Delle Donne top WNBA player
Elena Delle Donne put together a historic season in Washington and has been named the Associated Press WNBA player of the year.
Delle Donne helped the Mystics finish with the best record in the league and the top overall seed in the playoffs.
Mystics coach Mike Thibault was voted the AP coach of the year.
Napheesa Collier edged Arike Ogunbowale for rookie-of-the-year honors. Minnesota’s rookie received eight of the votes; Ogunbowale the other six.
Delle Donne also headlined the AP All-WNBA team. She was joined by Brittney Griner of Phoenix, Chelsea Gray of the Sparks, Courtney Vandersloot of Chicago and Jonquel Jones of Connecticut. The second team includes Seattle’s Natasha Howard, the Sparks’ Nneka Ogwumike, Las Vegas’ Liz Cambage, Chicago’s Diamond DeShields and Phoenix’s DeWanna Bonner.
Former Los Angeles Windward and UCLA star Jordin Canada scored a career-high 26 points and the defending WNBA champion Seattle Storm beat the seventhseeded Minnesota Lynx 84-74 in a first-round, winner-takeall playoff game. With Jewell Loyd adding 22 points, the No. 6 Storm, who play at the third-seeded Sparks on Sunday in the single-elimination second round, got 48 points out of their backcourt . ... DeShields scored 25 points and the fifth-seeded Chicago Sky used a dominating second half for a 105-76 win over the eighth-seeded Phoenix Mercury in a firstround, winner-take-all WNBA playoff game. The Sky play at fourth-seeded Las Vegas on Sunday.
Rory McIlroy is the PGA Tour player of the year, and even he was a little surprised. In a vote of the players, who presumably gave as much weight to the whole season as the four biggest weeks, McIlroy won the Jack Nicklaus Award over Brooks Koepka. It was the third time McIlroy won the award, and the first time without having won a major.
A Los Angeles City Council ad hoc committee agreed to extend the deadline for negotiations with local organizers regarding key issues for the 2028 Summer Olympics.
City officials and LA 2028 have been hammering out details for a memorandum of understanding that will outline their respective responsibilities when it comes to staging the Games, which are estimated to cost $6.9 billion.
Though the talks have been extended for six more months, Council President Herb Wesson warned: “I don’t want us to get behind on this issue.”
The Minnesota Wild resigned left wing Kevin Fiala to a two-year, $6-million contract . ... The Boston Bruins signed coach Bruce Cassidy to a multiyear contract extension, a reward for leading the team to the Stanley Cup Final in only his second full season on the bench. Terms of the extension were not disclosed.