Candace Parker hilariously called Aces teammate A’Ja Wilson on Facetime to celebrate Tennessee right before South Carolina’s epic buzzer-beater

Celebrated too soon!

The South Carolina women’s basketball team refused to lose on Saturday, as Kamilla Cardoso scored her first 3-pointer of the season to top Tennessee at the buzzer.

The heroic bucket from Cardoso kept South Carolina’s undefeated season alive and sent the Lady Vols home with a devastating defeat.

The last-second South Carolina victory also caught Tennessee great and current Las Vegas Aces forward Candace Parker off-guard as she Facetimed with her teammate, a former South Carolina standout.

Wilson posted on Twitter (X) a screenshot of the two talking on Facetime, as she said that Parker called Wilson thinking the game was over only to realize it most certainly was not after Cardoso’s shot.

It’s never a good idea to celebrate until the final buzzer, especially in a sport like basketball where so much can change with one bucket.

Parker probably won’t hear the end of this for quite some time, as Wilson both got a big victory for her alma mater and a good laugh out of Parker’s confident Facetime call.

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A’ja Wilson revealed she knows who placed that infamous 4th-place MVP vote

A’ja Wilson eats fourth-place MVP votes for breakfast.

I’m not one to get in the business of others. I typically let them do them, but whoever placed that fourth-place MVP for A’ja Wilson, I need to share something with you. You might have unlocked a new intensity level in Wilson that likely won’t lessen until she owns every imaginable award.

I don’t know your voting rationale, but I understand feeling like there was likely someone else who was more valuable to their team. FINE. However, I’m not sure you are genuinely familiar with A’ja Wilson’s game and levels of pettiness. Not only did that infamous vote fuel Wilson’s run to the WNBA finals — where she won a second title AND Finals MVP —she wore her MVP voting breakdown on a shirt at the Las Vegas Aces’ celebratory parade.

Now, Wilson says she knows who you are. (See the 1:16 mark of the clip below.) What does this mean? Is there another Aces championship coming? Another Defensive Player of the Year award? Is she going to send every ball that comes her way into oblivion?

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE?!

Here are the 3 WNBA players bringing the buckets to the 2024 NBA All-Star Celebrity Game

The WNBA is full of hoopers. Even in a celebrity game, buckets will be had.

Hoopers want to be around other hoopers, and that includes teaming up at the NBA All-Star game. The event, scheduled for later this month, will host several of the NBA’s best, but the WNBA is also making an appearance. A’ja Wilson, Natasha Cloud, and Jewell Loyd will be part of the 2024 All-Star Celebrity Game.

Buzz is building around the NBA All-Star game and its accompanying events, and it seems the league understands that if you want to make things intriguing, invite the WNBA.

[gambcom-standard rankid=”3011″ ]

Just days ago, Steph Curry challenged Sabrina Ionescu to a 3-point contest, and she eagerly accepted. Now, her fellow hoopers are getting in on the action by agreeing to play in the NBA All-Star Celebrity Game. A’ja Wilson will coach new Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud on Stephen A. Smith’s team, and Jewell Loyd will play for Shannon Sharpe.

Here is the full breakdown for each team. If nobody is saying it out loud, these rosters will be full of buckets. Don’t say we didn’t warn you.

Team roster image courtesy of the WNBA.

Q&A: Atlanta Dream guard Haley Jones tried to build a WNBA Mt. Rushmore and it was so hard

“I’m stressed out over here! I’m getting a new pimple!”

Haley Jones is just a California girl with Atlanta dreams. Yet, her vision for her career extends beyond the court and into girls’ lives everywhere.

During her college career at Stanford, Jones was an AP All-American and Pac-12 Co-Player of the Year and also won a national championship. In 2023, she was drafted by the Atlanta Dream, where she thrived and walked away with WNBA All-Rookie Team honors. Now, she’s hoping to build upon her success and share her passion for basketball with other young players.

