Aces celebrate third WNBA championship in 4 years with parade on Las Vegas Boulevard

LAS VEGAS (AP) — Eight years to the day the WNBA and NBA Board of Governors confirmed the relocation of the San Antonio Stars to Las Vegas, the Aces celebrated their third championship in four years with a parade down the famed Strip on Friday night.

“We’re back!” exclaimed owner Mark Davis, donning a white satin team jacket on stage at the Toshiba Plaza outside T-Mobile Arena. “Las Vegas, we are world champions.”

Led by a group of classic low-rider automobiles showing off their hydraulics, five double-deck buses traveled from Tropicana Boulevard down Las Vegas Boulevard, the last one carrying the Aces, who threw streamers and confetti to thousands of fans who began arriving four hours before the start of the parade and lined the road that's been known for some of the world’s greatest headliners dating to the 1960s Rat Pack era.

On this night, there were no bigger stars than the Aces, who overcame a 14-14 start to the season and a pair of rugged playoff series before sweeping the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals.

Leti Poblete and her husband, Dion, watched the Aces’ first two championship parades in 2022 and 2023 on television. They weren’t about to miss a chance at attending the third.

“So glad we did,” Leti Poblete said. “It was an amazing experience. It was exciting to be with the rest of the Aces fans, and it was awesome to see the players up close and on top of their bus! I even caught their 2025 WNBA Championship souvenir towels.

“We are really proud of these awesome basketball players and incredible women. This basketball dynasty represents Las Vegas well.”

From kids to senior citizens to political dignitaries, Toshiba Plaza was packed for a fourth professional championship since 2022, the Aces winning three and the NHL’s Golden Knights winning the Stanley Cup in 2023.

“We should do it again next year,” said coach Becky Hammon, who wore her signature hoodie blazer, this one with “GRATITUDE” emblazoned in gold across the back.

Hammon, who just completed her fourth season with the Aces, said this year’s squad was her easiest to coach.

“They came in and worked their tails off, no matter the circumstances,” she said. “This is one of the most resilient, high-character groups.”

After losing several key pieces to the core of their previous championship rosters, the Aces welcomed many new faces and needed nearly three months to jell before reeling off 16 straight wins to end the regular season and earn the No. 2 seed in the playoffs.

“This is a special, special group; we prayed together and were popping Campagne together,” said four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, who became emotional when speaking about Hammon’s dedication toward each player. “She believed in us when no one did. We go nowhere without Becky Hammon.”

Admitting she wanted to keep her speech short to avoid becoming emotional, midseason acquisition NaLyssa Smith looked at her teammates on the stage and said, “Y’all changed my life.”

Jackie Young, who’s been a part of the team for all three championships and is always known to keep her commentary short and sweet, was exactly that when it was her turn to speak.

“Just know, we not done yet,” Young said with a mic drop.

The celebration ended with confetti and fireworks littering the sky while Queen’s “We Are The Champions” blared through the sound system.

Musical acts Crime Mob, Ludacris and Mya performed live.

“Now this, is a parade,” said first-year Ace and three-time WNBA champion Jewell Loyd. “I been to some other ones, but this one? This one hits a little different.”

AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball

Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson celebrates during a rally to celebrate the team's WNBA championship Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson and guard Aaliyah Nye celebrate during a rally to celebrate the team's WNBA championship Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

Las Vegas Aces guard Jackie Young celebrates during a rally to celebrate the team's WNBA championship Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

Las Vegas Aces forward A'ja Wilson celebrates during a rally to celebrate the team's WNBA championship Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

The Las Vegas Aces celebrate during a rally to celebrate the team's WNBA championship Friday, Oct. 17, 2025, in Las Vegas. (AP Photo/Candice Ward)

Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson holds up the championship trophy after defeating the Las Vegas Aces in Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon, right, and A'ja Wilson (22) celebrate after defeating the Phoenix Mercury in Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Las Vegas Aces owner Mark Davis, center, holds up the championship trophy after defeating the Phoenix Mercury in Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

Las Vegas Aces center A'ja Wilson, center right, holds up her MVP trophy after Game 4 of the WNBA basketball finals against the Phoenix Mercury, Friday, Oct. 10, 2025, in Phoenix. (AP Photo/Rick Scuteri)

BEIJING (AP) — In China, the names of things are often either ornately poetic or jarringly direct. A new, wildly popular app among young Chinese people is definitively the latter.

It's called, simply, “Are You Dead?"

