Bonner, Boca and bonding: Inside the signing, team trip that helped lift the Atlanta Dream to the WNBA Finals

ATLANTA — DeWanna Bonner is seasoned. She has performed on 17 completely different rosters and for 5 franchises. She’s gained championships and misplaced them. Only as soon as has she watched the postseason from the sofa in a season she’s been obtainable. 

At 39 years previous, she is nearing the finish of an illustrious profession that spanned legends and eras. She has performed with Diana Taurasi and Caitlin Clark. She’s performed in opposition to the Las Vegas Aces after they have been in San Antonio and the Dallas Wings after they have been the Detroit Shock. 

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It is significant, then, that one among her favourite journeys of her profession got here lower than two months in the past. The ink on the contract with the Atlanta Dream had barely dried when she joined her new teammates and coaches on a Labor Day weekend trip to Boca Raton, Florida, throughout the FIBA World Cup break. 

The goal of the trip had nothing to do with the late-season acquisition of Bonner, who signed together with her third team in two seasons, eyeing a 3rd WNBA championship as her profession winds down. The itinerary was already booked a few weeks prior by the entrance workplace, a copycat of a trip to the similar resort throughout the 2024 Paris Olympics, which gave gamers house to refresh and reconnect. 

Kismet can’t be deliberate. They had no thought they have been designing a really perfect scenario for the 17-year veteran to mesh seamlessly and construct chemistry on an ultra-short timeline. 

“She was always going to fit in really well with our team, no matter what,” Dream assistant common supervisor Brooklyn Cartwright advised Yahoo Sports. “It’s one of the reasons that we were able to acquire her when we did. But from a chemistry standpoint, [the trip] certainly didn’t hurt.”

After the mandated seven-day trip interval for the FIBA break, the Dream spent 4 days practising at Florida Atlantic University and lounging round the resort whereas teammates Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard gained World Cup gold with Team USA. The change of surroundings broke the monotony of practices at Gateway Center Arena in Atlanta. 

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Instead of heading their very own methods after observe as they could of their dwelling market, and with out household or mates round, they hit the seashore and the pool collectively. Older bonds solidified. New bonds fashioned organically. 

“It’s just been up from there with us, and kind of been locked in since then,” Bonner mentioned after shootaround forward of a Game 2 semifinals win over New York. 

That could be an understatement. Upon their return to play to end the common season, the Dream fell to a feisty Portland Fire team out of the playoff image, however have not misplaced since. They enter the WNBA Finals on a 10-game profitable streak that consists of regular-season defeats of the No. 1 seed Minnesota Lynx and No. 8 New York Liberty, plus sweeps of the No. 5 Washington Mystics in the first spherical and the Liberty in the semifinals. The earlier season-best profitable streak was 5 video games in July. 

The Dream’s first WNBA Finals since 2013 will start Saturday in opposition to the No. 2 Golden State Valkyries at Chase Center. Games 3 and 4 have been moved to the bigger State Farm Arena in downtown Atlanta after coordination from the WNBA, NBA, Valkyries, Hawks and broadcast partners. The unbiased franchise is in its fourth Finals, however has but to win a WNBA championship since coming into the league as an enlargement team in 2008. 

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That path goes instantly by Boca and Bonner. 

Te-Hina Paopao is a fidgeter. 

“I have an attention span out the window,” Paopao mentioned. “I got a good 60 minutes, maybe 90 minutes in me.” 

Bonner observed that early. As she noticed Paopao start to fade late in practices, she’d stroll over her method. Give me 15 extra minutes, the vet advised her. Stay locked in. And then you are able to do no matter you need. 

“Just hearing someone like Miss DeWanna say that to me, it means a lot,” the second-year guard mentioned. “I respect her as a player, as a person as well, and she’s done a lot these last couple of weeks. … It just feels like she’s been here from the jump.” 

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Bonner’s introduction to the Dream was seamless, and gamers made it straightforward for her to step shortly into the fold, she mentioned. Though her “head’s always spinning” with all the new individuals, performs and a recent metropolis, she hasn’t missed any alternative to impart knowledge on a gaggle craving for it. 

“She touches everybody,” ahead Brionna Jones, who was dominated out of the postseason with a leg harm, advised Yahoo Sports. “She makes sure she is whatever that person needs.” 

