Midway through the 2023 WNBA season, Aces coach Becky Hammon made a claim that male practice player Jaire Roberts had a hard time believing.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf we win a championship, you guys are getting rings, too,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Roberts, 28, was old enough even then to know that it\u2019s easy for people to get excited in a moment and say things they don\u2019t mean.<\/p>\n
But then the Aces won their second consecutive league title, and Roberts got a call asking for his ring size.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m still like wow,\u201d Roberts said, elongating his reaction for cartoonishly dramatic effect. \u201cThat\u2019s crazy.\u201d<\/p>\n
Now, with the Aces leading the Phoenix Mercury 2-0 in the 2025 WNBA Finals, he\u2019s just a few games from potentially receiving another one.<\/p>\n
Not every WNBA team offers championship hardware to the men tasked with playing against the world\u2019s best women\u2019s basketball players in practice. For Hammon and the Aces, however, it\u2019s a token of just how much they value the group \u2014 and an illustration of the expectations those practice players are expected to meet.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey\u2019re really part of our team. \u2026 We travel with them. I throw them in the fire,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cThey\u2019re here to make the women better. They do that. And they do it with a lot of grace and a lot of enthusiasm \u2014 and they love and care about our team, more importantly.\u201d<\/p>\n
When the New York Liberty dethroned the Aces and won the 2024 title, they didn\u2019t give rings to their practice players. They also don\u2019t pay them, utilizing a group of as many as 20 volunteers per year. The Aces take a different approach, paying a group of men that is often less than six.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey have to build trust with me,\u201d Hammon said. \u201cIt\u2019s not just anybody that I\u2019m just going to throw out there and let guard (A\u2019ja Wilson) in practice.\u201d<\/p>\n
How male players push Aces forward<\/p>\n
PJ Savoy Jr. is the Aces\u2019 primary male practice matchup for Wilson, the league\u2019s four-time MVP. Savoy, 29, is a Las Vegas native who formerly played as a 6-foot-4-inch guard at Florida State.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe is the only person that guards me when I\u2019m on the court,\u201d Wilson said of Savoy. \u201cIt\u2019s been helpful because obviously guys are stronger. They jump higher. It\u2019s like, if I can just guard him a little bit, then I could be in good shape for the league. But at the same time, he has to guard me. So, he makes it harder, and he makes my looks tougher.\u201d<\/p>\n
Savoy and Rashaad Zimmerman, 29, are the only practice players who also boast official titles on the Aces\u2019 basketball operations roster.<\/p>\n
Savoy is listed as an assistant player development coach, while Zimmerman was recently promoted to basketball operations coordinator.<\/p>\n
They\u2019re the leaders of a squad that Aces players affectionately call \u201cthe Spades,\u201d an apt title for the male practice personnel. The group of practice players also includes Tyler Murrell, 27, who joined the team after their last title run.<\/p>\n
Murrell, not far removed from his playing days at Colorado Christian University and University of Antelope Valley, has adapted his play style in light of Hammon\u2019s reminder that no practice player can actually \u201cmake the team.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s challenging because as men, we have to play with a sense of urgency. But obviously we\u2019re catering towards the players, so we have to come in every day with a certain mindset,\u201d Murrell said. \u201cAnd I think it\u2019s been paying off.\u201d<\/p>\n
Wilson joked that while the Spades make the Aces mad when \u201cthey\u2019re just doing too much,\u201d it provides a fun edge to practices and makes rougher games feel familiar.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey are truly our brothers,\u201d Wilson said.<\/p>\n
Forward NaLyssa Smith used the same word to describe the Spades, each of whom she went out of her way to playfully shove as she took the court for Game 1 of the best-of-seven finals.<\/p>\n
Smith, who made stops with the Indiana Fever and Dallas Wings before arriving in Las Vegas via a midseason trade in June, sees how the Aces\u2019 practice players are set apart.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe difference is they also coach you up a little bit, too. You can go to them for advice because we all trust them. I haven\u2019t been here that long, but I think I\u2019ve built a relationship with every single one of them,\u201d Smith said.<\/p>\n
How to become, stay a Spade<\/p>\n
While some WNBA organizations hold open tryouts for practice players, the Aces rely on a network of trusted people and word-of-mouth.<\/p>\n
For Roberts it was a text from a friend. Zimmerman, Savoy and Murrell made inroads from connections they built while volunteering with various organizations to stay close to the game.<\/p>\n
That system has led to some funny synchronicities. Zimmerman is a South Carolina native like Wilson, and they essentially grew up together as family friends. She was shocked that his path led him from being an Air Force veteran to the Aces.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Savoy never imagined that making good impressions in his hometown would lead to his current role, which he said he\u2019s grateful has helped him avoid a \u201cregular 9-to-5.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI was at the (2022) parade, having fun,\u201d Savoy said. \u201cThe following year, I ended up getting to be with the staff and on the other side of the gate.\u201d<\/p>\n
But 2025 was different from the Aces\u2019 previous championship runs, with the team falling out of playoff contention in the first half of the year and needing a historic 16-game win streak to close the regular season and secure the No. 2 seed.<\/p>\n
The team was adapting to personnel changes, including the trade that exchanged guard Kelsey Plum for Jewell Loyd and the replacement of two assistant coaches. The Spades adjusted by putting in more time with the players.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think everyone was basically trying to relearn each other\u2019s tendencies,\u201d Zimmerman said. \u201cEvery morning before practice, we\u2019re out there with them. Giving them drills, trying to keep it innovative and fresh. Trying to stay on our toes with that has been an adjustment.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Roberts, the key through the Aces\u2019 growing pains was \u201cbeing positive at all times.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou\u2019ve got to be a good person first,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com.<\/a> Follow @CallieJLaw<\/a> on Twitter.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Midway through the 2023 WNBA season, Aces coach Becky Hammon made a claim that male practice player Jaire…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":194864,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":{"0":"post-194863","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-wnba","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-sports","11":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194863","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=194863"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/194863\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/194864"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=194863"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=194863"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=194863"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}