Tag: Chelsea Gray

3-time WNBA champion Chelsea Gray joins Kings broadcast team

Gray is also a current ACC Network college basketball analyst for the 2023-2024 season.

Three-time WNBA champion Chelsea Gray adds another role to her ever-expanding résumé, joining the Sacramento Kings broadcast team as a pre and postgame analyst. She joins hosts Kyle Draper and Morgan Ragan and analysts Matt Barnes and Mike Bibby on NBC Sports California for the remainder of the 2023-24 NBA season.

Gray won back-to-back WNBA championships with the Las Vegas Aces in 2022 and 2023 while also snagging a championship in 2016 with the Los Angeles Sparks. She is an Olympic gold medalist and five-time WNBA All-Star, among many other accolades.

This will not be her first foray into basketball analysis. She is a current ACC Network (ACCN) college basketball analyst for the 2023-2024 season. Gray isn’t the only Aces team member analyzing the game this season. Candace Parker works for Turner Sports as a basketball analyst and even head coach Becky Hammon is an ESPN analyst.

In addition to her analyst role, it was announced earlier this year that Gray will be a founding member of a new professional basketball league in the United States. Unrivaled was founded by New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and Minnesota Lynx forward Napheesa Collier. The league will run from January through March and “feature 30 of the top professional women’s players on six teams, playing games of 3-on-3 and 1-on-1 at a soundstage in Miami.”

The offseason is shaping up to be quite busy for Gray, but there isn’t a true offseason in women’s basketball. So, instead, she joins numerous other players who head to their secondary or tertiary jobs when the WNBA season ends.

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5 spectacular assists from the 2023 WNBA season, including a Sabrina Ionescu no-look pass

Not to be dramatic, but Sabrina, please explain.

The WNBA dropped the top assists from 2023, and the list is so good.

In basketball, few things are better than a floor general who can use their superior vision to dish out assists at will and make it look spectacularly beautiful. Yet, the WNBA seems to have several players and teams who do that effortlessly.

WNBA fans were treated to several “what in the world just happened?” performances during the 2023 season from players like Chelsea Gray, Diana Taurasi and Sabrina Ionescu. Some plays looked so good the tape needed to be re-winded back — twice.

In case you missed any of those sneaky good dimes, here are the top five assists from 2023:

ESPN handled Chelsea Gray’s brutal leg injury in the worst possible way

ESPN cannot be serious right now.

Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray deserved better when it came to how ESPN handled footage of her injury during Game 3 of the 2023 WNBA Finals.

Injuries, of course, are part of sports. It’s awful for everyone involved: the athlete, the organization, and the fans. Understandably, coverage of the injury is provided to give updates, add context, and piece together the storyline. A blatant lack of respect for the athlete is not included in that.

ESPN didn’t get that memo.

During Game 3, Gray went down with an apparent leg injury. The All-Star could be seen wincing in pain in the middle of play, trying to play through it and before going to the bench, and eventually, the Aces’ locker room.

But ESPN kept the cameras rolling, even as she struggled.

Out of respect for Gray, I will not post the extended footage, but trust me. It was BAD.

As Gray attempted to get off the court, the network switched to a camera that showed her trying to make it down a hallway. Viewers were given access to a clearly-in-pain Gray crying out (with audio) and unable to move without assistance.

Come on, ESPN. Seriously?

To make matters worse, the cameras continued to roll nearly the entire time Gray moved down the hallway with her team. At one point, the network did a split-screen view of Gray on one side and the game on the other. Unreal.

I have no problem showing a bit of behind-the-scenes coverage. This is commonly done in basketball, but in this case, with Gray in agony, it was too far. A quick flash on the screen and a cutaway back to the action gets that done. There was no need to keep the camera rolling as Gray dealt with her injury.

Gray deserves privacy as she receives care. I get it — the viewer experience matters, but there has to be some point when we get that she’s injured, and we’re filled in.

Be better.

WNBA Finals 2023 TV schedule: Here’s the full schedule for Aces – Liberty

Grab your popcorn. The WNBA Finals are coming.

It’s the final countdown. The WNBA Finals begin Sunday, and this year’s matchup has all the makings of a heavyweight championship fight.

The Las Vegas Aces are pursuing back-to-back titles, while the New York Liberty are seeking the franchise’s first championship. The WNBA’s final two teams feature incredible talents like league MVP Breanna Stewart, Defensive Player of the Year A’Ja Wilson, 3-point specialist Sabrina Ionescu, the “Point Gawd” Chelsea Gray and many more.

It’s a rivalry that WNBA fans watched all season and now get to see on the league’s biggest stage. We’ve got you covered!

