WNBA Draft winners and losers: A star-studded crowd, the Valkyries' Flau'jae fumble, GOATs and more

NEW YORK — Eight days after winning the program’s first NCAA championship, UCLA and head coach Cori Close became the first team to have six players selected in a single WNBA Draft. They also became the second team with three consecutive picks.

It’s hard to declare any other entity as the biggest victor of the night, all respect to Azzi Fudd as the 30th No. 1 overall pick in a draft mired in uncertainty at the top.

Close remained standing and clapping at the front of The Shed’s auditorium set-up as Lauren Betts (No. 4 to Washington), Gabriela Jaquez (No. 5 to Chicago) and Kiki Rice (No. 6 to Toronto) went off the board. She stood to the left of the stage watching as her players waited at tables with gold-paneled Wilson basketballs featuring their names carved into the leather before they were quickly called by Commissioner Cathy Engelbert.

Betts’ ceiling had long been the end of the lottery, but Rice was the expected next UCLA player to go as a long point guard who put up career bests in her final collegiate season. Instead, it was Jaquez who skyrocketed up the projections after a standout title game in which she had 21 points, 10 rebounds and 5 assists.

Her senior season was also a career-year and she’ll have an opportunity to impact immediately after the Sky raised eyebrows in a better way than they’re used to by signing veterans Skylar Diggins and Azurá Stevens.

Four of them will have a buddy heading into training camps that open in six days. The Mystics paired Betts back with Angela Dugalić at No. 9. The Connecticut Sun drafted UCLA teammates Gianna Kneepkens at No. 15 and Charlisse Leger-Walker at No. 18. Kneepkens was one of the best 3-point shooters in the draft.

The sheer number of selections bested five-player drafts by South Carolina in 2023, Notre Dame in 2019 and Tennessee in both 1999 and 2008. UConn is the only other team with three players taken consecutively when Breanna Stewart, Moriah Jefferson and Morgan Tuck were the first three players selected in 2016.

Here’s who else won the night, and who landed on the wrong side of the line.

Winner: Draftees out of the crowd

For the third consecutive year, at least one player not invited to attend the draft was selected out of the crowd. In 2024, it was Caitlin Clark’s Iowa teammate Kate Martin. Last year, it was Paige Bueckers’ UConn teammates Kaitlyn Chen and Aubrey Griffin.

The 2026 draft one-upped them again with three.

Leger-Walker was not on the WNBA’s invite list, but attended with her UCLA teammates. The New Zealand native said that Dugalić, almost immediately after receiving the call to attend, gave up a few seats at her table so Leger-Walker and her mother could experience the moment. Even if that weren’t the case, she said there was “no doubt” she would miss showing up for her teammates.

Cassandre Prosper walked up immediately after at No. 19 for the Mystics. Prosper forewent her final year of collegiate eligibility at Notre Dame to enter the draft. The Canadian’s ability to earn name, image, likeness was limited as an international player, and she’ll net a major payday under the new CBA. Prosper said she attended the draft on her own to fulfill a vision.

“It’s always been a dream for me to go on stage and be with Cathy [Engelbert] and just get my jersey and stuff, and the hat, so I really wanted to be here,” Prosper said. “Just making that happen for me, I wanted to be in New York and experience that whole vibe around the W.”

UConn’s Serah Williams, fresh off playing in her first NCAA tournament following three seasons at Wisconsin, heard her name called at No. 33. She’ll stay nearby with the Sun for training camp next week after attending the draft with her former Huskies teammates to support Fudd.

LSU guard Flau'jae Johnson won't be wearing the jersey she was photographed holding on draft night after a trade to Seattle. (AP Photo/Pamela Smith)

(ASSOCIATED PRESS)

Loser: Valkyries’ Flau’jae Johnson trade

The most stunning move of the night came in the form of a trade. After Golden State selected the rights to Flau’jae Johnson with the No. 8 pick, it traded them to Seattle for No. 16 selection Marta Suárez of TCU. The Valkyries also received a 2028 second round pick.

Yes, you read that right. The Storm acquired a top-10 draft selection for the price of essentially two second-round picks. It becomes more bizarre from there. Valkyries general manager Ohemaa Nyanin declined to answer questions on the post-draft call about the selection and trade of Johnson.

"I'm going to take a beat to be able to eloquently give a response…” Nyanin said. “I don't have a lot of detail to share. One, because I'm exhausted. Two, because I want to be very thoughtful when I'm talking about other humans and their basketball abilities and how they would or would not show up for our squad."

She also dismissed a question on if it had to do with salary implications by saying she doesn’t “talk or comment about salary cap.” Which is wild behavior by a general manager whose job it is to checks listing sign talent under the established salary cap. Not to mention, answering to the choice of trading a first-round draftee should be expected before teh call even begins. Nyanin can talk her way around it any which way she pleases, but demurring away from it entirely spurs the age-old saying where there’s smoke there’s fire.

Beyond the talent and fit aspect, if that was the case, Johnson is a household name. There are legions of Valkyries fans who celebrated the selection, only for their hearts to be ripped out at the trade alert. That’s a bad look for any franchise, but certainly one with as much good will as Golden State following their successful and sold-out inaugural season.

