IT’S STAR TIME!

On July 6, the WNBA announced the list of All-Star reserves, and there’s one name that will have New York Liberty fans incredibly excited.

Before the start of action that day, Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello spoke about her former player Kayla Thornton and the possibility of her making the All-Star Game:

KT will be making her first appearance at the All-Star Game, having been selected by the head coaches of the WNBA. It’s a well-deserved accomplishment for one of the WNBA’s best role players in recent years.

All-Star Games are a celebration of the players, and it’s great to see a well-respected vet get her moment in the sun like this.

Here’s who will be joining KT:

Inspired by the Levels to This Podcast, Erica & I held a Mock Draft. I picked Team Clark, and Erica picked Team Phee.

Here are our picks!

We began by selecting our four additional starters and then proceeded to the reserve players.

Let us know who you think picked a winning team.

THREE NEW TEAMS WILL BE JOINING THE W

The WNBA is growing!

If you’ve been in at least one press conference with WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert, you know the topic of expansion is going to come up. It's been something that’s been on everyone’s minds for years, and we’ve seen the early returns of expansion with the rise of the Golden State Valkyries.

Portland and Toronto are scheduled to join in 2026, and by 2023, we’ll have three more teams joining the party. Cleveland, Detroit, and Philadelphia!

The timing came as a surprise, as the league announced the news to the public five minutes before the Commissioner held a special press conference to make it official.

Cleveland and Detroit have previously had WNBA teams. The Rockers played from 1997 to 2003, and the Detroit Shock won three WNBA championships before moving to Tulsa for the 2010 season.

Black Rosie Media founder Erica L. Ayala joined CBS Sports to talk about the big expansion news:

Unsurprisingly, each new team has an ownership group that runs an NBA franchise, a fact that has not gone unnoticed by other ownership groups vying for bids. That dynamic also played out when Golden State Warriors owner Joe Lacob’s group was awarded a team over an Oakland-based group led by Hall of Famer Alana Beard. Either way, the excitement is there and only a sign that the WNBA is continuing to rise.

“I think owners are chomping at the bit to be able to get a team,” Sabrina Ionescu told the media at Liberty practice on July 2.

“They understand, they see the investment, they see the value. Franchises are continuing to be worth $450 million, $500 million, and it's going to continue to go up over the years.”

Sab also spoke about the league finding a balance between not expanding too quickly and ensuring that there are enough roster spots to allow the new teams to be competitive.

The news about the W making their debut in Philadelphia was significant for a hometown kid.

“For my hometown team the Sixers to truly invest into a W team,” Natasha Cloud told media at practice on July 2.

“That's always been my dream. To have an organization for the city is going to be so important. Every place that I've played, women in that community matter.”

“Our faces matter. Our roles matter. I think it brings a lot of like nurture and care, a lot of love. Obviously, the competitiveness, the eliteness of what is the W is here, but it's more so in the community that I feel like we bring a different spirit about us.

“But for the women of Philly, the Tri-State area, Delco, where I'm from, to have a team now and have something to look to. If you can see it, you can be, and I think that's a really dope thing.”

The expansion news will shake things up in the 2028 season, and it’ll be fascinating to see what the league will look like then.

📰 WHAT WE’RE READING

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in the women’s basketball community.

Here’s what we’re reading:

• Bry Reed: To grow the game, the WNBA needs to market all of its stars by Bry Reed for Baltimore Beat

• Aari McDonald is the 2025 Commissioner’s Cup’s Biggest Winner by Candace Pedraza for Winsidr

• Te-Hina Paopao is finding her groove with Atlanta Dream, one shot at a time by Wilton Jackson for The Next

• WNBA expansion: Seven lingering questions as the league adds teams in Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia by Jack Maloney for CBS Sports

• How AI Wreaked Havoc on the Lo-Fi Beat Scene by Kieran Press-Reynolds for Pitchfork

⛹🏽‍♀️ UPCOMING GAMES

Here’s the schedule for the next few days (Eastern Standard Time)

💰 MONEY MOVES

THE WNBA THINKS OF EXPANDING THE SCHEDULE

Recently at the Women’s Basketball Roundup, we talked about the jam-packed WNBA schedule. The league is playing a record-high 44 games in 2025, but in the same amount of time it would take to play 32, 36, or more games in past seasons.

It’s a topic that has and will continue to come up in CBA negotiations, and it appears the league is trying to devise a solution to this problem.

At CBS Sports, Terrika Foster-Brasby and our very own Erica L. Ayala reported on a recent conversation with Cathy Engelbert. The Commissioner first acknowledged that the W has to account for the major international competitions, such as the World Cup and Olympic Games, when it comes to scheduling.

She confirmed the league is planning to push the schedule into November, and talked about the sport that takes up the most oxygen here in the United States, the National Football League:

In a time where sports leagues do everything they can to avoid running into the NFL, this is a big vote of confidence in Engelbert on the product the players are delivering fans every time they step out on the court.

Beyond that aspect, extending the season into the fall will have significant ramifications for basketball leagues worldwide. The French, Turkish, and other leagues tend to pay significantly more than the WNBA does, and if the season runs long at the same pay, the league is directly taking money out of its players’ pockets.

It’s great that the W is trying to address a big problem in terms of ensuring players get more rest in between games. However, if the pay doesn’t meet the standards players are looking for, then it will create a new range of problems at home and abroad.

We’ve got a long way to go before a new CBA is signed, and this issue will certainly be at the front of the league and WNBPA’s minds.

📲 STAY CONNECTED!

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