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After being released by the Seattle Storm, Stanford great Kiana Williams looking for her next home

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After being released by the Seattle Storm, Stanford great Kiana Williams looking for her next home


Early in the decade, Kiana Williams established herself as an important figure at Stanford, helping the Cardinal win the 2021 NCAA Division I women’s basketball tournament en route to the school’s first women’s basketball title since 1992. Williams, along with players like Cameron Brink, Haley Jones and Lexie Hull formed a dominant roster that will forever go down in history as arguably one of Stanford’s best and most talented.

After Williams graduated following the title-winning season, she left as the school’s all-time leader in three pointers while cementing herself as a true Cardinal legend. Now, only three years after leaving college, Williams’ basketball career is in limbo after her recent release from the WNBA’s Seattle Storm.

Selected by the Seattle Storm with the 18th overall pick of the 2021 WNBA Draft, Williams was initially a longshot to make the roster as the team already had Sue Bird, Jordin Canada, Jewel Loyd and Kennedy Burke in their backcourt. Against the odds she made the final roster and proceeded to spend the following two seasons in Seattle, playing in 13 games between 2021 and 2022 where she averaged 1.7 points in the latter year. Released three games into the ‘22 campaign, Williams signed with Connecticut where she played the rest of the season with the Sun.

Williams did not play in the WNBA last year before once again rejoining the Storm on a training camp contract before this season. Her performance was good enough to earn her another spot on the initial roster, but after getting waived on July 2, she signed two 10-day contracts. Playing in 13 games with the team where she averaged only 0.8 points, she was not retained following the expiration of her second 10-day contract and was waived for a second time. 

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Never missing a game while in college with 128 consecutive starts, Williams ended her tenure averaging 13.4 points per game with 3.4 assists and 2.4 rebounds. With her being the program’s all-time three point leader, her career percentage from behind the arc was .370. One of Tara VanDerveer’s most reliable players during her time there, Williams’ legacy will never be forgotten.

Listed as a 5-foot-7 hybrid guard, Williams’ versatility as well as her strong shooting ability make her the type of player that any team could use, and as the WNBA playoffs approach, Williams will continue to grind in the hopes of either finding a home for a team’s playoff run, or come back better than ever next season, ready to help a franchise achieve its aspirations.



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Seattle, WA

Seattle weather: Cooler, showers and chance of storms Friday

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Seattle weather: Cooler, showers and chance of storms Friday


High temperatures again today were well below seasonal average, only peaking in the low 70s. We saw more clouds and scattered showers, even some rumbles of thunder.

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Seattle Mariners fire longtime manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart amid midseason skid

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Seattle Mariners fire longtime manager Scott Servais and hitting coach Jarret DeHart amid midseason skid


One day after being swept by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Seattle Mariners have fired longtime manager Scott Servais and has replaced him with former Mariners All-Star catcher Dan Wilson. Earlier on Thursday, The Athletic reported that Servais losing his job was imminent.

In a statement released Thursday, Mariners president of baseball operations Jerry Dipoto confirmed that Servais will be replaced by Wilson. Wilson, a member of the Seattle Mariners Hall of Fame, has no previous management experience, but has been brought in by the Mariners as a special assignment coordinator for spring training for the past few years.

“We believe that we need a new voice in the clubhouse,” Dipoto said in the statement, praising Wilson as “a key member” of the organization. “He is well respected within and outside of the clubhouse, and we are confident he will do a great job in leading our group over the final six weeks of the season and moving forward.”

Per the statement, Wilson will manage his first game on Friday, as the Mariners hope to reverse a midseason collapse with a home series against the San Francisco Giants.

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In the statement, Dipoto also thanked Servais for his nine years with the team. “He has poured his passion into the team and our community and I know I speak for the entire Mariners organization in thanking him for his hard work,” he said.

Servais, who has managed the Mariners since 2016, helped end the team’s postseason drought in 2022 but has been unable to reverse the tide on another mediocre season and a disastrous midseason slump in 2024. The Mariners, who at one point held a 10-game lead in their division, have since fallen to five games back of the Astros in the AL West.

The Mariners also fired hitting coach Jarret DeHart, who has been with the team since 2018 and who was promoted to the position in 2021.

Seattle started the season strong but has struggled in the past few weeks: The team is now well behind the Astros and has lost eight of its past 10 to fall to .500 with a 64-64 record.

Despite some incredibly strong performances on the mound from star pitchers such as Logan Gilbert, Bryce Miller, George Kirby and Luis Castillo, Seattle has struggled immensely on offense. The Mariners lead the league in strikeouts with 1,308 and have recorded the fewest hits (903) and lowest batting average (.216) in the league.

