LAS VEGAS (AP) — Given their championship pedigree and locker room full of strong personalties such as A'ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray, the Aces were probably the best-positioned team to take a chance on a guard whose points and controversies seem to come in bunches.
Chennedy Carter, who played in China last season, has provided what Las Vegas management wanted when they signed her, a major spark who leads the WNBA in bench scoring at 17.5 points per game.
That kind of depth scoring is what the Aces hope leads to a fourth championship in five years.
“I feel like that anybody that comes into our organization is going to know that we have a standard here,” Gray said. “Anything short of a championship is not that good of a season for us. That's just where our standard is at, where it'll always be and has always been.”
Carter also brought to Las Vegas the baggage of appearing to regularly wear out her welcome. She was indefinitely suspended by Atlanta in 2021 for "conduct detrimental to the team.” The Dream traded her to Los Angeles the following February and she lasted a season with the Sparks. Carter was out of the league in 2023.
While playing for Chicago in 2024, Carter went out of her way to take down then-rookie Caitlin Clark in a game against Indiana. The league later upgraded the high-profile foul to a flagrant-1 violation.
Carter again found herself without a WNBA team last season.
Late last week, Carter appeared to complain about not receiving more minutes in response to criticism on social media that Dallas star rookie Azzi Fudd outscored her 22-14 in the Wings' 95-87 victory over Las Vegas on Thursday. Carter posted on Threads “yall can hollar at me when my leash is off too. it's completely unfair even though statistically wise it's not even close.”
When asked last week about coming off the bench, Carter said, “I love that role.”
It's a role coach Becky Hammon made clear she would like for Carter to have going forward. Jewell Loyd asked to move to the bench last season, and has embraced that role.
Loyd (27.3 minutes per game) and Carter (20.3) receive starters-type playing time.
“It's a huge lift,” Hammon said. “You have to deal with the big three in that first group (Wilson, Gray and Jackie Young), and then you come and hit them with the second wave in Jewell and Chen, and when (Cheyenne Parker-Tyus) gets in there is an offensive threat. I think the luxury with this lineup and this particular roster is we can play bigger and we can play small and be efficient at either game.”
Carter has become a favorite for Aces fans, drawing a big ovation when she is inserted into the game.
She has given them plenty of reasons to cheer, shooting an astonishing 65.1% from the floor and 58.8% from the 3-point arc. Carter has scored at least 20 points in four games and reached double figures in the first seven before an apparent hip injury on Sunday against Golden State held her to six points in 9:27 of action. Hammon and Carter downplayed any long-lasting effects from the injury.
But Carter isn't just about offense. She also leads the team with 1.2 steals per game.
“We wanted that full-court pressure defensively,” Hammon said. “I'm asking her to play a very exhaustive way. She's dog tired when I bring her out a lot of times, but just her ability to get downhill, that hard-nosed aggression at the rim is why I wanted to sign her.”
The basketball part has never been in question about Carter, who was drafted fourth overall by the Dream in 2020 out of Texas A&M.
That's the part the Aces hope will get them another banner to hang at Michelob Ultra Arena.
“I knew she was athletic,” Gray said. “I just didn't know how athletic she actually was.”
AP WNBA: https://apnews.com/hub/wnba-basketball
FILE - Las Vegas Aces guard Chennedy Carter (23) dribbles during a WNBA basketball game against the Los Angeles Sparks in Los Angeles, May 10, 2026. (AP Photo/Kyusung Gong, File)
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is reconsidering whether to move forward with a $1.8 billion fund meant to compensate his allies, a person familiar with his thinking said Monday, as the Justice Department said it would temporarily pause its implementation to comply with a court order.
The potential retreat is a nod to the legal setbacks the fund has encountered since it was announced two weeks ago and a recognition of the mounting political backlash from Republicans concerned by a lack of oversight of the money disbursement and the possibility of payouts to participants in the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The Trump administration had defended the $1.776 billion “Anti-Weaponization Fund,” established to resolve Trump’s lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service over the leak of his tax returns, as an appropriate corrective measure for what officials insist was weaponized law enforcement during the Biden administration.
But while some Trump supporters — including participants in the Capitol riot — celebrated the announcement of the fund, the reaction among Republicans in Congress has been decidedly more hostile.
The outrage came to a head last month at a closed-door meeting between senators and acting Attorney General Todd Blanche that Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas described on a recent episode of his podcast as “one of the roughest meetings I’ve seen in my entire time in the Senate.”
The furor has especially complicated matters in the Senate, where Republicans defiantly left town 10 days ago without passing legislation to fund Trump’s immigration enforcement agencies. Republicans who returned to Washington on Monday said they won’t have the votes to pass the Homeland Security spending bill until the White House works with them to place parameters on the fund. Many have pushed the administration to impose limits or scrap the idea altogether.
Amid the backlash, a person familiar with the matter, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the president’s thinking, said Monday that Trump was reconsidering whether to move forward with the fund.
But it was not clear whether the Justice Department's statement that it would pause action on the fund was definitive enough for the Senate to be able to move the bill forward.
“They need to say what they actually mean,” said Republican Sen. Jim Lankford. "They need to say, “We’re setting this whole thing aside.'”
Senate Majority Leader John Thune indicated Monday that he hoped the White House would move to drop the fund.
“I do think the best way to handle it is if the administration decides to shut it down themselves,” Thune told reporters.
He said any additional statements from the administration would be helpful, but: “I think the statement they made effectively shuts it down. We’ll find out.”
The Justice Department said it would comply with a ruling in Virginia on Friday by U.S. District Judge Leonie Brinkema, who responded to an outside challenge to the fund by temporarily halting its implementation. The judge scheduled a June 12 hearing for arguments on whether to extend her order.
The department said in a statement that it strongly disagrees with the ruling but will comply with it.
“This Fund was open to anybody who was so weaponized, targeted, or persecuted, whether they were Democrat, Republican, Conservative, Independent, or otherwise,” the statement said. "The Department will abide by the Court’s ruling.
Separately, the federal judge in Florida overseeing Trump’s lawsuit against the IRS ordered Trump’s attorneys on Friday to respond to “grievous allegations” by settlement critics that the president abandoned his claims to avoid the court’s scrutiny of an illegal deal. U.S. District Judge Kathleen Williams gave them until June 12 to respond in writing to allegations of collusion and whether the case should be reopened because the court was the “victim of a fraud.”
As part of the settlement, the IRS agreed to drop all past and pending probes of Trump, his family and other associates over whether they’ve paid their fair share of taxes.
It was not immediately clear whether the retreat being signaled on the fund Monday also indicated that the administration was backtracking on its promised immunity from tax audits.
Associated Press writers Mary Clare Jalonick and Fatima Hussein in Washington contributed to this report.
President Donald Trump pumps his fist as he arrives at the White House, Sunday, May 31, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche speaks to a reporter outside the White House, Wednesday, May 27, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein)
FILE - Rioters loyal to President Donald Trump rally at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, Jan. 6, 2021. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana, File)