Her relationship with Reese dates again to the younger star’s rookie yr in Chicago, after they started discussing trend with one another. Reese mentioned she felt “adopted” early on by Bonner and different vets, naming WNBA Players Association (WNBPA) president Nneka Ogwumike, former Aces champion Dearica Hamby and Alyssa Thomas, Bonner’s fiancé. 

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“It’s just a league where they really take in their sisters and the younger players, and I think everybody was just owning me from the beginning,” Reese mentioned. 

As teammates, Bonner challenged her every day to be the Dream’s engine. Reese, the third-year ahead the Dream acquired through commerce to open the offseason, got here to Atlanta as the lacking piece to assist them over their skid of first-round exits.  

“She’s always been in my ear about, you need to come out smoking, because if you don’t come out smoking, nobody else is going to,” Reese mentioned. “So she thinks I start it off and everybody else follows suit.” 

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Since Bonner joined the roster, Reese is averaging 19.1 factors, capturing 56.2% from the ground, with 3.7 assists and 2.3 steals over 10 video games. All are above her season-long marks of 16.4 factors (45.1%), 2.8 assists and 1.8 steals. 

When the Dream ousted the Mystics — a fair youthful, much less skilled squad that outperformed expectations — Bonner stepped between Reese and Allisha Gray whereas they taunted the crowd with goodbye motions. It was a vet transfer. 

“She always challenges us,” Reese mentioned after the semifinals Game 1 win. “She always keeps us humble. She keeps us together. Keeps us pretty grounded. Sometimes I’m like, do you ever smile? Like, why are you not smiling? We just won.”

Bonner was as soon as that younger participant soaking in information and confidence from veterans chasing a championship. The Phoenix Mercury drafted her fifth total out of Auburn in 2009, elevating eyebrows for her lengthy, skinny “beanpole” body she nonetheless carries into arenas. 

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She mentioned throughout the semifinals that she hasn’t modified her habits or preparation at throughout her profession, throughout which she’s averaged 14.3 factors, 6 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 1.2 steals per sport. A two-time all-WNBA honoree, she’s obtained MVP votes six occasions and gained the 2015 Defensive Player of the Year award. 

She’s additionally by no means failed to name-drop the WNBA legends who contributed to her success and management. 

Taurasi, the league’s all-time scorer who spent all 20 seasons in Phoenix, was in her fifth WNBA season out of Connecticut with the 2007 title to her identify when Bonner got here to city. Australian Penny Taylor was in her seventh yr, and Cappie Pondexter, the 2007 Finals MVP, was in yr three out of Rutgers. 

“I try to lead by example,” Bonner mentioned. “Always been that way, and like I always say, I learned from the best.” 

They gained the 2009 title collectively in Bonner’s rookie season, however misplaced in the Western Conference Finals beneath the prior playoff format in three of the subsequent 4 years. Bonner earned the Sixth Player of the Year award in her first three seasons till transferring into the beginning lineup, the place she, Taurasi, Taylor, Candice Dupree and Brittney Griner, then a rookie, gained it once more in 2014. 

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By the time the Connecticut Sun acquired Bonner for 3 No. 1 picks in 2020, a brand new period of free company for the WNBA, Bonner turned the sort of skilled vet who may push a team over a postseason hump. She performed in 61 postseason video games over 10 seasons with Phoenix, and joined a robust group in Connecticut that included Jones, then a reserve heart poised to break by for her personal Sixth Player honors. 

They reached the semifinals 5 occasions and the Finals as soon as, however did not win a title earlier than the core broke up in the 2025 free company interval. Jones, who then left for Atlanta, already knew and seemed ahead to what Bonner would carry to the Dream. 

“Being here [in Atlanta] last year and then this year seeing the difference going into the playoffs, she brought that urgency, that energy,” Jones mentioned. “That’s what we needed.” 

The Dream earned playoff spots every of the final three seasons, led by their 2022 No. 1 total decide Howard, however hadn’t made it out of the first spherical. Jordin Canada, Jones and Shatori Walker-Kimbrough, a 2019 champion with the Mystics who performed restricted minutes all season, have been their solely established vets at the begin of the season who had gone to the Finals. Gray, their main scorer, is in her ninth season, and played in six playoff games in four seasons with Dallas earlier than the Dream traded for her in 2023. Howard and Naz Hillmon have solely been in Atlanta. Reese had by no means reached the postseason in Chicago. 

