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'Life in the W' reveals the challenges WNBA players face

A'ja Wilson #22 of the Las Vegas Aces warms up before playing against the Toronto Tempo at Coca-Cola Coliseum on July 20, 2026 in Toronto, Canada.
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A'ja Wilson #22 of the Las Vegas Aces warms up before playing against the Toronto Tempo at Coca-Cola Coliseum on July 20, 2026 in Toronto, Canada.

Updated July 28, 2026 at 5:16 PM EDT

Attendance for a WNBA All-Star Game hit an historic high in 2026, as fans flocked to Chicago, Illinois to watch their favorite stars play against one another. The women played at Chicago's United Center — a large arena, typically reserved for the NBA — and drew in a staggering 19,783 fans, according to the WNBA.

As the WNBA reaches unprecedented heights of popularity, fans are eager to follow the lives of their favorite players on and off the court. And the new documentary series from ESPN titled Life in the W is offering an inside look at all it takes to navigate a WNBA career from a player's perspective.

Life in the W features A'ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces, Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx and DeWanna Bonner of the Phoenix Mercury. The series follows the three women as they grind through the 2025 WNBA season, negotiate for a new collective bargaining agreement and manage pressure in their personal lives.

Veteran Producer Trishtan Williams executive produced Life in the W, and she said viewers, especially women, will be able to relate to the everyday struggles, simple desires and unshakable resilience they see in the show.

"I think when you're watching as a viewer you can really relate to these women because they are not just basketball players," Williams told Morning Edition. "They are dealing with real things that the average everyday woman has to deal with."

Williams spoke to NPR's Michel Martin about the everyday challenges Bonner, Collier and Wilson face all while navigating fame in Life in the W.

To listen to the full conversion click the blue play button above.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Michel Martin is the weekend host of All Things Considered, where she draws on her deep reporting and interviewing experience to dig in to the week's news. Outside the studio, she has also hosted "Michel Martin: Going There," an ambitious live event series in collaboration with Member Stations.
Destinee Adams
Destinee Adams (she/her) is a temporary news assistant for Morning Edition and Up First. In May 2022, a month before joining Morning Edition, she earned a bachelor's degree in Multimedia Journalism at Oklahoma State University. During her undergraduate career, she interned at the Stillwater News Press (Okla.) and participated in NPR's Next Generation Radio. In 2020, she wrote about George Floyd's impact on Black Americans, and in the following years she covered transgender identity and unpopular Black history in the South. Adams was born and raised in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

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Federal funding is gone.

Congress has eliminated all funding for public media.

That means $2.1 million per year that Connecticut Public relied on to deliver you news, information, and entertainment programs you enjoyed is gone.

The future of public media is in your hands.

All donations are appreciated, but we ask in this moment you consider starting a monthly gift as a Sustainer to help replace what’s been lost.

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