A’ja Wilson: U’NDENIABLE

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A’ja Wilson broke the record for most points scored in a single WNBA season on Wednesday night with a jumper from the free throw line. She currently sits with 956 points on the year, and with four games to play in the regular season, will almost certainly become the first woman to clear the 1,000-point mark.

Wilson’s dominance is difficult to fully appreciate—she entered the season as a two-time MVP and leader of the two-time defending champions, and is demolishing the numbers she put up the past two years. She’s already locked in to be named M’VP a third time.

But Wilson’s aura shines just as bright off the court as on it. She’s been a leader in the WNBA’s Tunnel Fit movement, with effortless outfits and hairstyles throughout her career.

@_outfitballers

Aj’a Wilson for the drip 💧🥰😍#fyp #outfit #fypシ゚viral #wnba #foryou

While taking a break from being a superstar athlete or rocking the runway, she found time to put out an autobiography titled “Dear Black Girls: How to Be True to You.”

She’s got the respect of Tom Brady, from one GOAT to another. And come next year, she’ll have her own signature shoe with Nike.

Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and the star-studded rookie class may have gotten the lion’s share of the attention during the WNBA boom this year, but make no mistake—until someone takes her crown, Wilson runs the league. 

@risingballers

Karim Benzema showing off his new Ballon d’Or watch 🤯⌚️🥶 #karimbenzema #benzema #cold #drip #watch #fashion #ballondor #footballtiktok #l... See more

The use of AI has become all but inescapable for anyone that exists online. While AI is pretty good at some things (we’re still big fans of spell check over here), there are some things that it is less cut out for—reporting the news is one of those things.

ESPN has started using Microsoft AI to write recaps of women’s soccer games. The company argues that the use of AI allows them to "enhance coverage of underserved sports." What that looks like in practice is putting out a recap of the San Diego Wave vs North Carolina Courage game and missing the small detail that it was Alex Morgan’s last ever pro soccer match.

This pivot is especially disheartening because there’s a clear answer to the question of “how do we enhance coverage of underserved sports?” That answer is “hire more humans, who actually care about the sport.” The robots might be able to do a lot, but they cannot care about soccer.

Artificial intelligence’s footprint in the sports world is only going to grow from here. Ahead of Prime Video’s first Thursday Night Football game of the season, Amazon made clear that it sees AI as a huge tool to be used during broadcasts, helping identify potential blitzers and showing potential weak points in a defense. If it works, it could be a cool, supplemental feature that augments the broadcast. If it doesn’t, it just becomes another pop-up window we’ll all jump to close.