The Seattle Storm and forward Gabby Williams agreed to a rest-of-season contract, the team announced Tuesday. The deal comes after Williams led the French national team in points (15.5) and assists (2.3) en route to earning a silver medal at the Paris Olympics and nearly defeating the Americans.

Williams, 27, played a career-low 10 games for the Storm last season, but her 8.4 points and 3.8 assists are career bests. The UConn product was selected by the Chicago Sky as the No. 4 pick in the 2018 NBA Draft, where she spent the first three seasons of her career.

“I’m so excited to be joining the Storm for the rest of the season,” Williams said in a statement. “I feel more than ready to finally return to Seattle. I’ve missed the organization, my teammates and the fans so much. I absolutely can’t wait to come back and finish the season strong.”

⛈️ GUESS WHO’S BACK ⛈️

Welcome home, @gabbywilliams15! 💚💛

📰 https://t.co/AexknHfEZI pic.twitter.com/CJrlm8bqnb

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— Seattle Storm (@seattlestorm) August 20, 2024

Seattle coach Noelle Quinn appears to be equally excited to have Williams back with the Storm.

“We’re thrilled to have Gabby back with the Storm,” Quinn said. “Gabby is a dynamic player who brings tremendous versatility. She’s a two-way player that can guard multiple positions and has a strong offensive game; given her familiarity with our system, we know she can have an immediate impact.

“Gabby’s Olympic performance showcased her world-class talent, and we’re excited to have her join us as we push for the playoffs.”

Why is this happening now?

Seattle has been carefully hoarding cap space for the last month or so, keeping a full-time roster of 10 players while cycling Kiana Williams through a series of seven-day contracts. That gives the Storm with just enough cap room today to sign Williams to a pro-rated veteran minimum deal for the remainder of the season.

Had Williams opted not to re-join Seattle, the Storm would have had the option to search for an upgrade via trade before the WNBA trade deadline’s Tuesday at 8 p.m. ET.

What Williams brings to Storm

Williams had an outstanding tournament at the Paris Olympics and has shined in European play, but she will be asked to hold a different role in Seattle.

With Skylar Diggins-Smith at point, Williams will have to play more off ball. The spacing could get complicated for a career 24.8 percent 3-point shooter on a team that is already the worst in the league from long range.

It’s unclear if she’ll even start since the Storm’s starting five of Diggins-Smith, Jewell Loyd, Jordan Horston, Nneka Ogwumike and Ezi Magbegor is outscoring opponents by 12.5 points per 100 possessions. What Williams does bring, no matter if she’s starting or off the bench, is supplementary creation combined with dynamite perimeter defense.

She was an all-defense selection with a 2.13 assist-to-turnover ratio in her last full WNBA season in 2022 when Seattle lost to eventual champion Las Vegas in the postseason semifinals. The Storm will need better shooting out of Loyd and Sami Whitcomb to keep Williams on the court, but there’s little risk to bringing her in at this point of the season when the player she’s replacing wasn’t a part of the rotation.

Williams is familiar with Loyd, Magbegor and Quinn, and is comfortable on the biggest stages.

Required reading

(Photo: Sarah Stier / Getty Images)

The high school football season begins this week. A look at top storylines and other issues to follow:

Can Corona Centennial end the Mater Dei/St. John Bosco domination in Division 1 football?

Every season since 2016, either Mater Dei or St. John Bosco has won the Southern Section Division 1 championship. Centennial won the title in 2015 and has the best chance to end the private-school domination. Centennial came within one play of beating St. John Bosco in the Division 1 semifinals last season. As usual, coach Matt Logan fears no one and the Huskies will play Mater Dei on the road to open the season Thursday night. With quarterback Husan Longstreet, a good offensive line and speed at receiver, Centennial will be scoring lots of points this season. Longstreet has been dealing with foot injury for the past month and might not be ready for the opener.

Will Mission Viejo have enough depth on the offensive and defensive lines to threaten the elite teams?

When it comes to skill-position players, Mission Viejo doesn’t have to take a back seat to anyone. Quarterbacks Luke Fahey and Draiden Trudeau, running back Hinesward Lilomaiava, receivers Vance Spafford and Phillip Bell, and defensive backs Dijon Lee and Jeron Jones were big-time contributors during a 13-3 season. Beware of the Diablos if coach Chad Johnson finds some linemen who can stay healthy and produce.