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Bonner’s WNBA document 103 playoff video games, in addition to 17,152 profession minutes and 8,243 factors, each rating third all-time, are pivotal. She started imparting the wealth of data instantly in Boca and hasn’t stopped.

“It’s when she really took me under her wing and started talking to me a lot and just saying that you know Pao, there’s a lot for you out there and you just have to stay locked in,” Paopao, who performed a postseason-high 10:24 in a pivotal Game 2 time beyond regulation win, mentioned. “She’s been in my ear since then.”

Karl Smesko, the Dream’s second-year head coach, will typically enter the locker room at halftime solely to understand the gamers have been already discussing the similar changes he and the teaching workers have been ready to implement. 

To have Bonner gentle into the team at halftime additionally helps. Bonner declined to share what she said to motivate her team during Game 1 of the semifinals, opting to preserve it to the team throughout an important sequence they ended up sweeping with relative ease. If Canada’s evaluation is any indication, it centered on the team’s lack of aggression and defensive requirements. 

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The outcomes have been clear. After trailing by a possession at the break, 50-47, they turned the Liberty over nine times for 16 points in the third quarter alone. It was greater than New York’s 15 factors complete in the quarter. One-third of their complete offense that sport got here off turnovers (32 factors in a 92-82 win), tying the WNBA postseason document for factors off turnovers.  

Bonner reached double digits as soon as in her 5 regular-season video games in Atlanta, all as a sixth participant off the bench. But when Allisha Gray exited the first sport with a hand harm (her status remains day-to-day after undergoing a procedure), Bonner stepped up for a postseason-high 23 factors, 9 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals in Game 1. She shot 10 of 18 from the ground and 3 of 6 from 3-point vary. 

“I thought she was exactly what we needed, and not just because she’s a veteran presence and all the experience,” Smesko mentioned after the tone-setting victory. “Because she still plays like she did tonight. That was a huge performance, and when we needed a play, she made it.”  

Bonner performed at the least half-hour in each sport of the semifinals, whereas the Dream aced the take a look at of their bench depth. She offers the team versatility, spacing and know-how, a facet Smesko appreciated.

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“She has a sense of what she should do on the play, even if she never ran the play before,” Smesko mentioned. “And then she just knows where the ball should move and what the next action should be. And she has a lot of enthusiasm when she plays, but she has a calming presence about her.” 

The Dream entrance workplace tried to purchase her a number of completely different occasions in earlier free company durations to no avail. It lastly got here to fruition on Aug. 27, three days after Mercury granted her a contract buyout so she may chase a championship. Phoenix was already out of playoff competition; the Dream have been quick on depth and postseason expertise, leaning largely on the on-court play of Canada, a two-time Storm champion. 

That would not all the time imply a late-season addition will slide into the fold and not using a wrinkle. The Dream had to velocity up the chemical response of teammate relationships with 4 regular-season video games in seven days upon the league’s return from the worldwide break. All eight playoff groups have been set, however none had secured seeding. 

Hillmon, a steal in the 2022 draft, put a bug in Cartwright’s ear weeks earlier when the calendar turned to August. 

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“She’s very casual,” Cartwright mentioned. “She’ll walk by and drop a little, ‘Hey, we gonna go back to Boca? I would love to go back to Boca.'”

Canada additionally dropped hints, as one among the gamers who went on the 2024 tour. Conditioning hits completely different when it is finished at the seashore or in a lazy river, swimming in opposition to the present. 

Cartwright and common supervisor Dan Padover took it to the possession group, who have been large proponents of it, Cartwright mentioned. The approval to fund it got here shortly. The team left one week after Bonner signed the contract. 

“It really helped kind of give her a really nice intro into what life as an Atlanta Dream [player] is like,” Cartwright advised Yahoo Sports. “When you practice at home, you just kind of go home. So it gave them a lot of time to get a few more hours together, which I think definitely helped in building chemistry as quickly as they were able to.” 

