{"id":242000,"date":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/rounding-up-the-latest-wnba-headlines-ahead-of-the-2026-regular-season-the-gist\/"},"modified":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-06T00:00:00","slug":"rounding-up-the-latest-wnba-headlines-ahead-of-the-2026-regular-season-the-gist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/06\/rounding-up-the-latest-wnba-headlines-ahead-of-the-2026-regular-season-the-gist\/","title":{"rendered":"Rounding up the latest WNBA headlines ahead of the 2026 regular season | The GIST"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>The GIST: <\/strong>The WNBA regular season tips off on Friday, but this league never sleeps. From a bona fide legend retiring to more wheeling and dealing as rosters are finalized, here\u2019s the latest from the hardwood.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udc4f Tina Charles hangs up her sneakers: <\/strong>There\u2019s simply no room left in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DX9CUf1Dnpa\/?img_index=2\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">the 14-year veteran\u2019s<\/a> trophy case. Though playoff glory remained elusive, the former No. 1 draft pick earned the highest of individual accolades: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/news\/tina-charles-announces-retirement-after-14-seasons\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Charles\u2019 r\u00e9sum\u00e9<\/a> includes a 2012 WNBA MVP, nine All-WNBA honors, and two scoring titles. She retires as the league\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wnba.com\/news\/all-time-milestones-points-rebounds-assists\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">all-time leading rebounder<\/a> and its second leading scorer.<\/p>\n<p><strong>\ud83d\udccb Rounding up the rest of the headlines:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>\u270d\ufe0f Defensive juggernaut <strong>Natasha Cloud signed <a href=\"https:\/\/www.espn.com\/wnba\/story\/_\/id\/48677111\/sources-sky-waive-hailey-van-lith-due-style-play\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">a $555K deal<\/a><\/strong> with the Chicago Sky on Monday, before <strong>the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbssports.com\/wnba\/news\/sky-hailey-van-lith-waived-landing-spots\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Sky waived Hailey Van Lith<\/a> <\/strong>later that day. Expect more moves across the league with each team\u2019s finalized 12-player roster due tomorrow night.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>\ud83d\udcb8 Speaking of the Valkyries, newly released valuations set <strong>the Bay Area team <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DX7ejD8iQ3K\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">at $1B<\/a><\/strong> (yes, <em>billion<\/em>), making them the first women\u2019s sports franchise to reach the mark. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/p\/DXjxLw_jRfU\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">This is Ballhalla<\/a>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/div>\n<p><script>\n  !function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){if(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\n  n.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\n  n.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\n  t.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\n  document,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n  fbq('init', '1716705275141133'); \/\/ Insert your pixel ID here.\n  fbq('track', 'PageView');\n      <\/script><script async defer src=\"https:\/\/platform.instagram.com\/en_US\/embeds.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thegistsports.com\/article\/wnba-ahead-of-regular-season\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The GIST: The WNBA regular season tips off on Friday, but this league never sleeps. From a bona fide legend retiring to more wheeling and dealing as rosters are finalized, here\u2019s the latest from the hardwood. \ud83d\udc4f Tina Charles hangs up her sneakers: There\u2019s simply no room left in the 14-year veteran\u2019s trophy case. Though [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":242001,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6805],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-242000","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-womens"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=242000"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/242000\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/242001"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=242000"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=242000"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sports.runfyers.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=242000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}