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The Mariners fired bench coach and offensive coordinator Brant Brown in May, but the initial improvement on offense quickly fell apart as Seattle’s lineup reverted back to struggling.

Seattle fans will still fondly remember Servais for his management in 2022, when he led the long-suffering Mariners to the postseason for the first time since 2001 — ending a 21-year playoff drought, the longest active drought in all of North American professional sports at the time. Seattle clinched a wild-card berth that year and advanced to the AL divisional series before getting swept by the Astros.

But Servais’ tenure was also filled with seasons that failed to meet expectations. In 2016, his first season with the team, Seattle fell just short of the postseason after an unexpected playoff push. The same thing happened in 2021, when the Mariners were in playoff contention until the final day, and in 2023, when Seattle finished one game out of a playoff berth.

With its lead suddenly lost, Seattle looks to be hurtling toward a similar fate this season. Given that the AL West is one of the weakest divisions in baseball, the Mariners would likely need to win the division to secure a playoff spot. But they sit five games back in the AL West and 7.5 games back of the final AL wild-card spot as of Thursday.

Seattle has not won a World Series in the team’s 47-year history, and it’s one of five teams in MLB that has failed to win a pennant. If the Mariners fall short yet again, it’s likely that Dipoto — who has already infuriated fans with comments implying that the team wasn’t aiming for a World Series — will be on the hot seat next.

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The team will now reportedly turn to Wilson, who caught for Seattle from 1994 to 2005. Per The Seattle Times, Wilson has become a mentor and good luck charm for current Mariners catcher Cal Raleigh during his tenure as a special assignment coordinator.

Additionally, per Adam Jude of The Seattle Times, Mariners legend Edgar Martinez will join Wilson, his former teammate, on the coaching staff. Martinez, a seven-time All-Star who played with the Mariners from 1987 to 2004, served as the hitting coach in Seattle from 2015 to 2018 and has been a special advisor since then.

Seattle will look to these two former players to help the team navigate the final 34 games of the regular season.

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‘Frasier’ Revival Season 2 Trailer Heads Back to Seattle’s KACL

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‘Frasier’ Revival Season 2 Trailer Heads Back to Seattle’s KACL


Kelsey Grammer’s Dr. Frasier Crane is going back to his radio roots in a new trailer for the second season of the Paramount+ revival of the long-running NBC sitcom. It was previously revealed that the season would feature a Seattle-themed episode in which Frasier returns to KACL.

“This is Dr. Frasier Crane. I’m listening,” Grammer says in the trailer as he sits down in his old seat at the radio station with his friend and former producer Roz Doyle (Peri Gilpin) back in the booth.

He is later greeted by Bob “Bulldog” Briscoe (Dan Butler), who asks, “Is this your son?” as he meets Freddy (Jack Cutmore-Scott), who replies “I used to listen to your show all the time as a kid, big sports fan.” Bulldog proceeds to look at Frasier and quip, “So not your son.”

The series, which will return on Sept. 19 with its first two episodes, follows Frasier in the next chapter of his life after he returns to Boston to face new challenges, forge new relationships and—with hope— finally fulfill an old dream or two.

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In addition to Grammer and Cutmore-Scott, the show stars Nicholas Lyndhurst as Alan, Frasier’s old college buddy turned university professor; Toks Olagundoye as Olivia, Alan’s colleague and head of the university’s psychology department; Jess Salgueiro as Eve, Frasier and Freddy’s neighbor; and Anders Keith as Frasier’s nephew, David.

Apart from the return to KACL, the trailer features the main cast getting into various hijinx, including Alan and Frasier swapping out Eve’s son John for wine, and Eve and David eating the pair’s 18-pound Jamón Ibérico.

In addition to Gilpin and Butler, Season 2 guest stars include Edward Hibbert, who returns as Gil Chesterton, Harriet Sansom Harris, who returns as agent Bebe Glazer, Patricia Heaton, who will portray Holly, a Boston native who tends bar at upscale restaurants and events, as well as Yvette Nicole Brown, Greer Grammer, Rachel Bloom and Amy Sedaris.

“Frasier” comes from writers Chris Harris (“How I Met Your Mother”) and Joe Cristalli (“Life in Pieces”), who executive produce with Grammer, Tom Russo and Jordan McMahon. Legendary director James Burrows will return to direct two episodes.

The series, which is filmed in front of a live studio audience at Paramount Studios in Los Angeles, is produced by CBS Studios in association with Grammer’s Grammnet NH Productions.

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Following the premiere, new episodes will drop weekly on Paramount+ in the U.S., Canada, U.K. and Australia. The new season will launch later this year in additional territories where the service is available.

Check out the full trailer in the video below:



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