Another week in the WNBA has come and gone, and that means there are some zany, unique and concerning situations to unpack.
In around a week’s time: there was a shoe thrown unintentionally that grabbed attention nationwide, an employee from Hilton Grand Vacations was fired because WNBA fans rallied around Las Vegas Aces star Chelsea Gray and a general manager was fired.
Not to mention that there’s some tension in Chicago to address, because of course there is. Didn’t I say that three point guards in their mid-30s was going to be a major question? Indeed I did.
I’m not even talking about the All-Star selections, which were split into two teams by WNBA legends Cynthia Cooper and Teresa Weatherspoon. Unsurprisingly, Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson were separated, as were Caitlin Clark and Paige Bueckers. Teammates Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray will remain together, as will the duos of Courtney Williams and Olivia Miles and Clark and Aliyah Boston.
🌟 TEAM COOP IS SET 🌟 Introducing the official Team Cooper roster for the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game! See them take the court on July 25 at 8:30pm/ET on ABC. #WNBAAllStar | AT&T
— WNBA (@wnba.com) 2026-07-15T19:57:27.832Z
Meanwhile, Jonquel Jones will face off against Stewart, Jessica Shepard and Bueckers will spar against one another, Kiki Iriafen will be on the opposite side of Sonia Citron and Jackie Young will play against Wilson.
🌟 TEAM SPOON IS LOCKED IN 🌟 Here's your official Team Weatherspoon roster for the 2026 AT&T WNBA All-Star Game! Catch them in action on July 25 at 8:30pm/ET on ABC. #WNBAAllStar | AT&T
— WNBA (@wnba.com) 2026-07-15T19:57:01.934Z
Becky Hammon will coach Cooper’s team, and Cheryl Reeve will coach Weatherspoon’s. But anyway, let’s get into the zany, unique and concerning moments from the past week.
What is “Shoe Gate?”
This past Sunday, the New York Liberty traveled to Montreal to take on the Toronto Tempo. (While the Tempo’s home base is Toronto, they have branded themselves as Canada’s team and as a result they have played two games in Montreal and then will play two more in Vancouver.)
The Liberty were down by as many as 20 points, and then Sabrina Ionescu rallied the troops to tie the game up with under five minutes left in the fourth quarter. Then, something absolutely bizarre happened. The camera caught a shoe hitting Tempo star Marina Mabrey in the back and then moments later viewers found out that Liberty wing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton threw the shoe from off-screen.
As a result, Laney-Hamilton was ejected because that was her second technical after she and Mabrey got into a skirmish in the third quarter. But why and how did this happen?
That built-up tension led some to believe that maybe Laney-Hamilton was getting back at Mabrey. Laney-Hamilton has since denied intentionally doing this as her intent really was to help her teammate, Jonquel Jones. Jones lost her shoe on the previous possession and Laney-Hamilton tried to get the shoe back to her.
This is the closest video angle as to what tells the full story here.
— Jackie Powell (she/her) (@ClassicJpow) July 13, 2026
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is trying to get Jonquel Jones her shoe. JJ starts to run to BLH right as BLH throws the shoe, and then Jones was out of the trajectory of where the shoe was being thrown. https://t.co/UkMQHnJy11
After the game, both Mabrey and her head coach Sandy Brondello, who had coached Laney-Hamilton for years in New York, both said they believed it wasn’t intentional.
Regardless, this soon became the WNBA’s top story, and it became even sillier when Mabrey commented on one of Ionescu’s Instagram posts promoting a new line of her signature shoe. “Throw me one,” Mabrey wrote under the post.
Fans also have taken to the internet to create a parody Law and Order video that recounted the mysterious series of events given that there isn’t a great camera angle of Laney-Hamilton throwing the shoe in question.
Sometimes WNBA moments can be light and jovial rather than dark and cruel.
Online threats against WNBA players continue, but this time fans act
Speaking of darker and cruel: after the Fever played the Aces on NBC’s first edition of Sunday Night Basketball for the WNBA season, Aces point guard Chelsea Gray got a disturbing message from someone on Instagram that included a racial slur. Once again, the issue of online harassment is plaguing WNBA players and their safety, especially when opposing teams play the Fever.