In a vast country whose young people are increasingly on the move, the new, one-button app — which has taken the country by digital storm this month — is essentially exactly what it says it is. People who live alone in far-off cities and may be at risk — or just perceived as such by friends or relatives — can push an outsized green circle on their phone screens and send proof of life over the network to a friend or loved one. The cost: 8 yuan (about $1.10).

It's simple and straightforward — essentially a 21st-century Chinese digital version of those American pendants with an alert button on them for senior citizens that gave birth to the famed TV commercial: “I've fallen, and I can't get up!”

Developed by three young people in their 20s, “Are You Dead?” became the most downloaded paid app on the Apple App Store in China last week, according to local media reports. It is also becoming a top download in places as diverse as Singapore and the Netherlands, Britain and India and the United States — in line with the developers' attitude that loneliness and safety aren't just Chinese issues.

“Every country has young people who move to big cities to chase their dreams,” Ian Lü, 29, one of the app's developers, said Thursday.

Lü, who worked and lived alone in the southern city of Shenzhen for five years, experienced such loneliness himself. He said the need for a frictionless check-in is especially strong among introverts. “It's unrealistic,” he said, “to message people every day just to tell them you're still alive.”

Against the backdrop of modern and increasingly frenetic Chinese life, the market for the app is understandable.

Traditionally, Chinese families have tended to live together or at least in close proximity across generations — something embedded deep in the nation's culture until recent years. That has changed in the last few decades with urbanization and rapid economic growth that have sent many Chinese to join what is effectively a diaspora within their own nation — and taken hundreds of millions far from parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles.

Today, the country has more than 100 million households with only one person, according to an annual report from the National Bureau of Statistics of China in 2024.

Consider Chen Xingyu, 32, who has lived on her own for years in Kunming, the capital of southern China’s Yunnan province. “It is new and funny. The name ’Are You Dead?' is very interesting,” Chen said.

Chen, a “lying flat” practitioner who has rejected the grueling, fast-paced career of many in her age group, would try the app but worries about data security. “Assuming many who want to try are women users, if information of such detail about users gets leaked, that’d be terrible,” she said.

Yuan Sangsang, a Shanghai designer, has been living on her own for a decade and describes herself as a “single cow and horse.” She's not hoping the app will save her life — only help her relatives in the event that she does, in fact, expire alone.

"I just don’t want to die with no dignity, like the body gets rotten and smelly before it is found," said Yuan, 38. “That would be unfair for the ones who have to deal with it.”

While such an app might at first seem best suited to elderly people — regardless of their smartphone literacy — all reports indicate that “Are You Dead?” is being snapped up by younger people as the wry equivalent of a social media check-in.

“Some netizens say that the 'Are you dead?' greeting feels like a carefree joke between close friends — both heartfelt and gives a sense of unguarded ease,” the business website Yicai, the Chinese Business Network, said in a commentary. ""It likely explains why so many young people unanimously like this app."

The commentary, by writer He Tao, went further in analyzing the cultural landscape. He wrote that the app's immediate success “serves as a darkly humorous social metaphor, reminding us to pay attention to the living conditions and inner world of contemporary young people. Those who downloaded it clearly need more than just a functional security measure; they crave a signal of being seen and understood.”

Death is a taboo subject in Chinese culture, and the word itself is shunned to the point where many buildings in China have no fourth floor because the word for “four” and the word for “death” sound the same — “si.” Lü acknowledged that the app's name sparked public pressure.

“Death is an issue every one of us has to face,” he said. “Only when you truly understand death do you start thinking about how long you can exist in this world, and how you want to realize the value of your life.”

A few days ago, though, the developers said on their official account on China’s Weibo social platform that they’d pivot to a new name. Their choice: the more cryptic “Demumu,” which they said they hoped could "serve more solo dwellers globally.”

Then, a twist: Late Wednesday, the app team posted on its Weibo account that workshopping the name Demumu didn’t turn out “as well as expected.” The app team is offering a reward for whoever offers a new name that will be picked this weekend. Lü said more than 10,000 people have weighed in.

The reward for the new moniker: $96 — or, in China, 666 yuan.

Fu Ting reported from Washington. AP researcher Shihuan Chen in Beijing contributed.

The app Are You Dead? is seen on a smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman looks at her smartphone in a cafe in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A woman looks at her smartphone outside a restaurant in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A man looks down near his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)

A man reacts while holding his smartphone in Beijing, China, Thursday, Jan. 15, 2026. (AP Photo/Ng Han Guan)