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Paopao, who known as the location the “right vibe” with a quiet, old-town sort life-style, loved procuring at high-end shops and nabbed a Goyard bag. She was amongst the group that needed to go paddleboarding if the climate had been higher. Smesko walked the seashore. 

Cartwright and the entrance workplace deliberate extra particular team and group occasions, akin to massages and manicures. They held a team dinner one evening that includes a WNBA trivia contest that drew rave critiques and was Padover’s favourite exercise. Most gamers frolicked at the seashore and the pool all through the weekend. 

But off-court chemistry, whereas necessary, is nothing with out it engaged on the court docket. The league-wide query of who would profit from the FIBA break has its reply. The Dream gamers who remained in the States refocused in practices at FAU. 

“During the season, it’s easy to have some slippage,” Smesko mentioned. “Things you were good at get a little bit worse, and you don’t have a lot of time to get things as corrected and sharp. We had a plan of things that we really wanted to get better at, especially defensively.”

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Howard, Canada and Reese ranked top-three in steals throughout the common season, main the league’s most steal-happy unit (9.1 per sport). Reese earned her first Defensive Player of the Year trophy, lifting it to the dwelling crowd at the begin of the semifinals sequence. They ranked third in total defensive score, limiting fastbreak and second-chance factors, and upped their tenacity in the playoffs. They’re averaging a postseason-best 10.4 steals per sport (the Valkyries averaged 7) and allowed barely a bucket to opponents in transition (2.6 ppg). 

“Being in Boca definitely helped that a lot,” Jones mentioned. “Just being able to have practice time, because throughout the season we haven’t had time to just practice and get things the way we want them to be exactly.”

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There have been no journeys deliberate the week heading into the Finals, besides the cross-country flight to San Francisco on Wednesday. But with the semifinals sweep, and that of the Valkyries over the Aces the similar evening, the Dream obtained one other eight days of honed-in observe for what will probably be a defensive showcase. 

Scroll down Bonner’s Basketball Reference web page, and an inside-the-WNBA joke pops out amid the chart of numbers.  

2017 — age: 29 — Did Not Play (maternity — twins!) 

This is the declare to fame by which most have recognized Bonner, as an earworm in the league’s 2021 “Count It” marketing campaign. The industrial features a reference to girls who performed after childbirth, noting Bonner had twins — “count that twice.”

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The women are 9 now and conscious their mother is a basketball star. An hour earlier than the Dream secured the sweep in a Game 3 victory in Brooklyn, they bounded up into the Barclays Center tunnel to discover their seats. Thomas brings up the rear, answering their random pestering. 

It is the first time since 2019 that the couple isn’t ending the yr on the similar roster. Thomas began her enjoying profession in Connecticut in 2014, and they started courting in 2020, shortly after Bonner joined the team. When the core broke up earlier than the 2025 season, Thomas joined the Mercury and Bonner signed with the Indiana Fever. 

The Fever waived Bonner on June 25, 2025, after they’d listed her as away for “personal reasons.” Bonner mentioned in an announcement the “fit did not work out,” and she “appreciate[d] the organization’s willingness to grant my request to move on, particularly at this point in my career.” 

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The Mercury signed her midseason. Together, Bonner and Thomas reached the Finals with the Mercury in 2025, however have been swiftly swept by the Aces and A’ja Wilson. This fall is the first time since 2021, and solely the third time in 9 years, that neither Wilson nor Breanna Stewart will lift the trophy. It opened the door not just for a brand new crop of champions, however a veteran whose profession spans again previous theirs. 

For the first time shortly, she has somebody to lean on at dwelling who is not stepping onto the court docket together with her. Bonner is extra of a nervous, anxious participant, she mentioned, whereas Thomas is “cool, calm and collected all the time.” They can dissect Bonner’s sport and assess enhancements for the subsequent collectively in a method they could not after they have been teammates. But they do not take inventory of her resume or what profitable a last championship would do to it. 

“Anytime you take a loss in the playoffs, it’s depressing,” Bonner mentioned forward of the semifinals.

On the eve of her fifteenth semifinals, she would not need to or actually cannot consider a sequence that has caught together with her the most in her profession, preferring to give attention to the now.

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The 680-game veteran has advised her teammates repeatedly of their 35 days since that trip to Boca Raton to be the place their ft are and not look previous the activity at hand. She has to lead by instance and do the similar.