Azurá Stevens is heading west, signing with the Los Angeles Sparks, the team announced Friday.
The 6-foot-6 free agent forward won a WNBA title with the Chicago Sky in 2021 and has averaged 9.0 points and 4.4 rebounds in her career.
Brittney Griner's return to the WNBA this summer after being traded in a dramatic prisoner swap in December with Russia has collided with free agency, creating potential travel complications for the league out of safety concerns for her.
Diana Taurasi’s USA Basketball career isn’t done just yet.
The five-time Olympic gold medalist will take part in a national team training camp in Minnesota next month. Taurasi told The Associated Press last summer that she would consider playing with USA Basketball if she was healthy enough.
Breanna Stewart is the biggest WNBA free agent on the market this offseason and the former MVP has a host of teams courting her, including the Seattle Storm where she's spent her entire career.
She's one of five former league MVPs who are unrestricted free agents this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is marking the four-year anniversary of the detention in Russia of American businessman Paul Whelan, whose continued imprisonment is one of several major irritants in tattered relations between Washington and Moscow.
South Carolina coach Dawn Staley has been around women’s basketball long enough to see the growing pains of a young WNBA league gradually shifting to increased interest in the sport at all levels.
“We probably are bursting at the seams for the people that are decision-makers in our game to allow us to be just that,” said Staley, who led the Gamecocks to their second women’s hoops title this year.
The unspoken deal between sports fans and their favorite teams and players has been, in theory: Sure, there are billions of dollars being thrown around, but at the core, sports are supposed to be fun and games, a never-ending menu of two- or three-hour escapes into a land of winners and losers where nobody really gets hurt.
The return of Brittney Griner to the United States in a dramatic prisoner swap with Russia marked the culmination of a 10-month ordeal that captivated world attention, a saga that landed at the intersection of sports, politics, race and gender identity — and wartime diplomacy.
Brittney Griner said she's “grateful” to be back in the United States and plans on playing basketball again next season for the WNBA's Phoenix Mercury. Her comments came a week after she was released from a Russian prison, freed in a dramatic high-level prisoner exchange.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The Institute for Diversity and Ethics in Sport announced Wednesday that the WNBA received an A for its overall racial and gender practices for 2022. That includes an A+ for racial hiring and an A for gender hiring, according to the annual report.
Dusty Baker's run to a World Series title win was one of the several memorable sports stories in 2022, on and off the field.
One of the most respected people in baseball, the one thing missing from Baker's resume: a World Series ring as a manager.
WASHINGTON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner didn’t want any alone time as soon as she boarded a U.S. government plane that would bring her home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Taliban drug lord convicted in a vast heroin trafficking conspiracy. A Russian pilot imprisoned for a scheme to distribute cocaine across the world.
Associated Press (AP) — Delicate negotiations between the United States and Russia led to basketball star Brittney Griner's return Friday in exchange for notorious arms dealer Viktor Bout, once nicknamed “the Merchant of Death.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s surprise announcement last July lacked any detail, but its meaning was crystal clear.
In a rare comment on secret talks, he said the Biden administration had made a “substantial proposal” to Russia to end the imprisonment of two Americans: WNBA star Brittney Griner and Paul Whelan.
Brittney Griner's loved ones and extended basketball family were ecstatic when news broke Thursday about her release from a Russian prison and that she was on her way back to the United States.
It has been nearly 300 days since the WNBA star was arrested at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo Airport in February, when customs officials said they found vape canisters with cannabis oil in her luggage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American basketball star Brittney Griner headed home Thursday night, freed from Russian prison in exchange for the U.S.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian arms dealer Viktor Bout, who returned home Thursday in a swap for WNBA star Brittney Griner, is widely known abroad as the “Merchant of Death” who fueled some of the world’s worst conflicts.
Reactions after WNBA star Brittney Griner was freed from a Russian prison in a high-profile prisoner exchange.
PHOENIX (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner's 10-month imprisonment in Russia on drug charges came to an end on Thursday, spreading relief and joy across the sports world and beyond.
NEW YORK (AP) — More than 1,000 New York Times journalists and other staff walked off the job for 24 hours Thursday, frustrated by contract negotiations that have dragged on for months in the newspaper's biggest labor dispute in more than 40 years.