Loser: Ta’Niya Latson as last in-person draftee

The league invited 15 players for the 15 first-round draft positions, though it can never select with clarity on who will be taken in that round. Every year, someone is left lingering. This year, it was Ta’Niya Latson.

Latson could only watch as the only player remaining at her draft table while Leger-Walker and Prosper — two players not formally invited to the draft — heard their names called before her own. That’s a tough spot for any draftee to be in and a position no one envies. She fell to No. 20, a few spots below the first-round projections.

That doesn’t mean it’s a bad spot. The focus is often too much on number than on fit, and Latson could find herself on a Finals-contending roster. She was the Sparks’ first pick of the draft, hearing her name called by them before No. 24 pick Chance Gray (Ohio State) and No. 35 Amelia Hassett (Kentucky).

With strict 12-person roster requirements under the CBA and up to two developmental spots, she is in a good position to make the regular-season roster. And the Sparks are building a potential contender. They re-signed All-Stars Kelsey Plum and Dearica Hamby, brought back home 2016 champion and MVP Nneka Ogwumike, and have Cameron Brink on a rookie contract.

It’s also a plus for Latson that Plum has made something of a side career mentoring young guards as part of her Dawg camp based on her own topsy-turvy entrance into the league. Latson attended in 2024.

Latson’s teammate and good friend, Raven Johnson, also won in team fit as the Indiana Fever’s selection. Johnson, the SEC Defensive Player of the Year, can take the place of Aari McDonald as a perimeter defensive menace in Stephanie White’s style.

Winner: WNBA’s legacy trail campaign

Goats were everywhere, from literal animals walking the orange carpet with Engelbert to icon Tina Thompson, the first collegiate draft pick in league history, in the audience. Sheryl Swoopes also walked a herd of goats through the streets of New York City as part of the league’s 30th anniversary season marketing campaign.

The league announced its campaign late last week and delivered on it at the draft in its first major moment since the CBA was agreed upon in March. In-person draftees played tourist at the Empire State Building, an annual tradition, while wearing the 1997 vintage throwback. Activations will be announced every month on the 30th, with releases coming in the following month. The league has announced a WNBA-branded La Crema wine and Nike apparel.

The celebration includes a WNBA legacy trail leaning into the history of the league, which is often on the cutting room floor as more fans grow the audience. There are also Court Origins Nights, the league’s first retro program that will feature nationally televised games involving three of the league’s original franchises: the Liberty, Sparks and Mercury. Nike-branded throwback warm-ups and 1997-era branded Wilson basketballs will be used.

“The past 30 years have been about building the foundation,” Engelbert said in her pre-draft address with reporters. “The next 30 are about scaling the game. Unlocking what’s possible for the entirety of women’s basketball and women’s sports.”

Loser that might end up winning: Mystics

The Mystics entered the night with six draft selections and used all of them on the heels of five picks a year ago, including three in the first six.

That’s a lot of young talent on one roster. In fact, it falls one short of fielding an entire roster if all were still on it. The Mystics appear to be drafting whomever they want so no one else can, resulting in redundancy all around.

A look at the 2026 draft, in order: Betts (6-7 center), Dugalić (6-4 power forward), Cotie McMahon (6-0 forward), Prosper (6-2 guard), Darianna Littlepage-Buggs (6-1 wing) and Rori Harmon (5-6 point guard).

It’s eerily similar to last year’s haul. In 2025, they drafted Sonia Citron (6-1 guard), Kiki Iriafen (6-3 forward), Georgia Amoore (5-6 point guard) and Lucy Olsen (5-9 guard). Citron and Iriafen were named All-Stars, while Amoore missed the season with a torn ACL. And this weekend, they matched the three-year, $3.57 million term sheet offered by Toronto to 6-5 center Shakira Austin, their third overall pick in the 2022 draft.

Might it all work out? Sure. Training camp is an opportunity to stack talent that will push the intended starters to be better. Cuts will have to be made eventually for a roster that was in a rebuild, but might be pushing toward a fringe contender status immediately. One major concern is that there is currently no elite veteran.

As for keeping all the picks without a trade, maybe no one knew who to call after the franchise parted ways with its general manager one week before draft night.

Loser: The Sun

The relocation of the Sun to Houston continues to be a thorn in the WNBA’s side. Engelbert again indicated the stance that when the Mohegan Sun Tribe opted to sell, it went to a group that had put in a bid for a team in the previous expansion process. But she also acknowledged the oddity in that.

“We did not receive a bid from the Boston market or the New England market, obviously with the Connecticut team there,” Engelbert said.

She said there is an agreement, but there is nothing final at the WNBA level yet. When there it, it will go through the governance process and be subject to approval by the Board of Governors.

The Sun will play their sunset season in Connecticut before moving to Houston, where they will revive the Comets. Engelbert said she would tell those fans, “Stick with us. Stick with the WNBA. We know that fandom won’t go away.” The Sun drafted four players, including Williams from nearby UConn.