Who will be the player of the year?

With Mater Dei and St. John Bosco going with new quarterbacks, it’s wide open for top player in Southern California. Longstreet deserves consideration with his expected improvement. Santa Margarita receiver/defensive back Trent Mosley is a special talent and was Trinity League MVP as a sophomore. Orange Lutheran quarterback TJ Lateef is primed for a big season. Running back Karson Cox of Oak Hills is a punishing player. Linebacker Tristan Phillips of Ventura is building momentum as a defensive standout. Sierra Canyon sophomore defensive lineman Richard Wesley is going to be turned loose after recording nine sacks as a freshman.

Is Birmingham ready to be beaten in City Section football?

Birmingham’s unbeaten streak of 43 games against City Section opponents dating back to the 2017 season is in serious jeopardy with 16 sophomores on varsity. Graduation and player defections via transfers have left the Patriots vulnerable this season, with Marine League teams expected to offer the toughest challenge. San Pedro, Banning, Narbonne, Carson and Gardena all have title aspirations. Just don’t count out Birmingham. Coach Jim Rose knows how to develop players during the regular season, so perhaps a new star or two might step forward by the postseason.

Are teams changing schedules to help improve their playoff pairings?

It’s clear that some coaches despise the Southern Section playoff format where teams are ranked by the CalPreps.com algorithm and placed in a playoff bracket regardless of their school size, league finish or head-to-head performance against a common opponent. That has caused some coaches to tweak their non-league schedule in an attempt to game the computer. Good luck. It doesn’t hurt to try but the system is here to stay.

What scandals are coming?

Yes, there will be more forfeits because some schools don’t check their transfer students properly (maybe a home visit would be good to confirm an address). There are more schools enrolling students to attend via online classes. It’s legal but recruiting isn’t. A lack of enforcement of recruiting rules is setting the stage for a big debate and big mess in the future as the CIF tries to protect education-based high school sports in the face of a record 17,000 transfers statewide last school year.

What positive change is happening this season?

It’s now a 15-yard penalty before the game begins for using illegal equipment when a team wears jerseys with numbers that people in the stands can’t see because they blend in (particularly blue numbers on black jerseys). Grandparents, announcers, sportswriters, photographers and friends of players are leaping for joy after years of teams adopting jerseys made famous by the University of Oregon, which were miserable for identification purposes. The new national rule says numbers have to be clearly visible and contrast with the body color of the jersey. Schools have had several years to prepare for the change.

Can girls’ flag football continue its growth?

After a terrific first season, girls’ seven-on-seven flag football is set to generate even more attention with the first Southern Section championships. And yet, there are private schools declining to add teams, not wanting to take away athletes from volleyball, soccer and softball teams or share field time. They will learn they are making a big mistake as the sport grows even more with support from the Rams and Chargers.

Jannik Sinner, the men’s tennis world No 1, has received an anti-doping sanction after twice testing positive for a banned substance. An independent tribunal has ruled that Sinner bears “no fault or negligence” for both positive tests, but Sinner has been stripped of his ranking points, prize money, and results from the BNP Paribas Open at Indian Wells in March.

An in-competition test at that tournament on March 10, 2024 detected an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for clostebol, a banned anabolic steroid which is a non-specified substance on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) prohibited list. A second test, conducted out of competition on March 18, also detected a metabolite of clostebol.

The first sample was recorded at 76pg (picograms) per millilitre. The second was recorded at 86pg per millitire. One picogram is equal to one trillionth of a gram.

The benchmark sanction should a player be found at fault for violations of this nature is four years of ineligibility.

As a non-specified substance, an AAF for clostebol carries a mandatory provisional suspension from tennis. Sinner appealed against that suspension on both occasions, and so was allowed to continue to play, and rise to the top of the tennis world, as the investigation into whether he intentionally took the banned substance unfolded. He won the Cincinnati Masters title on Monday.

An independent tribunal appointed by Sport Resolutions, a private firm that often oversees doping cases, approved lifting both suspensions.

