The WNBA will finally be able to welcome Paige Bueckers to the league.
The versatile UConn standout is the odds-on favorite to become the No. 1 overall pick by the Dallas Wings. She spent five years at Connecticut after being sidelined by injuries. Bueckers will have plenty of company at the April 14 event, especially with the WNBA having its first expansion team in 17 years in the Golden State Valkyries making their debut draft selection at No. 5 overall.
This is the 29th draft in league history. There will be 13 franchises making a combined 38 draft selections over three rounds. The first round will feature 12 picks with 13 in each of the final two rounds. After Dallas makes its pick, the Seattle Storm hold the No. 2 selection overall with the Washington Mystics having both the third and fourth picks.
ESPN is televising the draft starting at 7:30 p.m. ET through 9:30 p.m. ET. A countdown show will be available starting at 7 p.m. ET on the ESPN app, and the WNBA has its own “Orange Carpet” for draft prospects showing off their own style and fashion before the big night. The league also will be providing updates on its social and digital sites, including the WNBA app and WNBA.com.
The orange carpet should be quite the fashion show if only based on the show draftees put on last year. That's when Caitlin Clark became the first athlete — female or male — dressed by Prada for the WNBA or NBA draft and helped set the tone for draft night in style.
Monday, April 14, in New York City.
The draft is being held at The Shed, a cultural center at Hudson Yards in Manhattan. This will be the second straight draft fans will be able to attend. Tickets went on sale March 21 along with exclusive experiences available.
With a new collective bargaining agreement expected for the 2026 season, this draft has seen some would-be top picks choose to stay in college or hit the transfer portal to tap name, image and likeness deals rather than take the WNBA base salary with the ver real risk of not making a roster.
That means Olivia Miles and Flau-Jae Johnson won’t have their names called. Instead, the WNBA will have a bit of an NBA-feel with a French player with Dominique Malonga being drafted early. The 6-foot-6 center played for France last summer in the Paris Olympics and will be a top selection after averaging a double-double playing for Lyon this season. She also became the first French female player to dunk in a EuroCup game last October.
Miles may not be going to the WNBA draft or staying at Notre Dame. Her Fighting Irish teammate Sonia Citron could be joining Malonga with the Mystics bringing her defense prowess and nearly automatic free throw shooting to Washington.
Hailey Van Lith is another likely Top 10 pick after becoming the first player to play on three different teams in the Elite Eight. She’s coming off her best college season helping the Horned Frogs make program history, and Van Lith won bronze with the U.S. in 3-on-3 at the Paris Olympics in 2024.
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
FILE - The WNBA logo and hoop are seen at a WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena, Tuesday, May 14, 2019, in Uncasville, Conn. (AP Photo/Jessica Hill, File)
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Croatia on Thursday protested a spate of expulsions of its citizens from Serbia, where the government of populist President Aleksandar Vucic is faced with massive anti-corruption protests that have shaken his tight grip on power in the Balkan state.
Dozens of foreign citizens, including 15 Croats, have been expelled from Serbia in the past few months or slapped an entry ban, allegedly for posing a security risk for the country.
Croatia has sent a protest note to Belgrade and informed the European Union about the expulsions, Prime Minister Andrej Plenkovic said in Croatia's capital, Zagreb, adding that Serbia's moves are “unacceptable.”
“We are demanding an explanation from the Serbian authorities,” Plenkovic said at a government session. “Croatia condemns such behavior.”
There was no immediate response from Belgrade while a protest rally against the expulsions of Croatian and other foreign citizens critical of Vucic and the Serbian government was held Thursday in Belgrade.
Speakers at the rally said they will not allow Serbia to become a country of "fear and repression."
Vucic's increasingly authoritarian government has stepped up pressure on critics and independent media while struggling to quell monthslong anti-corruption protests triggered by a canopy collapse in the country's north that killed 16 people on Nov. 1.
Vucic and his allies have said that unidentified Western intelligence services were behind the student-led protests with the aim to unseat him from power by staging a so-called “color revolution.”
Vucic’s right-wing allies, Hungarian and Slovak Prime Ministers Viktor Orbán and Robert Fico, sent messages of support on Thursday for the beleaguered Serbian leader ahead of a big counter-opposition protest rally he planned to stage in Belgrade over the weekend.
Orbán said in a video message from Budapest that “Serbian patriots can count on Hungarian patriots.”
"We have been watching developments in Serbia for months now. Foreign powers are trying to interfere in the lives of the Serbs. That is happening here, too. Foreign powers are trying to tell the Serbs how to live. They are doing that here, too,” he said.
Serbian police have detained and questioned several university students, government critics and even professors while media watchdog groups have warned of attacks and threats against journalists covering the protests.
Arien Ivkovic Stojanovic, a Croatian who has lived in Serbia for 12 years and is married to a Serbian citizen, thinks that her online posts critical of Vucic could be the reason why she has been ordered to leave the country.
Ivkovic Stojanovic told The Associated Press in a phone interview that police handed her a notice saying she posed a grave security risk but didn't explain why.
“At first I started laughing," she said. "I just live a normal life, I have never even had a parking ticket."
Previous cases of expulsions of foreigners from Serbia included Russians who had criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin and his invasion of Ukraine.
Entry bans also have been slapped on regional artists and pro-democracy activists. In January, Serbia expelled 13 citizens of Croatia, Romania and Austria who were taking part in a civil society workshop in Belgrade.
TV crews from neighboring Croatia and Slovenia have been stopped on the border from entering Serbia in March to cover a large anti-government protest.
Ivkovic Stojanovic appealed her order to leave Serbia within seven days, which would split her family and separate their 3-year-old daughter from her father. The 31-year-old doctor believes she was targeted because of a post supporting the student protests.
Vucic is a former extreme nationalist who now says he wants Serbia to join the EU but has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms while maintaining close relations with Russia and China.
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Associated Press writer Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.
People attend a protest denouncing the expulsion and entry bans of dozens of foreign citizens recently due to alleged security risks for the Balkan country, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People attend a protest denouncing the expulsion and entry bans of dozens of foreign citizens recently due to alleged security risks for the Balkan country, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People attend a protest denouncing the expulsion and entry bans of dozens of foreign citizens recently due to alleged security risks for the Balkan country, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
A woman holds a banner reads: "Stop, expulsion of foreign citizens!" during a protest denouncing the expulsion and entry bans of dozens of foreign citizens recently due to alleged security risks for the Balkan country, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
People attend a protest denouncing the expulsion and entry bans of dozens of foreign citizens recently due to alleged security risks for the Balkan country, in Belgrade, Serbia, Thursday, April 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic speaks during a public address and announces the name of the representative for the composition of the new government in Belgrade, Serbia, Sunday, April 6, 2025. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)