Gray decided to take matters into her own hands and posted the screenshot to her Instagram, which sent WNBA fans into full mobilization mode. Gray showed the user’s Instagram handle in her screen shot, which allowed people to take to Instagram and then find the person’s LinkedIn page.
Fans sent emails to the person’s employer, the hotel company Hilton Grand Vacations. Administrators at Hilton Grand Vacations replied swiftly to some of the notes, and then around a day later, the person was fired from their job.
What’s so fascinating about the way this series of events unfolded was that a bunch of fans who cared about Gray tracked this person down, and a resolution came to pass. Before the mainstream appeal of the WNBA exploded, something that stood out about the league was the grassroots movement that the fans were a part of, and as a result physical spaces and athlete-focused media companies followed suit to bring these passionate fans together. Once again, the league’s most fervent fans came together.
While Front Office Sports reported that the WNBA has been in touch with Las Vegas Aces security, it was strange to see public statements by both the Aces and the league on Wednesday afternoon rather than sooner.
Breanna Stewart was asked by a group of reporters how it works when players don’t feel safe. She said she goes to the team or her wife Marta Xargay Casademont might step in and take it directly to Fred Galloway, who runs team security for both the Liberty and the Brooklyn Nets.
The question is, what happens next? The WNBA launched a “No Space for Hate” campaign to take on hate and support its players, but it’s clear there’s still more work to be done. There is value in the WNBA being outspoken against hate directed toward its players.
Is the Sky falling in Chicago?
This all began over a week ago when Skylar Diggins posted to her Instagram story that she was going to be benched and that she had been “good and quiet” leading up to the moment when she posted.
Chicago Sky legend Courtney Vandersloot had just returned following ACL surgery last year, and Diggins was struggling defensively although she put up comparable numbers to her splits in 2025.
She later clarified in a practice that same day that the Sky made promises to her in the free agency period that the franchise hasn’t kept, including the opening of their new facility. She had knee surgery in October and expected better resources to care for her body.
“I’ve been sacrificing my body for this team,” she said. “Maybe it’s time to take a step back and see what’s going on to see if I need to continue to make those sacrifices without having the proper resources to play at an elite level.”
As a result, Diggins has stepped back and hasn’t played a game since her pronouncement on Instagram. The designation from the team has been a knee injury, and head coach Tyler Marsh recently said that there isn’t a firm timeline on when Diggins will return to basketball activities.
Coach Marsh on Skylar Diggins return to basketball activities:
— Chicago State of Mind Sports (@ChiStateOfMind_) July 14, 2026
"We’re still having those conversations, but we want her to be back when she's completely healthy.
She and our medical team will know when it's time for her to be back and then we'll get her back in the lineup".
The Chicago Tribune reported that amid the tension between Diggins and her coach, the franchise doesn’t plan on shopping her before or at the deadline. That’s not a surprise; it’s hard to imagine any suitors that would want to take on her multi-year deal at over $900,000 each year.
What about the chaos in LA?
On Sunday, the Sparks announced that they were parting ways with general manager Reagan Peebly. Peebley, who oversaw the Sparks acquiring Kelsey Plum and signing free agents like Nneka Ogwumike and Ariel Atkins and traded away a ton of draft assets and young players to do so.
What was curious about this move was that Peebly was the one who hired head coach Lynn Roberts. It’s confusing, especially as the Sparks still navigate playing games without Plum, the player Roberts built the entire offense around. It’s even more confusing because the trade deadline is in just over two weeks. The question that many continue to ask: why now?
Ramona Shelburne reported this week that the Sparks ownership is much more involved than it has been in previous seasons. It’s all incredibly confusing because the Sparks forced their front office to speed up their rebuild quickly when they fired current Wings GM Curt Miller as the team’s head coach back in the fall of 2024. Peebley was the GM that was brought on by Miller to help him delegate two duties (coach and GM) that he used to do by himself.
Both franchises, Sparks and Sky, are in a strange and similar place. Both traded away young talent with their eyes on winning now and as of now, both teams might not even make the playoffs.