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) investigation concluded with a hearing, also overseen by Sport Resolutions, on August 15. At that hearing an independent tribunal ruled that Sinner bore “no fault or negligence” for the two violations of the Tennis Anti-Doping Program (TADP). The Italian admitted both violations, and is able to continue to play as he has done since the tests were conducted.

In separate announcements Tuesday, ITIA and Sinner’s team said that the Italian had tested positive for low levels of the anabolic steroid, once used as part of the notorious East German state-sponsored doping regime in the 1960s and 1970s.

Sinner’s team and the ITIA stated that he cooperated fully with the investigation.

The ITIA investigation concluded that an over-the-counter healing spray containing clostebol had been brought to Indian Wells by Sinner’s physiotherapist, Umberto Ferrara. Ferrara acquired the spray, under the brand name Trofodermin, in February.

Sinner’s physiotherapist, Giacomo Naldi, then cut himself using a scalpel that he used to treat callouses on Sinner’s feet at the tournament. Naldi used the spray to treat the cut, and according to the full decision of the tribunal, “did not check the contents of the spray or see that present on the label of the canister was “clostebol.”

The physiotherapist then conducted massages and treatments on Sinner between March 5 and March 13. According to Sinner’s team statement, “the physiotherapist treated Jannik and his lack of care coupled with various open wounds on Jannik’s body caused the contamination.”

In the full decision published by the ITIA, Professor David Cowan, a scientific expert commissioned to review Sinner’s explanation, commented on the amounts of clostebol found in Sinner’s samples.

“Even if the administration had been intentional, the minute amounts likely to have been administered would not have had […] any relevant doping, or performance enhancing, effect upon the player.”

Sinner lost to Carlos Alcaraz in the semifinals of Indian Wells, and did not learn of the positive test until April — after winning the Miami Open. He was provisionally suspended between April 4 and April 5, and April 17 and April 20, according to the full decision in the tribunal published by the ITIA Tuesday.

“I will now put this very challenging and hugely unfortunate period behind me,” Sinner said.

“I will continue to do everything I can to ensure I continue to comply with the ITIA’s anti-doping programme and I have a team around me that are meticulous in their own compliance.”

Clostebol, which is considered a weak steroid compared with other performance enhancing drugs, can help build muscle and assist in the recovery process following an intense workout, allowing athletes to train harder. It is also found in various therapeutic creams available without prescriptions in various countries.

Jamie Singer, a lawyer for Sinner, described the Italian as the latest athlete to fall victim to the mistakes of his team, and said that the ITIA did not challenge his claim of innocence in regards to intentionally taking a banned substance.

“Under the rules he is responsible for his team members’ mistakes and those mistakes sadly led to the positive test,” Singer said.

Italian tennis players have previously tested positive for clostebol. Matilde Paoletti and Mariano Tammaro, both 17-years-old at the time, tested positive in 2021 when anti-doping was under the jurisdiction of the International Tennis Federation (ITF), according to a report in Honest Sport.

Both players were subject to a mandatory provisional suspension, because their results were AAFs. Neither player was nor is anywhere near close to the notoriety of Sinner, whose test was conducted in the weeks following a decision against the ITIA from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the most recent high-profile anti-doping case in tennis: that of former Grand Slam champion Simona Halep.

The ITIA had sought a six-year ban against the Romanian, having provisionally suspended her in October 2022, after she tested positive for roxadustat.

Halep returned to the tour in Miami in 2024 (Megan Briggs/Getty Images)

Halep argued that she had inadvertently ingested it through a tainted supplement her coaching team, including Patrick Mouratoglou, had recommended. CAS ruled that on “the balance of probabilities” Halep’s anti-doping violations were “not intentional.” It reduced her four-year ban to nine months — about half the time she had already served after her provisional suspension.

The Halep case sparked widespread demands from players and tennis officials for reform, as well as criticism of the ITIA’s prolonged investigation. Halep’s former coach, Darren Cahill, who now coaches Sinner, called for “false accusations and false narratives” around Halep’s case to stop in a now-deleted post on X in March.

The ITIA administers some 2,500 tests each quarter to tennis players of varying abilities and ages, though higher-ranked players are subject to the most testing. Tests take place during tournaments and out-of-competition, with players having to state their exact whereabouts for one hour each day, to allow for the ITIA to subject them to random blood and urine tests.

(Top photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)