In celebration of National Girls and Women in Sports Day, the WNBA and VOICEINSPORT (VIS) are partnering with the WNBA Changemaker Collective to engage and unlock services to over 50,000 girls via VIS’s platform. Jones and 11 other WNBA players have signed on to become VIS mentors, something she says she wished she had as a young athlete.

“It would have meant a lot because the W was very young when I was growing up, and social media wasn’t as big back then,” she told For The Win in a recent interview. “So, I didn’t have those role models, and I feel like nowadays, kids can connect to us through Instagram, TikTok, Twitter, whatever it may be. It would have meant the world to have that one-on-one connection or feel like you really know your favorite athletes and people who look like you.”

Ahead of the 2024 WNBA season, Jones spoke with For the Win about what she would have changed from her first season in the league, why having new teammate Jordin Canada guard her was annoying, and why it stresses her out to pick just four players to be on her WNBA Mount Rushmore of greats.

This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

A’ja Wilson thinks Caitlin Clark’s wave-off in the Final Four may have enhanced Raven Johnson’s game

A’ja Wilson thinks Caitlin Clark may have added extra fuel to Raven Johnson’s game.

WNBA superstar A’ja Wilson is a huge fan of South Carolina point guard Raven Johnson’s current game, and she thinks Caitlin Clark may have something to do with that.

A’ja Wilson is one of the best players in the WNBA. The two-time champion and Defensive Player of the Year is a force to be reckoned with. She also has spoken openly about the ways in which South Carolina head coach Dawn Staley has sown into her and how Staley was a crucial part of her journey to become the player she is now.

When she recently joined the All The Smoke podcast for an episode, Wilson was asked what collegiate women’s basketball player she thinks has a bright future. Admitting her bias, she picked one of Staley’s current players, Raven Johnson.

Wilson believes that last season’s Final Four matchup, which had many talking about Johson’s infamous wave-off moment with Caitlin Clark, woke her up. ( See the 36:31 mark of the video.)

(Warning: NSFW language.)

Hannah Hidalgo is USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year

Congrats, Hannah!

[autotag]Hannah Hidalgo[/autotag] only has played college basketball for a month, but the Notre Dame freshman phenom already is making an impact. She’s the nation’s leader in steals (6.0 a game) and one of its top scorers (23.6 points a game). But that doesn’t begin to describe what she’s done overall this year.

Hidalgo has won the prestigious USA Basketball Female Athlete of the Year award for how well she did in international play this season. During the FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup, she averaged 10.7 points and 5.4 assists a game to help the U.S. win the gold medal. Joni Taylor, her coach from that tournament, said it best:

“Hannah Hidalgo is a name you will not forget.”

In winning this award, Hidalgo is joining elite company in more ways than one. She is only the fourth player to win it before beginning her collegiate career, joining Paige Bueckers, Brianna Stewart and Janelle Bailey.

Many women’s basketball legends, some of which remain active and others are enshrined in the Basketball Hall of Fame, have won this award since it was first given out in 1980. These include Diana Taurasi, Teresa Edwards, Lisa Leslie, Dawn Staley, Cheryl Miller, Katrina McClain, A’ja Wilson, Maya Moore, Tina Charles, Katie Smith, Natalie Williams, Ruthie Bolton, Chamique Holdsclaw, Seimone Augustus and Lynette Woodard.

If that list is any indication, Hidalgo is on her way to becoming not only an Irish legend but a legend of the sport. It probably wouldn’t surprise her either because she indicated such when Fighting Irish Wire asked her about it after the Irish’s win over Lafayette:

“No, I’m not surprised at all. I think I know what God has blessed me with, and so, it’s a lot easier when I have teammates like the ones that I do. That makes the game just so much easier.”

Here’s to the latest of what should be many more honors for someone who’s just getting started.

Contact/Follow us @IrishWireND on Twitter, and like our page on Facebook to follow ongoing coverage of Notre Dame news, notes, and opinions.

Follow Geoffrey on Twitter: @gfclark89

10 best outfits from the 2023 WNBA season

Alexa, play “Unstoppable” by Sia.

