Basketball On The Internet.

BOB'S CORNER: Our US and Seattle-based - though hardly Seattle-biased (ahem...) correspondent BOB CRAVEN, a former ACT import himself, is tipping the Storm's Breanna Stewart will win the WNBA's MVP award. But he IS basing that on some solid evidence.

NOW the WNBA regular season is over, the awards have started to roll in and in what could well be perhaps a bit of foreshadowing of what’s ahead for her, Seattle’s Breanna Stewart was named the Associated Press’s WNBA Player of the Year. 

She edged out A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, as the 10-member panel gave Stewart six votes, with the remaining four votes going to Wilson. 

She also won the award in 2018 and is the first two-time winner since the AP began voting in 2016.

Stewart finished the season as the league’s leading scorer at 21.8 points per game.  The 193cm forward added 7.6 rebounds, 2.9 assists, 1.6 steals, and just under one block per game. 

Wilson claimed the AP Defensive Player of the Year award in leading Las Vegas to the #1 overall seed and the home court advantage throughout the playoffs. 

She averaged 19.5 points, 9.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists, 1.4 steals and 1.9 blocks per game.

Stewart and Wilson were voted to the AP All-WNBA first team, along with Kelsey Plum, Candace Parker, and Sabrina Ionescu. 

Atlanta’s Rhyne Howard, who was named AP Rookie of the Year, highlighted the AP Rookie team that also featured NaLyssa Smith, Shakira Austin, Rebekah Gardner, and Sam Thomas.

Both Stewart and Wilson are also part of the group of 28 professionals and one university player invited by USA Basketball to their national team training camp from September 6-12 in Las Vegas.

 The final 12-woman roster for the FIBA World Cup in Sydney will be announced on Sept. 10.

THAT'S my former basketball teammate in Canberra, Brian Franklin, above, who happened to be in Albury for a family/friend’s 80th birthday celebration. From what he said when he sent me this, LJ had just returned home from her USA camp with the Opals. 

Brian has been in executive positions with ACT and local club hoops for a zillion (as in more than 50) years. And that pic should be a little famous because Lauren the following night led Albury Bandits - currently leading NBL1 East (what a surprise), against Hills Hornets.

The Bandits destroyed them 115-46 and were led by Lauren's 40 points and 15 boards. No wonder she was selected for the Opals!

MEANWHILE, as probably everyone in Australia knows by now, the self-styled “Big Benz”, Liz Cambage, announced on social media she has decided to step away from the WNBA “for the time being,” addressing for the first time her contract divorce from the LA Sparks last month.

Her social media post said she was “sorry to have left abruptly and I wish it would have ended on a different note.” 

This past season Cambage averaged 13 points and 6.4 rebounds per game. The Sparks were in the hunt for a playoff spot when Cambage left the team on July 26. 

LA then lost eight of its final nine games and finished out of the playoffs for the second consecutive season. 

LA had traded away its first-round pick for the 2023 draft, meaning it won’t benefit from missing the playoffs.  This is complicated, but it means they’re now out of the draft lottery.

ALSO, Ben Simmons and the Philadelphia 76ers have settled the grievance he filed to recoup a portion of last season's US$20 million salary that was withheld after he refused to suit up for the Sixers last season.

He was eventually traded to the Brooklyn Nets.  The exact amount of the agreement will remain confidential.