LAYSHIA CLARENDON

These athletes are waves in the worlds of athletics and advocacy.

Teresa Weatherspoon and Vickie Johnson were the dynamic backcourt duo for the original New York Liberty team in 1997.

The WNBA playoff chase may come down to the final day of the regular season on Sept. 19.

No team has been playing better than Minnesota the past few weeks as the WNBA enters its monthlong Olympic break.

The WNBA season is only a few weeks old and there already have been five games that have decided in overtime.

One of those players was Washington Mystics star Natasha Cloud who decided to skip last year's season in order to focus on social justice reform. Like Cloud, several of her WNBA peers, including those who played last season in the "wubble," are leading the charge in speaking out on social justice issues. "Our social justice efforts, we're not one-and-done," Engelbert told The Washington Post. As a Black, non-binary player in the league, New York Liberty Star Layshia Clarendon says using the WNBA's platform to speak up about social justice issues is super important. "I don't think there's a way for me individually to stay out of politics or to stay out of social justice because my existence is really political and the country we live in has made it political," Clarendon, who also leads the Social Justice Council, says.

New York Liberty guard Layshia Clarendon took to Instagram and Twitter Friday to announce they underwent top surgery earlier this month. Clarendon wrote on Instagram, while sharing photos from after the surgery. I'm feeling free & euphoric in my body & want Trans people to know and see that we've always existed & no one can erase us!" The New York Liberty team tweeted a statement in support of the point guard Friday. "The New York Liberty family is in full support of Layshia Clarendon and their choice to live authentically," the team said.

(AP Photo/Mike Carlson, File)NEW YORK – Liberty guard Layshia Clarendon, who identifies as transgender and nonbinary, announced on social media Friday that they had surgery to remove breast tissue. The league, the players' union and the New York Liberty released statements offering support to Clarendon. Clarendon wrote in The Players' Tribune five years ago they identify as “black, gay, female, non-cisgender and Christian," and expanded on their identity in an Instagram post in December. “Existing outside of the binary for me is freedom,” Clarendon wrote. I know that my gender will keep evolving because we change and grow and shape shift and expand.

Some WNBA players celebrated on Wednesday after Democrat Raphael Warnock was projected to defeat incumbent Republican Senator Kelly Loeffler in a critical Senate runoff election in Georgia. WNBA players campaigned for Warnock after Loeffler, the co-owner of the WNBA team the Atlanta Dream, criticized the league's support for the Black Lives Matter movement. In a statement deriding the protest in August, Loeffler called the players' shirts a sign of cancel culture. In response, the Atlanta Dream and other high ranking members of the WNBA endorsed Reverend Warnock, going so far as to wear "Vote Warnock" shirts at their games. The Times also reported that the idea was discussed and approved by Stacey Abrams, who holds an advisory position to the WNBA Players Association's board.