The four-time WNBA All-Star and reigning Defensive Player of the Year explained that for her, individual awards are secondary to making sure her team is doing all it can to win. Her philosophy is clear: if she focuses on winning, individual recognition should follow.

WNBA season tips off on Friday May 16, with 13 teams ready to compete for a championship. After one of the busiest offseasons in recent history, we now get a chance to see how the league will shape up with a new expansion team and 44 games on the schedule.

DeShields made the WNBA All-Star Team and second-team All-WNBA during the 2019 season with the Chicago Sky. In 2019, DeShields averaged 16.2 points, 5.5 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.3 steals per game. During the 2021 season, she averaged 11.3 points and 3.5 rebounds per game for the Sky, who won the WNBA championship.

One year after finishing second in MVP voting and coming up one win short of leading the Minnesota Lynx to a championship, expectations are sky high for Napheesa Collier entering the 2025 season.

As a reminder, the WNBA's playoff format disregards conferences. The top-eight teams in the league make the playoffs, where they are seeded into a traditional eight-team bracket. That remains true this season even with the introduction of the expansion Golden State Valkyries .

The 2025 WNBA season is set to get underway this weekend. One of the most highly anticipated games will be between the Dallas Wings and Minnesota Lynx. The Wings drafted UConn star Paige Bueckers with the No.1 overall pick last month, with many expected to tune in to her debut.

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is predictably very popular among WNBA GMs. Clark is widely considered a generational talent. Her meteoric rise through college and into her sophomore year in the WNBA has been hard to ignore.

According to UConn and Connecticut Sun reporter Maggie Vanoni, Yvonne Anderson, a point guard who previously played for the team, was waived for the second time in her WNBA career. Anderson entered the WNBA in 2012 as an undrafted free agent after a college career at the University of Texas.

There are no shortages of challengers to the reigning WNBA champion New York Liberty or star power across the league.

In the past decade, women’s basketball has become easier to find and watch. WNBA matches used to be broadcast sporadically, on obscure channels and at random times of the day. In 2015 ESPN televised only 11 games in the season. “You had to guess when it would be on,” remembers David Berri of Southern Utah University.

Thursday, May 15, marks the day when all 13 WNBA teams must finalize their rosters before the regular season games begin on May 16. While many teams had already trimmed their roster down to 12 players,