Here is the schedule for the potential five-game series:

WNBA playoffs predictions: Will the Liberty crush the Aces’ chances of winning back-to-back?

For basketball heads everywhere, the WNBA playoffs are an out-of-body experience.

The WNBA playoffs are here. This is when regular season records mean nothing, and wins mean everything. It’s buzzer beaters, emphatically blocked shots, “what did I just see?” moments and scoring so good you’ll need a pulse check.

For basketball heads everywhere, this is an out-of-body experience. The level of play is elevated, and so are the expectations.

Will the Lynx fly too close to the Sun? (See what I did there?) Will the Liberty crush the Aces’ chances of winning back-to-back titles?

Who wins? Who’s out?

These are your 2023 WNBA playoff predictions:

Chelsea Gray absolutely stunned her Aces’ teammates with this smooth behind-the-back pass

Chelsea Gray dropped this absolute dime that totally wowed her teammates.

Chelsea Gray has been making difficult passes look easy for a while now in the WNBA. Her playmaking skills have helped her win a pair of championships and make four All-Star teams. Last season, she was the MVP of the Finals as the Las Vegas Aces won it all.

But on Saturday night, Gray dropped a dime that totally wowed her teammates.

With about three minutes to play in the Aces’ win over the Indiana Fever, Gray was leading the charge on a fast break. She crossed halfcourt, drew in a defender, and then – with her right hand – threw a dart of a pass behind her back to MVP candidate A’ja Wilson, who finished an easy lay-up for two points.

Gray’s Las Vegas teammates – especially Sydney Colson and Kierstan Bell – couldn’t believe it.

After the game, Las Vegas head coach Becky Hammon said:

“You got Chelsea Gray going out there, throwing passes out of her ears. I don’t know how she’s seeing some of this stuff… That’s what you get when you coach a magician; sometimes they just pull it out of their hat and you roll with it.”

Here’s another look at the play:

It wasn’t Gray’s only dime of the night.

She finished the game with a double-double of 13 points and 12 assists as the Aces won 101-88. It was the seventh points-assists double-double of Gray’s career.

Through 13 games this season, Gray is averaging a career-best 6.7 assists per game, which ranks third in the WNBA. She’s also shooting 50 percent from 3-point land.

The Aces are 12-1 on the season and have won five straight games. And Gray is a big reason why.

Celtics Jayson Tatum, Grant Williams spotted taking in separate WNBA games over the weekend

There’s an entire league of high-level basketball to watch if the finals sting too much, and these two Celtics took advantage.

Fans of the Boston Celtics are not the only ones among us looking for a basketball fix right now with only two teams left in the NBA having left a league-sized hole in our viewing habits. But there is an entire league of basketball taking place alongside the Denver Nuggets – Miami Heat finals series that is perhaps too raw to watch for Boston fans in the first place.

And that would be the WNBA season currently unfolding alongside the last gasps of the NBA’s 2023 postseason, with loads of exciting action to watch in person or online, with at least two members of the Celtics roster electing for the former.

The duo in question was star forward Jayson Tatum and reserve swingman Grant Williams, the latter an outspoken fan of the women’s game.

The Aces brought Las Vegas its first ever championship parade and these 15 photos captured how spectacular it was

The Las Vegas Aces had their city turned all the way up.

For a city having its first ever championship parade, Las Vegas sure did show up and show out for the Aces after they returned home from the WNBA Finals against the Connecticut Sun.

The newly minted WNBA champions held their championship parade on the Vegas strip on Tuesday and it looked more like a party than anything else.

Champagne was popped. Shots were taken. A’ja Wilson was on 10. Finals MVP Chelsea Gray was also on 10. Kelsey Plum may have been on 20. The vibes were immaculate all around.

Not sure if these photos actually do the moment justice, but here are 15 incredible pictures from the Aces’ celebration.

Enjoy.

Chelsea Gray is having one of the most incredible playoff runs ever for the Aces

The Las Vegas star is doing things we’ve literally never seen.

Welcome to Layup Lines, our daily NBA newsletter where we’ll prep you for a tip-off of tonight’s action, from what to watch to bets to make. Subscribe here to get it delivered to your inbox every afternoon.

In case you missed it, the Las Vegas Aces advanced to the WNBA Finals on Tuesday night with a Game 4 win over the Seattle Storm. They overcome a halftime deficit and 42(!) points by Breanna Stewart to earn the 3-1 series victory and put a bow on the legendary career of Sue Bird, who had her own awesome moment.

