Bueckers goes No. 1 in WNBA draft, league addresses player safety

The WNBA is one month from their 29th season and has a new crop of star players to bolster its popularity

Monday, the league's entry draft was held, and like last season when Kaitlin Clark was the number one overall pick

this year's top player is also no surprise. UConn's Paige Beckers, who led the Huskies to an NCAA title just a week ago

is on her way to Dallas to revive a Wings franchise that finished 9-31 last season

Another feather in the cap of the league. WNBA Commissioner Kathy Engelbert talked about capitalizing on the growth Monday

The momentum from last year has carried over in a big way, fueled by obviously incredible fan engagement

rising TV viewership in a league stacked with extraordinary talent. But there are some things the league has addressed in the offseason

namely players' health and safety, and the battle against online hate and vitriol

Engelbert announced what she called a four-pronged approach to those issues and has set up a task

force to make improvements. The four touch points include monitoring of players' social media for

negative comments and threats using artificial intelligence, better in-arena fan conduct standards better security measures at league and player facilities and dedicated mental health clinicians on call for players should they need them I think there is just a continuing drain on all of us on players on staff staff at our teams

I'm sure on all of you, too, just continuing unaccountability for people who type things in social media

And our players are digital natives. They're in their 20s, young 20s. And then obviously more veteran players are 20s into 30s and they take everything very hard and it's a toll on them

Some of the youngest players were drafted Monday. After Beckers went number one overall, the Seattle Storms selected 19-year-old 6'6 center Dominique Malanga from France at number two

The third and fourth picks were back-to-back from the Washington Mystics. They chose Sonia Citrone from Notre Dame and Kiki Irifin from Southern Cal, an instant rebuild in D.C

And the fifth pick in the third round went to the expansion Golden State Valkyries

who made their first-ever draft-picked 19-year-old guard, Justey Juchite from Lithuania. Several teams like Washington, Connecticut and Dallas had multiple first-round picks

Raising up the bottom teams is crucial for the league's success. Training camps open in just two weeks

For Straight Arrow News, I'm Chris Francis