly not searching very hard.

I don't know of any reliable source for the WNBA's financials. It's not a publicly traded company.

The NBA is in the middle of a labor negotiation. In that situation, everybody cries poor. Even better if you can get the media to push that narrative for you.

Again, I don't know. Very few do.

All I know is there's a line of people wanting to buy a team for massive amounts of money.

 

[pollardsvision]

Although losses certainly wouldn't surprise me.

The NBA's management of this league is questionable at best.

 

[Navin Johnson]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

The NBA made $70 million off the league in 2024.

Source?

Google is telling me the league lost $40 million in 2024, although I'm admittedly not searching very hard.

I'll have to find it tonoght, but the NBA contributes ~$15M/year to the WNBA and takes 42% of the revenue off the top (outside investors take another 15%) which is why the league is operating at a loss. Of the $200M in revenue generated in 2024, the actual league only saw $85M of it. This is the main point of contention between the WBPA and the league/investors. The league feels they are already paying the players over 20% of the revenue which is still an absurdly low share (Dana White level low balling) but the players want closer to 40% of the BRI, not 40% of what's left after outside parties take their cut.

 

[pollardsvision]

Unrivaled's new round of investments have them valued at $340 million
Apparently a 10X increase since the Spring of 2024, due to higher than projected revenues.

The pressure is on the NBA here with the new CBA negotiations.

I have no idea if a lockout is coming, but the NBA is negotiating with a bunch of players that are already used to having other streams of income. This ain't a bunch of people used to making insane money with alimony payments and no other way to replace that income. Most of these women need to replace about $80K a year, and they already make much more than that overseas.

Countries all over the world pay women a lot of money to play basketball. Now there's a domestic league that does too (Unrivaled average salary was about $220,000, not far off a WNBA max salary, and the Unrivaled season is only 2 months). It's not apples to apples as Unrivaled only has 36 players (going to 42 this year), but it's a year old league that plays for 2 months. Heck, Athletes Unlimited, which most people have never heard of, can pay them $4,000 a month. These women are used to eating beans and rice, and working in the off-seasons. They can make it a year with no WNBA without much change in their lifestyle.

Gonna be hard for the NBA to keep saying there's no money to be made in professional women's basketball when the evidence otherwise keeps mounting (particularly the money being thrown out to buy W franchises).

I think we're heading for a lockout, which is fine.

If the NBA can't figure out how to make money on professional women's basketball and pay the players, I'd love to just let somebody else try.

There's a growing list of billionaires trying to invest in professional women's basketball, but the NBA keeps freezing them out.

You can't blame them. The NBA is the only reason the WNBA stayed afloat for decades when it was losing money. If they want to play a little hardball now, it is more than understandable.

The NBA made $70 million off the league in 2024.

Source?

Google is telling me the league lost $40 million in 2024, although I'm admittedly not searching very hard.

I'll have to find it tonoght, but the NBA contributes ~$15M/year to the WNBA and takes 42% of the revenue off the top (outside investors take another 15%) which is why the league is operating at a loss. Of the $200M in revenue generated in 2024, the actual league only saw $85M of it. This is the main point of contention between the WBPA and the league/investors. The league feels they are already paying the players over 20% of the revenue which is still an absurdly low share (Dana White level low balling) but the players want closer to 40% of the BRI, not 40% of what's left after outside parties take their cut.

Amazing how the cut the NBA takes off the top doesn't usually get mentioned when media are dropping WNBA profitablity hot takes.

There really is no "WNBA". It's really just a tiny subsidiary of the NBA. It's like their kid's lemonade stand.

Which is a pretty odd situation for a league to operate in.

 

[pollardsvision]

And Unrivaled just announced 2 new teams (Breeze and Hive).
They are also expanding rosters, and adding more injury replacement players.

Bringing the total number of spots to 54 players. Otherwise known as 1/3rd of the WNBA (before the Toronto and Portand expansions).

1/3rd of the league is already set up to make more money than they do in the WNBA without having to leave the US.

Dozens more will be playing overseas. Seriously, they make insane money overseas.

I'd guess a lockout is coming.

 

[pollardsvision]

More importantly, nice win for the Storm to sneak in.

Storm are schizophrenic and I don't think they can beat the Lynx.
But they've given the Lynx some headaches this year.

Storm can beat (or lose to) anybody on any night.

Nneka continues to dominate. Skylar, Sykes, and E-Wheezy can take over at any time. I don't know what's going on with Gabby lately, but she can too.

And Dom.....holy cow, this kid is figuring it out and you don't want to face her right now.