At the center of it all was point gawd Chelsea Gray, continuing what has truly been one of the greatest playoff runs in WNBA history. Reminiscent of her Game 3 overtime heroics, Gray hit clutch bucket after clutch bucket in the fourth quarter, including the 3-pointer that broke a tie with around one minute left and the next basket to push the lead to five with 30 seconds left.

Gray finished the game with 31 points on 13-of-22 shooting, six rebounds and 10 assists, becoming the first player in WNBA history with 30 points and 10 assists in a playoff game. And that’s just the tip of what she’s doing this postseason.

Through six games and two series, Gray is averaging 24.0 points on 62.6% shooting from the field and 59.5% from three. She’s also averaging 7.7 assists, 4.3 rebounds and 1.2 steals. No one has been that efficient while scoring that many points and averaging that many assists in the short history of the W. According to The Sporting News, her 74.7 effective field goal percentage would be the highest of any player to average 20 points in a postseason.

All this is coming from Vegas’ fourth-leading scorer during the regular season! Now, the Aces await the winner of Game 5 between the Chicago Sky and Connecticut Sun on Thursday. And with a large thanks to Gray, they look very much the part of the favorites they’re supposed to be.

The Tip-Off

Some NBA goodness from around the USA TODAY Sports network.

Federico Gambarini/dpa via AP

The WNBA playoffs aren’t the only hoops action happening right now. The group stage of EuroBasket 2022 is nearing a conclusion, and Luka Doncic put on an absolute show Wednesday against France to clinch the top spot in Group B for Slovenia.

His 47 points were the most in a EuroBasket game in 65 years. The 3-pointer that gave him 45 came over the outstretched arms of Rudy Gobert (who got him back later with this massive dunk). But the highlight of the game was an unbelievable one-handed three Doncic hit over Gobert in the first half.

And before you go calling it luck, my colleague Bryan Kalbrosky wrote that it’s not the first time the Mavericks star has pulled this off:

“Doncic, who scored 22 points in the first 14 minutes of the game against France, finished the first half with 27 points on 8-for-12 from the field and 5-for-8 from beyond the arc.

None were more impressive than the one-handed, running fadeaway jumper that he hit as the shot clock expired. It’s almost too much to comprehend.

But one aspect that makes it easier: Doncic has made a similar shot before. During his final game for Real Madrid before declaring for the 2018 NBA Draft, he made a comparably unfathomable field goal.”

Hey man, Doncic was already a problem. But if he’s gonna start making one-handed, running threes, we can all just pack it up.

Shootaround

— Speaking of Slovenia, one of the team’s players was injured on a tip-off after landing on a ref.

— NBA 2K23 ratings are beginning to leak out, and Klay Thompson made it clear he’s NOT happy about his 3-point rating. Kevin Durant simply wants to know why he’s not a 99.

— Bronny James shared some pictures of himself in Ohio State’s uniform, and fans loved it.

— Check out this awesome story of why people wear those tie-dyed Lithuanian basketball shirts at Grateful Dead shows.

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Chelsea Gray beat Draymond Green at dominoes during the Tokyo Olympics

Chelsea Gray isn’t just competitive on the basketball court — she’s also known to be a passionate gamer.

Chelsea Gray isn’t just competitive on the basketball court — she’s also known to be a passionate gamer. The Team USA guard sat down with Las Vegas Aces teammate A’ja Wilson on Tea with A & Phee to relive their time at the 2020 Tokyo Games, which included plenty of board games.

“I was beating Draymond (Green) in dominoes,” Gray said. “He thinks he’s the best of all time.”

Gray then reminisced on Wilson’s unique approach to UNO, conceding that her skills are “above average” but calling her strategy “sneaky.”

While the two admitted that the Olympics consisted of a lot of downtime, Tokyo wasn’t all fun and games.

“There was definitely pressure,” Gray said. “You don’t want to be that team that loses.”

Gray admits she tried to play it cool but tells Wilson that the lead-up to the competition was stressful.

“I just needed the first game and the ball to go up. After the first game, I was good, but leading up to it, I was like, ‘man, this is coming with some heavy shoulders.’”

Adding to the anticipation, Gray made history before ever taking the court, becoming the first Duke women’s basketball player to make an Olympic team.

“I didn’t know that,” says Gray, telling Wilson that she learned of the news during an interview and “got the chills right away.”

“My college career was cut a lot shorter than I wanted it to be so to be able to do that was super dope.”

Coming home with a gold medal certainly made her alma mater proud, a feat that Gray says “no one can take away.”

Listen to more tales from Chelsea Gray and A’ja Wilson’s Olympic journey on Tea with A & Phee podcast.