MEDLEY, Fla.-On the eve of WNBA free agency, which began last Tuesday, several of the league's decision-makers gathered under the identical roof.
At Uncrivesed's Wayfair Arena, Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon sat next to a basket stand with team president Nikki Fargas at left, watching the tip of the three×3 league's opening weekend. The members front office in Dallas Wings noted the lawsuit through the court of them. Seattle Storm brass sat off the ground in a corner of the show court, and the Sparks Los Angeles representation was just a few rows high. The Atlanta Dream Contingent observed closer to center court.
The WNBA teams were concerned about their players in addition to the launch of a brand new league that might alter historic offseason routines and keep more star players within the United States throughout the offseason. But there was other work to be done in Florida: Free agency negotiations officially began on Tuesday.
With some convenient planning, it became the unrivaled epicenter of all chatter, gossip and deal-making.
“This is the best place to recruit free agents,” said Phoenix Mercury guard Natasha Cloud, who plays in Uncrivesed’s Phantom Basketball Club.
In the early stages of unmatched overlap with the WNBA's free agency, not one of the league's original goals were, said co-founder Napheesa Collier. But it undoubtedly adds to the early buzz – Satou Sabally, for instance, used her first unmatched media availability to share with reporters that she had told the Wings she desired to be traded – and it's increased convenience without cost agents, coaches and GMs.
Courtney Vandersloot is an unrestricted WNBA free agent twiddling with an incomparable Mist Basketball club. Their first true experience in free agency got here after the Chicago Sky's 2021 title. This offseason, she played in Russia at UMMC Ekaterinburg, holding distant evening gatherings after long days of practice. “They were late nights. They rely on technology and hope the internet works,” Vandersloot said. “It doesn't feel very personable.”
Now?
The WNBA teams have split up into Miami-area hotels and huddled in meetings after unparalleled practices and around players.
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Eight WNBA free agents, including those restricted and restricted, are on unparalleled rosters. Sabally, Vandersloot, Alyssa Thomas, Dijonai Carrington and Brittney Griner punctuate the list. Others could also potentially be on the move via trade. Jewell Loyd, a member of Univaled's Mist Basketball Club, has moved to the Aces in a deal that has a ripple effect across the league.
Several players were lighthearted concerning the impact of being together in a single place during free agency. Vandersloot said anyone who gave her a pack of IPAs could “have a head start” on recruiting her. Sabally joked that she had already received just a few cups of coffee.
Cloud said she wants one of the best for Sabally. But she added: “If this is Phoenix, I will literally tell her I will give up my apartment if she wants me to too.”
As February 1st, the date offers might be announced, approaches, the fact of the negotiations is larger, and the joke books have replaced themselves.
“It was a total shift. “People linger in the hallways and have full-blown conversations,” one player said on condition of anonymity to talk freely concerning the recruiting process. “We don't joke anymore.”
The WNBA is preparing for Season 28, but robust free agency recruiting remains to be a comparatively recent a part of the winter. Aces guard Chelsea Gray said in a non-stop mini-documentary about her 2020 free agency: “You hear it’s happening on the men’s side. Why aren't they on the women's side? Why don't people say, 'You have to fly them out?' “
Two offseasons ago, Istanbul, Turkey became the crossroads of the cycle as the New York Liberty, Washington Mystics, Minnesota Lynx and Storm tried to get into Breanna Stewart's sweepstakes. A team traveling abroad expressed interest in building a relationship.
What is now intact is that Crossroads of the free agency world and players can comfortably build relationships with each other. Peer connections are the benefits of everyone gathering in one place.
“You can talk directly to other players, and you can find out what kind of resources, how important is their team to the owners? If you have an owner of a team that doesn’t prioritize the women’s team, they’re going to talk about it, and that’s a place I would be less likely to be,” Sabally said.
Players can transcend their thoughts on facilities. Multiple players across the ranks, each free agents and players who’ve signed for trades, said the difficulty got here up within the dining room, the sauna and the burden room.
“It was fun to hear players trying to get certain players to join teams. You can also just hear other people’s experiences,” New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu said.
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Not every franchise immediately flocked to Florida. Minnesota Lynx head coach and president of basketball Cheryl Reeve and assistant coach Eric Thibault were spotted at last Wednesday's Euroleague game between Fenerbahçe and Umana Reyer Venezia. Free agent bigs Emma Meesseman and Tina Charles play for the Turkish club, as does Minnesota forward Nina Milić.
But by Friday evening they had arrived in Florida.
Lynx guard Courtney Williams said she has no plans to recruit free agents. But Williams admitted that could change immediately.
“If (Cheryl) calls me,” Williams said, “I'll start chatting.”
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