The brother of an American detained in Russia since 2018 said Thursday that his family fears he will not be released for years, even as they supported the U.S. government's agreement to a prisoner exchange that freed WNBA star Brittney Griner but left Paul Whelan behind.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia and the United States have repeatedly been on the verge of agreement on a prisoner exchange, a senior Russian diplomat said Tuesday, adding that a deal is still possible before the year's end.
LONDON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner has begun serving her nine-year sentence for drug possession at a remote Russian penal colony that human rights advocates say is known for harsh conditions and violent criminals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner has begun serving her nine-year sentence for drug possession at a Russian penal colony, her lawyers and agent said Thursday.
Griner was transferred to a penal colony in Mordovia, about 350 kilometers (210 miles) east of Moscow, after a Russian court last month rejected her appeal of her sentence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — CIA Director Bill Burns met on Monday with his Russian intelligence counterpart to warn of consequences if Russia were to deploy a nuclear weapon in Ukraine, according to a White House National Security Council official.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that he hopes Russian President Vladimir Putin will be more willing to negotiate the release of WNBA star Brittney Griner now that the U.S.
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin on Wednesday kept the door open for talks on a possible swap involving jailed U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner but reiterated that any such discussions must be kept strictly confidential.
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Tuesday rejected an appeal by U.S. basketball star Brittney Griner of her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, a step that could move her closer to a possible high-stakes prisoner swap between Moscow and Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — WNBA star Brittney Griner is at her “absolute weakest moment in life right now” as she faces a hearing in Russia later this month for her appeal of a nine-year prison sentence for drug possession, Griner's wife said in an interview aired Thursday.
MOSCOW (AP) — A Russian court on Monday set Oct. 25 as the date for American basketball star Brittney Griner’s appeal against her nine-year prison sentence for drug possession.
Griner, an eight-time all-star center with the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury and a two-time Olympic gold medalist, was convicted Aug.
SYDNEY (AP) — Without Brittney Griner's 6-foot-8 presence to dominate around the basket, the U.S. women needed to figure out how to overcome her absence.
So far, so good.
The Americans have rolled through the World Cup, beating opponents by average of 44 points per game without Griner and one of the best frontcourts ever assembled in women's basketball.
SYDNEY (AP) — Brittney Griner's absence is weighing on the minds of her USA Basketball teammates, who are trying to fill the void created by her absence as they prepare for the FIBA World Cup.
The Americans are expected to win without the 6-foot-8 Griner, but replacing her spirit and impact on and off the court is a challenging task.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to meet at the White House on Friday with family members of WNBA star Brittney Griner and Michigan corporate security executive Paul Whelan, both of whom remain jailed in Russia, the White House announced Thursday.
PHOENIX (AP) — A cloud of fear and sadness hovered over the Phoenix Mercury's season as Brittney Griner, their friend and teammate, sat in a Russian prison.
The Mercury pressed on, tried to focus on basketball when they could, “BG” always on their mind.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Chelsea Gray had 27 points and eight assists and hit a career-high seven of Las Vegas’ WNBA playoff-record 23 3-pointers and the Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 117-80 on Saturday night to sweep the best-of-three series.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Chelsea Gray had 27 points and eight assists and hit a career-high seven of Las Vegas' WNBA playoff-record 23 3-pointers and the Aces beat the Phoenix Mercury 117-80 on Saturday night to sweep the best-of-three series.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Shey Peddy is out for the season with a ruptured right Achilles tendon, leaving the Phoenix Mercury even more short-handed in their WNBA playoff series against the Las Vegas Aces.
Peedy went down in the third quarter of Game 1 on Wednesday night with a non-contact injury and did not return.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military said Monday that it had repelled more than a dozen Russian attacks in the country’s east and north, including attempts to advance on key cities in the eastern industrial heartland known as the Donbas.
MOSCOW (AP) — Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner have filed an appeal of her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday, amid talks between the U.S.
MOSCOW (AP) — The Kremlin said Friday that it's open to talking about a possible prisoner exchange involving American basketball star Brittney Griner but strongly warned Washington against publicizing the issue.
UNCASVILLE, Conn. (AP) — Following Brittney Griner's sentencing in Russia to nine years in prison Thursday, WNBA players, coaches and fans locked arms and tried to send the American basketball star strength during a moment of silence.