-We move now to the WNBA.

The defending champion Las Vegas Aces opened the 2026 season May 9th against the Phoenix Mercury.

It's a rematch of last year's WNBA Finals, when the Aces swept the Mercury in four games.

Since then, Aces guard Chelsea Gray has been making her own headlines.

She won the 1-on-1 Championship in the off-season league Unrivaled, and she wrote an open letter in The Players' Tribune to her two-year-old son, saying, in part, quote, I know one day when you're older, you'll have questions about me and your mom, about your life and your family, and I want to tell you everything.

A four-time WNBA champion and two-time Olympic gold medalist, Aces Guard Chelsea Gray, thank you for joining me.

-Thank you for having me.

-Was this a difficult decision to write this letter?

What went into it?

(Chelsea Gray) It wasn't difficult.

I had help with my wife.

It was authentic to us and our story.

It was probably more-- like right now, obviously, it's a lot more for me than for him, but one day if he has questions of, like, his journey and how cool this kid was when he was two years old, I wanted him to have something to be able to kind of reflect on.

-How cool is he?

-He's the coolest little two-year-old.

He has, like, such an electric energy.

He's particular.

He's funny.

He's outgoing.

He loves trucks, cars.

Like he, all the kid stuff, he's just free.

And he's around all these cool people all the time, and he ends up being one of the coolest in the room, so I love it.

-He's cooking with you?

-Yeah, he loves to cook.

He, every morning we go downstairs and he's like, he does the eggs.

He cracks the egg for me, and then I break it open and I put it in there.

He loves to do little things, stirring, like he loves to help.

He has his own little play kitchen that my wife put together for him.

So it's like, our quality time in the kitchen for sure.

-His name is Lennox, and some people might say that this was brave of you to write a letter like this.

What do you think about that?

-I don't necessarily feel that it was like an item of bravery.

It's just me.

It's me on a paper; it's me in a letter.

It's our family in a letter.

It's him.

And I've always been the person that kind of spoke my truth and just, it's me with my family all the time.

You see my parents all the time.

You see my wife and son.

And so it's authentically me no matter what.

-And so you were feeling this, you wanted to write it down so he could read it later, as you said, something for you to read when you're just about ready to spread your wings.

But for all the other people who are out there reading this, what do you want them to gain from it?

-Part of this letter and what people can probably gain from it, if anything, is that two things, yeah, it can be true.

You can have this professional life, but you can also have this home life at home and be super present with your son and be intentional.

It takes some intentionality to be able to, to be able to do this, because we're so busy.

We're traveling.

He understands that Mommy goes to work, Mommy goes to basketball, Mommy always comes back.

And my wife does a great job of being able to hold down our home while I'm away.

And she's awesome.

And so it's like when I come home, we don't skip a beat.

And so kind of getting used to you got to stay on it and be intentional about it.

But two things can be true.

You can, like, be at the highest stages, like, go for all the awards, all the accolades, but also be at home and be a rock star mom as well.

-And you've proven that, because in your time raising Lennox, you won your fourth WNBA Championship, and then you just won the 1-on-1 Championship in Unrivaled.

What was Lennox's reaction to that win?

-So the WNBA Championship, like he was just happy kind of to be on the court and in midst of all the chaos.

He just loves running around.

And he saw the confetti, and he's like, Oh, yeah, Mommy won basketball.

But I think it was the trophy that really took him.

And he was, like, he was hitting the trophy.

He had a reflection.

He was looking at himself.

So that was cool.

And then when I won on 1-on-1, there's a video clip of him just running to me.

It was, it's like the most mom moment ever.

I'm just like, that is the clip that I'm gonna save for the rest of my life.

And he came out.

My wife actually was like, He was about to go down, like, to go to sleep.

And I was like, Hold on.

Let's change.

Mommy's about to win.

Let's put you back out there.

And so-- -Diaper change?

-Yeah.

Like he was in his sleep clothes.

Like, we put him right back into his outfit, and he just came running out.

I was like, Oh, man.

Like, those are the moments you kind of live for.

-Totally.

In the letter you also write, quote, One thing I hope, Lennox, is that the world you grow up in is more open-minded than the one I grew up in and, one day when you read this, you're surprised to learn that it wasn't always easy to be yourself for people like me and Mama.

It was a hush-hush type of thing.

And that had me wondering, how easy is it now for you and your wife to be yourself?

-Yeah.

There's still things in the back, back of our mind where this world and where this society sometimes can be, but there's just, he's so pure and so like, happy and joyous.

It's just like, we just dive head first into that aspect of it.

There's-- there might be questions later down the line when he has like, Okay, what was it like for me growing up when I'm two and I have two moms.

So we do a really good job of making sure he's just surrounded by love, that he doesn't skip a beat.

He doesn't know any different.

