There are 180 players in the WNBA. That’s not a lot. I often say it’s one of the toughest jobs to land (and keep) in the country. In any given year, about 400,000 girls play high school basketball. Only 1.2% of them will go on to play Division I basketball, and of those, only 0.8% of the top players are expected to make a professional team, according to the NCAA.
I talked about parity a few weeks back, and how there is so much movement in the league standings this season because the teams are evenly matched and the talent pool is vast. Well, it’s time to shine a light on the players you don’t always see in the headlines. Here are some names who deserve a little more recognition:
🗽 Rebekah Gardner, New York Liberty
The Liberty won the Commissioner’s Cup title over the Las Vegas Aces last week, the first team to repeat as champions. Breanna Stewart won MVP and Sabrina Ionescu made some clutch three-pointers down the stretch. But Gardner stepped up huge in her minutes for New York. She tallied seven points in 12 minutes and shot 60% from the field.
The UCLA product was a 31-year-old undrafted rookie in 2022, after balling out overseas in Turkey, Romania and Spain. She burst on to the scene with the Chicago Sky, earning a spot on the All-Rookie team. Now, she’s playing a significant role off the bench for a deep Liberty squad; she takes on the toughest defensive assignment, is efficient with her shot selection (50.7% on the season), and has stayed healthy – something the Liberty desperately needs.
♠️ NaLyssa Smith, Las Vegas Aces
After Smith was traded to the Aces from the Dallas Wings midway through last season, she says she “fell in love with the game again”. This season, she’s playing like a champion, starting alongside four-time MVP A’ja Wilson and showcasing some of the best basketball of her career. Through 21 games, Smith has the highest field-goal percentage in the league at nearly 66%. In the overtime win against the Sky last Friday, she posted a season-high 29 points on 11-for-14 shooting – without Wilson, who has been sidelined with an ankle injury. “She’s truly our glue,” Wilson said of her teammate. “She does all the little things.” Smith has been tasked to step up in the superstar’s absence, and she’s more than proved she can answer the call.
⚔️ Kaila Charles, Golden State Valkyries
Charles has been in and out of the league since 2020, and it seems she’s finally found a home in Golden State. Her scoring stats may not be the flashiest (6.0 points per game off the bench), but it’s everything else she contributes to the Valkyries. Her 4.7 rebounds per game are the fifth-best among guards. Plus, she consistently gets defensive stops in crunch time, knocks down timely three-pointers and embodies the hard-nosed identity Golden State have set out to claim. The University of Maryland product is an unsung hero and will come up huge in the postseason for this squad.
☁️ Madina Okot, Atlanta Dream
South Carolina fans were keeping their fingers crossed that Okot would even make the Dream’s roster after she was selected with the No 13 pick in this year’s draft. Not only did she make the team, but she’s made an immediate impact for the Dream this season. Atlanta’s All-Star center, Brionna Jones, has been out indefinitely due to injury, so when the opportunity arose for the rookie to absorb her minutes, Okot took advantage. She’s been solid on the offensive end (5.7 ppg in 9.5 minutes of action) and has had to guard the gauntlet of bigs throughout the league. The best part, though? Okot has only been playing basketball since 2020. Just six years! In that span, she competed in college in her home country of Kenya, reached the NCAA national championship game with South Carolina and even started a game as a WNBA rookie. I’m getting whiplash just thinking about it.
💬 Quoted
The harassment, the hate. None of that is OK.
– Caitlin Clark, Indiana Fever guard
Almost two weeks later, we’re still talking about Alyssa Thomas’s Flagrant 2 foul on Clark that led to Thomas’s one-game suspension. Thomas has publicly stated that she and her family have received death threats and have been the center of social media toxicity. Clark came under fire for failing to respond, but in a statement on Friday, condemned the hatred being spewed at players online. Fever coach Stephanie White had chimed in a few days prior: “I think for the league as a whole, there’s been so much more toxicity, racism, homophobia – straight up hateful nonsense, and it is absolutely unacceptable.” The WNBA also had to release a statement on how “unacceptable” it is for fans to send death threats to players. This is all … a lot.
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Read more: The eternal whirring of the Caitlin Clark conspiracy machine has shifted into a new gear
⏪ From the archive
On 23 June 1997, Robin Roberts and Geno Auriemma were on the call for ESPN’s first nationally televised WNBA broadcast. The New York Liberty defeated the Sacramento Monarchs 73-62. The two would call many WNBA games together for ESPN in the league’s early years.
On Tuesday night, Roberts (now co-anchor for Good Morning America) and Auriemma (UConn’s head coach) returned to the booth for a special one-night-only reunion 30 seasons later as the Liberty hosted the Wings in Brooklyn. The game featured three of Auriemma’s brightest alums: Breanna Stewart for New York and Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd for Dallas. Bueckers and Fudd, who won a championship with Auriemma in 2025, got the upper hand as the Wings won 88-77.
📸 Tunnel picks: let the Sun shine
The Connecticut Sun may be last in the standings, but their fits are first-place worthy.
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Olivia Nelson-Ododa, Connecticut Sun: I’m sorry, is this the Oscars red carpet or a WNBA tunnel fit? Nelson-Ododa has gone full glam with her looks this season, and I love it. It’s as if she’s auditioning to be a runway model each game. Here, she’s wearing an incredible swoon-worthy Christopher Esber baby blue satin gown.
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Aaliyah Edwards, Connecticut Sun: It was a UConn reunion in Mohegan Sun Arena when Dallas came to town, and so this former Husky decided to pay homage to one of the greats, Diana Taurasi, with a custom No 3 jersey dress.
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Aneesah Morrow, Connecticut Sun: As a short girlie, I am afraid these boots would come up to my eyeballs, but on Aneesah, they complement this leather look perfectly. The all black screams “I mean business,” and in this game, her Sun got the 29-point victory over the Chicago Sky.
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This is an extract from WNBA 30, where Jordan Robinson covers the biggest stories in the league on and off the court each week. Subscribe for free here.
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