Skylar Diggins In Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue: WNBA Beauty Shows Off Bikini Body [PHOTO]

Skylar Diggins has been featured in Sports Illustrated before, but now she's in it as a model. The 22-year-old WNBA basketball player, considered one of the hottest female players in the league, is an Indiana native who went to Notre Dame on a basketball scholarship after leading her high school team to the state championships for four consecutive years.

The 5-foot-9-inch beauty is now showing her skills off the court, in the new Sports Illustrated Swimsuit issue, the franchise's 50th anniversary, released Tuesday. Fellow athletes Alex Morgan, a soccer star, and surfer Anastasia Ashley also appear in the issue. Diggins showed her appreciation for being featured in the coveted magazine, tweeting, "Such an amazing honor to join so many wonderful, beautiful women in#SISwim50!” The trio of models Nina Agdal, Lily Aldridge and Chrissy Teigen are on the Sports Illustrated cover for the 50^th anniversary issue.

Diggins is a five-time USA Basketball gold medalist (including a captain on the 2010 USA Under-19 World Championship Team, 2011 USA World University Games Team and 2012 USA 3x3 World Championship Team) and a four-time college all-American, and was selected as the No. 3 overall pick in the first round of the 2013 WNBA Draft by the Tulsa Shock.

The WNBA rookie was once rumored to be romantically linked to rapper Lil’ Wayne, who reportedly has had a crush her.

During Diggins' second season at Notre Dame, the rapper tweeted, “Good luck to my wife Skylar Diggins and the fighting Irish!” To which Diggins tweeted back, “Haha thanks Wayne! Mmmuah to my husband [sic]!”

See more of her spread here.