He doesn't know that there is a difference.

He just has two parents that really, really love him.

He has a family that he can lean on anytime.

-And you wrote about your Draft night, and you said that you couldn't have your wife there because there was just so much to lose by sharing your truth back then.

That was back in 2014.

What would have happened had your wife been there do you think?

-I don't know.

I honestly don't know.

I look back on it, and I wish she could have enjoyed that experience.

We have so many more that sometimes that one, just like, We forget that you weren't there.

Like I called her in the back, like everything.

I don't know.

The pictures probably would have been different.

She was still as happy for me as she would be if she were in person.

It just, it's more celebrated now than it was before.

And it's not that quite like long ago.

We're talking about 12 years ago, but now I'm happy to see that everybody's open and honest with whoever they choose to bring.

-I wondered if you wrote that letter because you thought that Lennox might ask you about that later, like seeing pictures or if you wanted to get it off your chest maybe?

-Um, no, I just I, like, I just wanted to know, like, how far me and his mom has come and where our relationship now, and we brought you into this world to enjoy this love and to enjoy the joy of living and enjoy happiness and travel and experiences as young as two years old.

And he's going to keep growing and understanding the life.

And it's been cool to kind of see life through his, through his eyes.

-Yeah.

Talking about changes within the league over the last 12 years, you mentioned in the letter about how normal it is to have him in the locker room and how that wouldn't have been the norm 12 years ago.

What do you think led to that change?

-I think everybody is kind of, like, welcoming.

And now that there's so much media and there's eyes and everything, you're allowed to kind of express yourself in different ways.

So him coming in the locker room, it's created this like family environment, right?

All locker rooms aren't the same.

I can only speak from my experience.

And in Vegas, it's a family environment.

You know, we've had Becky's kids around and in practices, and then Lennox comes around now and Cheyenne's kids come around.

And it's, it cultivates this, like, family and this bond and this chemistry and a trust that if you trust somebody and for them to, like, go watch your kid, like, there's this trust there that, you know, that's underlying.

And so him coming in the locker room is joy.

He came in the locker room after our preseason game.

And so it was, it was pretty cool.

He's surrounded by such great women all the time.

And so hopefully that just bleeds off and it gives him some some good stuff.

-Totally.

Head Coach Becky Hammon, you wrote about her in this letter as well.

Did she read the letter?

-She did.

She was like, My gosh, I was in tears.

-I bet, because you don't really get to say those kind of things to your coach really, right?

-Sometimes I think-- It's been really cool.

Becky, and the culture that she's cultivated since she's been here, is very, very open.

You can come to her about almost anything.

And so I've come to her about being a parent, being a working mom, all the things.

And so it's been, it's been nice to have that.

-Yeah.

Being a working mom, I think a lot of moms out there can relate how tough it can be.

What is an aspect of it, though, when you add that extra layer of being a professional athlete that people might not think about?

-It's tough to be away.

You have to compartmentalize like no other.

I think athletes naturally do it.

But being a parent, being a mom, being super present if you want to be that, you know, people parent differently, and that's whatever, whatever somebody wants.

But compartmentalizing is something that I've learned, and-- -What does that look like for you?

-It doesn't matter if I win by 20, lose by 20.

When I come home, all he wants to do is play with trucks.

And it's actually like, it's kind of cool, because I get a chance to kind of [exhales] get away from it.

And you know, you sometimes when you were younger and you're in high school, you're in grade school and you will look at a problem, and you're just like, Okay, how do I solve this problem?

How do I solve this problem?

And you step away, you come back to it, and it's like, Oh, the answer is right there in front of me.

I was able to see it.

And that's what my son has been.

It's like you step away from basketball, you come back to it with fresh eyes, because all you're doing back at home is playing with trucks and running around in the grass.

And life is so short, so it makes me a little-- it's appreciated, appreciate it a little bit more.

-The moments.

And then there may be some people out there who say, you're a professional athlete, you can just hire a nanny, which maybe in past years might not have been true because of pay.

But things have changed.

I mean, what do you think about the pay changes, first off.

-First off, I love the pay changes.

It's great.

-Congratulations on your new deal.

-Thank you.

The pay changes are great.

It's, I think now basketball is allowing for women athletes to solely have that as their job.

Before we would have to have to create different jobs, go overseas, combine all this money to be able to survive, honestly.

And as far as nannies, I have one.

We have one, and it's great.

You bring somebody into your home and into your space, and you just have to find the right fit, honestly.

And it's been cool to kind of see different relationships because, you know, who you surround yourself with is who is going to be impacting your child.

And we're very, very selective in who we let in.

-Lennox is set to be a very special person based on all the people he has around him.

-Thank you.

-Chelsea Gray, thank you for joining Nevada Week.

-Thank you so much.