One thing WNBA players will do is coordinate an outfit down to the feet.

The eye-catching fashion and personal styles of the WNBA are no secret. Whether designing signature shoes or walking through the tunnels before a game, the athletes in the WNBA are always making a statement and ready to show the world their drip.

Players like Satou Sabally, recently voted the WNBA’s most stylish player by GQ and Finals MVP and DPOY A’ja Wilson, lead the way in knowing what will turn heads and generate conversation. It’s giving confidence, and we love to see it.

Here are the 10 best outfits from the 2023 WNBA season:

A’ja Wilson’s parade shirt pettily reminded everyone she had a 4th place MVP vote

This is NEXT-LEVEL petty.

A’ja Wilson hasn’t forgotten her MVP snub. In fact, she brought the receipts.

On Monday, the Las Vegas Aces held their championship parade. It was one of the wildest, totally off-the-hinges celebrations the WNBA has seen in recent memory. The entire squad had words for their haters and those who doubted them. Even head coach Becky Hammon had smoke for anyone with something to say about her team, especially when it came to Wilson.

The 27-year-old center is a walking bucket with defensive chops to match. She’s dismantled nearly every obstacle in the way, including winning back-to-back Defensive Player of the Year honors. Still, she came up short in the voting totals for the 2023 season’s MVP award.

It likely stung not to win, but it’s the voting breakdown that stuck with Wilson. It fueled her so much that she printed it on a t-shirt and wore it to the Aces’ victory parade for everyone to see.

On the back of Wilson’s shirt were numbers indicating the votes she received during the season’s MVP race, reflecting how voters viewed her worthiness of receiving the league’s highest honor. This included a fourth-place vote that the other top two contenders — Breanna Stewart and Alyssa Thomas — did not receive.

Whew. That’s elite levels of petty.

But Wilson was not done. She thanked the person who voted.

Warning: NSFW language.

“Whoever you are that voted me fourth, thank you. Thank you so much,” Wilson said sarcastically.

Wilson said the vote meant she had more work to do before telling the crowd, “We’re coming back, baby. We gon’ do this [expletive] again.”

Cold-blooded.

Becky Hammon predicts A’ja Wilson will be ‘the GOAT of the GOATs’ in epic parade speech

What was in Becky Hammon’s tumbler?!

Becky Hammon was the best part of the Las Vegas Aces’ championship parade, and it’s not even close.

On Monday, the Aces held their parade to celebrate their stellar WNBA Finals victory over the New York Liberty. In the best way possible and to the shock of absolutely no one, it was one of the most chaotic scenes I’ve ever witnessed.

There were shirts with petty phrases on them, crazy amounts of unhinged dancing, and lots of spirits and libations. (I’m convinced whatever was in everyone’s red cups — and Hammon’s tumbler — was of the strong variety.)

With the liquid courage flowing, several members of the Aces took a moment to address the fans.  But Hammon stole the show with a legendary expletive-heavy speech as she paid tribute to A’ja Wilson.

Warning: NSFW language.

In what feels like a moment Hammon has been waiting on for quite some time, she gives Wilson her flowers.

“I’m an old [expletive] [expletive],” Hammon said boldly. “I played against all the GOATs. I’m gonna put it out there…this gon’ be the GOAT of all GOATs.”

I’m not going to lie; that’s a bar. What Wilson can do doesn’t even feel real. She is extraordinary. Points were made.

Ultimately, this is completely unserious behavior by Hammon, but when you win consecutive championships, you do what you want.

Aces players crashed A’ja Wilson’s press conference to continue celebrating their title

This was such a fun moment.

WNBA Finals MVP A’ja Wilson was just focusing on an answer to reporters after her Las Vegas Aces won their second straight title (and it sounded like she was trying to be serious at the time).

But then, her teammates decided to rush the podium, complete with music and shouts and lots of bottles of champagne. And who could blame them? That was quite a win over the New York Liberty in a tough series.

Here you go, this was quite the fun scene, both from the cameras showing the press conference and from reporters in the room with them: