The New York Liberty will be celebrated with a ticker-tape parade in the Canyon of Heroes in New York City after winning their first-ever WNBA championship, Mayor Eric Adams announced Sunday night.
Details on the parade date, timing and route are expected to be released on Monday.
“From the start of the season to the very last game, the New York Liberty were focused on one singular objective: winning. Tonight, they delivered a historic win — making our great city proud by becoming champions, the first in the franchise’s history,” Adams said in a statement. “At a time when the rest of the country is finally acknowledging the endless talent in our WNBA, we are proud to have New York City bring home the trophy. To our WNBA champions, thank you for being a role model to our city, and showcasing the values of grit, determination, and hard work. Now, we can’t wait to celebrate off the court and throw you the parade you deserve down the Canyon of Heroes!”
In addition, five city buildings will be lit up in seafoam on Monday night in honor of the Liberty.
The NYC buildings to be lit in seafoam Monday night are:
New York City Hall: City Hall Park, New York, NY 10007
Brooklyn Borough Hall: 209 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
The David N. Dinkins Manhattan Municipal Building: 1 Centre Street, New York, NY 10007
Queens Borough Hall: 120-55 Queens Blvd, Kew Gardens, NY 11424
Staten Island Borough Hall: 10 Richmond Terrace, Staten Island, NY 10301
The New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx will battle for the 2024 WNBA championship in a winner-takes-all Game 5 of the 2024 Finals this weekend. It’s a fitting close to what’s been an epic Finals clash between the top two teams in the W.
Now, the two heavyweights are set to square off one more time. Will the Liberty finally capture the original WNBA franchise’s first-ever title? Or will the Lynx celebrate a record-breaking fifth WNBA championship on New York’s home floor?
Here’s how to watch Game 5 of the WNBA Finals:
When is Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals Game 5?
Liberty-Lynx Game 5 is slated for Sunday, Oct. 20.
What time does Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals Game 5 start?
Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ET.
Where is Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals Game 5 being played?
The top-seeded Liberty have home-court advantage for the decisive Game 5. New York split the first two games of the series at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.
The Liberty went 16-4 at home in the regular season and have won five of six postseason games at the Barclays Center. The Lynx, meanwhile, posted a 14-6 road record in the regular season and have split their four postseason games away from home.
What TV channel is Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals Game 5 on?
Game 5 of the Finals will air on ESPN.
How to stream Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals Game 5 live online
The game will also be available to stream on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
MINNEAPOLIS — Bridget Carleton made two free throws with 2 seconds left, and the Minnesota Lynx forced a decisive Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, beating the New York Liberty 82-80 on Friday night.
The teams will meet Sunday night in New York in the first Game 5 of the Finals since 2019, when Washington topped Connecticut.
Kayla McBride scored 19 points and Courtney Williams added 15 for Minnesota, which forced Liberty stars Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu into poor shooting nights. Ionescu’s heave at the buzzer didn’t hit the rim.
Napheesa Collier, who was named to the 2024 All-WNBA First Team, scored 14 points and had nine rebounds.
Unlike the first three games of the series, when one of the teams built a double-digit lead, this one was tight throughout. There were 14 lead changes and 13 ties, and neither team led by more than six.
With the game tied at 80-all with 18 seconds left, Williams dribbled to run the clock down and missed a jumper with a few seconds left. Carleton got the rebound in the lane and was fouled by Ionescu.
“I feel like Bridget’s just so reliable every time,” said Collier.
She calmly made both free throws, and Ionescu was unable to duplicate her heroics in Game 3, when she made a 28-footer with 1 second left to give the Liberty the 2-1 series lead.
Jonquel Jones had 21 points and Leonie Fiebich scored 19 for New York. Stewart had 11 points on 5-of-20 shooting, and Ionescu was 5 of 16 from the floor and scored 10.
The Lynx are searching for their fifth WNBA championship, while the Liberty are looking for their first-ever.
Angel Reese is making light of “living beyond her means” while playing for the WNBA. According to the Chicago Sky star’s latest video, her (ridiculously low) $74,000 annual salary isn’t enough to cover her expensive rent.
Source: John Nacion / Getty
In an Instagram Live video shared on Oct. 15, the 22-year-old athlete revealed that she only makes $74,000 as a rookie with the league. Reese, who rose to fame as a forward with the Louisiana State University Tigers, encouraged her haters to keep on doubting her as “hating” helps her to pay “them bills.”
How Much Does Angel Reese Make With The WNBA?
Reese was selected as the seventh overall pick by the Chicago Sky this year and is set to earn $324,383 over the next four seasons. Her salarystartedat $73,439, according to Sports Rac, with increases leading to a team option of $93,636 in her fourth year, but that apparently isn’t enough to cover her daily expenses.
“I just hope you know the WNBA don’t pay my bills at all,” the Maryland native told fans in her video which was reposted by the SpilledMilkSM blog on Tuesday. “I don’t even think that pays one of my bills. Literally, I’m trying to think of my rent for where I stay at. Let me do the math real quick. I don’t even know my [WNBA] salary. $74,000?”
Luckily, Reese has the option of boosting her salary thanks to additional incentives with the WNBA. For example, if she was selected to participate in an All-Star game, she could boosther salary by an additional $2,575, according to USA Today. The extra dough would help Reese pay her expensive rent in Chicago, which after crunching some numbers with a friend off camera, she revealed to be $8,000 a month.
“I’m living beyond my means!” she gasped, before letting out a huge chuckle. “Babe, if y’all thought… That WNBA check don’t pay a thing. Did that even pay my car note?… I wouldn’t even be able to eat a sandwich with that. I wouldn’t even be able to eat. I wouldn’t be able to live,” the baller added toward the end of the clip, according to Vibe.
Reese Makes Millions Off Her NIL Deals
Fortunately, Reese has multiple revenue streams to help cover her expenses. In 2023, she signed a name, image, and likeness (NIL) deal with Reebok, a major financial boost that raised her NIL valuation to $1.7 million—making her one of the top-ranked women’s basketball athletes in this area, according to On3. Reese ranks No. 7 in the On3 NIL 100, the first comprehensive ranking of high school and college athletes based on their NIL valuation.
As reported by Yahoo Sports, Reese secured 17 NIL deals from 2022 to 2023, partnering with notable brands such as Sports Illustrated, Calvin Klein, ZOA Energy, and Goldman Sachs, among others. In a campaign ad for Goldman Sachs released in March, the basketball champ thanked her mother for instilling a strong work ethic and dedication into her throughout childhood.
“I owe so much to my mom,” the star sharedin the campaign video posted to her Instagram account on March 18. “She instilled in me my confidence, work ethic and my commitment to my community. It’s clear that from her generation to today, Black women are still facing challenges. But I believe change is possible.”
Angel Reese is out here hustling! What do you think of her tight WNBA salary?
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The new Unrivaled women’s basketball 3-on-3 league will have its games broadcast on TNT and its sports platforms.
The league announced a multiyear partnership with the network to show more than 45 games from the inaugural season that begins in January. Matchups will be shown three nights a week with twice-weekly games on TNT on Mondays and Fridays. Games that are played on Saturday will be shown on truTV.
Games begin on Jan. 17 and will be played in Miami.
“Our TNT Sports portfolio centers on premium live sports and our media and equity partnership with Unrivaled deepens our commitment to further expanding the depth of top tier women’s sports programming we offer our fans and presents an opportunity for us to shape and amplify the continued growth of women’s basketball,” said Luis Silberwasser, chairman and CEO of TNT Sports.
The league features 30 of the top women’s basketball players across six teams and was co-founded by Napheesa Collier and Breanna Stewart.
“I mean, to be able to have a network like that that supports us, especially in Year 1, I think is just a huge testament to women’s basketball right now and how much it’s growing,” Collier told The Associated Press at shootaround before Game 3 of the WNBA Finals on Thursday.
Having all the games on one platform was huge for the new league. The league was also having discussions with ESPN, Amazon, ION and the CW.
“We had a lot of interest as you could imagine and you know, we thought about carving this up in certain ways, but to give credit to Luis and the vision that he had, he wanted it all,” said former Turner President David Levy, who is the co-founder and co-CEO of Horizon Sports & Experiences and helped secure the media rights deal. “He thought it was smart for the league. And we talked about it, and we ended up deciding that maybe it is right to go with one entity, and a strong entity.”
TNT will have a studio show at least one of the two nights it’s showing games.
“Being on TNT, you know, for two of the three nights is really important, not just to help grow this league, but also to the women who play in it,” said Levy. “You know, they they grew up watching TNT. And then let’s not forget Bleacher Report and House of Highlights. That’s where all the Gen Z’ers are.”
Unrivaled President Alex Bazzell said that being on TV was received really well by the players.
“I think there’s a lot of nostalgia that goes along with this for the athletes,” he said. “We have an obligation with whichever partner it is that it’s someone they’re proud of and I think that first and foremost they’re really proud of this partnership. I’ve gotten tons of texts that our athletes are pumped up.”
Salaries for the new league will be in the six figures. Compensation was key for players, many of whom have spent their offseason overseas supplementing their WNBA incomes. The average WNBA base salary is about $130,000 with the top stars able to earn more than $500,000 through salary, marketing agreements, an in-season tournament and bonuses. Many of the players also will have an equity stake in the league.
The league will run for eight weeks with the 30 players divided into six teams. The squads will play two games a week with the contests taking place on a court about two-thirds the size of a WNBA one. The teams will stay the same throughout the season.
When basketball stars like Sue Bird retire, they may not use their killer crossover or lethal jumpshot in the “real world,” but one skill that will continue to serve them well (and which many civilians lack) is teamwork.
“Every athlete has that in them,” Bird said during a mainstage interview at Fortune’s Most Powerful Women Summit in Laguna Niguel, Calif., on Tuesday.
During an audience Q&A, an attendee asked the WNBA legend what skills from her playing days she’d found most useful now that they were over. Bird pointed to a litany of skills that she had developed over a lifetime playing basketball. That said, one skill—teamwork—stood out more than any other for its ability to help people find common ground.
“Sometimes I joke, if the country was run the way sports teams are, we’d be in a better place,” Bird said. Athletes “just have an understanding of what it is to interact with each other. Every athlete has this skill set without a doubt.”
Bird, who retired from the WNBA in 2022, was the consummate team player during her stand-out career. She is the league’s all-time assists leader, with 3,234 over the course of her career.
The overlap of business and sports
Business leaders and elite athletes have always considered themselves cut from the same cloth. Both are high-achievers, perform in high-stakes situations in the public eye, and are extraordinarily—even unnervingly—competitive.
For male athletes, becoming businesspeople when their careers end is becoming increasingly common, even expected for some players. Michael Jordan earned a signature brand at Nike, that’s now a pop culture and fashion icon. Jordan also bought his hometown NBA team in Charlotte, the Hornets, which he recently sold for $3 billion after buying it for $275 million.
Upon retirement, Bird, too, had her eye on a similar career path. After feeling a little unsure about her qualifications for life off the court, Bird realized the life skills she developed as an athlete would translate to the business world.
“I feel like I woke up when I retired,” Bird said. “I was like ‘oh, I can walk into these different rooms and I can actually have a voice, because what I’m bringing to the table is a little bit different because of my sports background.”
In addition to teamwork, Bird added that goal setting and discipline had also served her well in her post-playing days. Bird pointed out that that having started playing sports in the first grade—she is now 43—these were among skills she’d honed over a lifetime.
Bird now has several business ventures. She has an aptly-named media company Togethxr, which she started alongside soccer legend Alex Morgan, Olympic gold medalist snowboarder Chloe Kim, and Olympic gold medalist swimmer Simone Manuel. Earlier this year, Bird’s other media company A Touch More, started alongside her fiancee the U.S. Women’s National Team star Megan Rapinoe, signed a podcasting deal with Vox Media.
However, perhaps her most significant move in business came this spring, when she officially entered the ownership group of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, the team at which she spent her entire 20-year career.
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Minneapolis — New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart says she and her wife, Marta Xargay Casademont, received threatening, homophobic anonymous emails after Game 1 of the WNBA Finals.
The emails went directly to Xargay Casademont’s account, which was a bit unnerving for the couple, Stewart said at practice on Tuesday.
“The fact it came to Marta’s email is something she (had to) see. The level of closeness was a little bit different,” she said. “Make sure that myself and Marta are OK, but that our kids are the safest.”
“I think that for Marta, especially, I think it was, it is, terrifying,” ESPN quotes Stewart as saying.
Marta Xargay Casademont, left, and Breanna Stewart attend “A Celebration of Olympic Basketball” presented by NBC Universal and NBA at Team USA House, Palais Brongniart on August 5, 2024 in Paris.
Julien M. Hekimian / Getty Images for NBC Universal
According to ESPN, Stewart and Xargay Casademont have two children: three-year-old Ruby and 11-month-old Theo.
Stewart had a chance to win Game 1 of the WNBA Finals, but missed one of two free throws with 0.8 seconds left in regulation and then a potential tying layup at the overtime buzzer. Minnesota ended up winning the game and now the series is tied 1-1 heading into Game 3 on Wednesday night in Minnesota.
The two-time MVP said she notified the team about the emails and they escalated it to league security.
“We’re taking the proper precautions. I think the threats continue to build after Game 1,” Stewart said. “We love that people are engaged in our sport, but not to the point where there’s threats or harassment or homophobic comments being made.”
The New York Post was first to report the threats.
Stewart said Xargay Casademont filed a complaint with police at the advice of the team and security.
“Being in the Finals and everything like that, it makes sense to file something formal,” Stewart said.
The New York Police Department confirmed that it received a report of aggravated harassment involving emails sent to “a 33-year-old victim.” The department’s hate crimes taskforce is investigating, a spokesperson with the department’s media relations team said.
Stewart said she doesn’t usually look at most of the messages she receives and that they usually go to her agency, but once she was made aware of them by her wife she wanted to let fans know there’s no place for it.
“For me to use this platform to let people know its unacceptable to bring to our sport,” she said.
There have been many more online threats to players through social media and email this season.
“We continue to emphasize that there is absolutely no room for hateful or threatening comments made about players, teams or anyone affiliated with the WNBA,” a WNBA spokesperson said. “We’re aware of the most recent matter and are working with league and team security as well as law enforcement on appropriate security measures.”
Commissioner Cathy Engelbert addressed the rising number of attacks that players have dealt with on social media at her state-of-the league address before Game 1.
She said there’s no place for it and the league will work with the players’ union to figure out what they can do together to combat it.
Engelbert mentioned technology and mental health support.
“It just is something where we have to continue to be a voice for this, a voice against it, condemning it, and making sure that we find every opportunity to support our players, who have been dealing with this for much longer than this year,” Engelbert said.
ESPN reports that Stewart said, “There needs to be a little bit of like a protocol or a thing before the season, because this year, especially … it’s really starting to happen.”
In spring 2020, as the COVID-19 pandemic upended the country, WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert was locked down in her New Jersey home. The league was facing a season on the brink right as its stakeholders felt it had begun to gather momentum.
In conversations with league owners and players, Engelbert sensed in those early weeks of the pandemic the tension over what was at stake. Without a season, the league faced what she later called an “existential” moment about the prospect of going dark for 20 months.
“I don’t know if we would have made it, but I do know we wouldn’t be where we are today without having had that highly competitive 22-game season in the bubble,” Engelbert said.
Four years after the “Wubble,” the league is celebrating the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx as a capstone to its most successful year. The WNBA has never been in a better place. Television ratings are up. So is attendance. The league is riding a boom in interest and talent, driven by the steady excellence of longtime stars like A’ja Wilson and Breanna Stewart, and the arrival of Caitlin Clark. Three expansion teams have already been named and another is expected. A lucrative new media deal is set to start in 2026.
The progress has not been without its growing pains. For years, WNBA players pushed for private charter flights for teams traveling between games — a common practice for their peers in the NBA and most other major professional sports leagues — before the league granted them this season. Occasional high-profile games have been moved because of scheduling conflicts, and fans have voiced frustration about merchandise and broadcast accessibility. Engelbert received criticism from players, including an admonishment from the players’ union, last month for what they said was an inadequate public response to the online harassment and abuse many said they’ve received this season. The union has also routinely called for more transparency from the league on its finances and operations.
But the league remains on the ascent, and the choice to play in 2020 has been hailed by team owners as an important springboard. “I think it was one of the best decisions made in the history of this league,” Seattle Storm co-owner Lisa Brummel said.
That decision kept the WNBA in the consciousness of fans and created a strengthened player body. As important, it continued to generate revenue via media rights and corporate partnerships.
A few months after the conclusion of the 2020 season, the WNBA made another choice that significantly affected its trajectory. It began a capital raise that has helped supercharge its reach and popularity. It didn’t have to come in from the shadows to do so. If not for that window of time, stakeholders say, the WNBA might not be where it is now.
Before Engelbert took over as the WNBA’s first official commissioner in 2019 — the league was previously run by presidents — she had to interview with the league’s team owners. As she went around the country, visiting all 12 markets, she heard a similar refrain. After nearly three decades of trying to find its footing, the WNBA’s power brokers had decided it was time to grow. The plan, Engelbert said, was based on a simple idea: “Go big or go home.” The league, they told her, needed more capital.
There was no consensus on how much. Just that it needed more to grow. Engelbert sought perspectives from influential people around her. When she met Kobe Bryant late that year, she said he asked what the WNBA needed. Engelbert passed along the desire for more capital and floated $50 million as a target. That number turned out to be a fraction of what it later received from investors.
In early 2021, the WNBA put out a pitch deck to investors. The process was driven, in part, by the Liberty’s ownership group, which also owns the Brooklyn Nets and Blue Pool Capital, a private equity firm. “At the time, we really needed that infusion of capital,” Liberty co-owner Clara Wu Tsai said.
It was a new approach by the WNBA. The NBA had helped stand up the league over its first two-plus decades in existence, but now it sought money from other sources. The WNBA was short on resources and manpower. It needed investments to put into marketing and brand building, digital innovation and to drive more revenue.
A year later, it closed a $75 million capital raise that came with a $475 million post-money valuation for the WNBA. Michael Dell and Nike were the largest investors, according to one source with knowledge of the raise who was not authorized to speak publicly about the agreement. Nike invested $25 million, according to multiple league and industry sources. Nike declined to comment. Engelbert did not dispute that number when asked but said the sneaker company was a natural partner.
“Nike called and wanted to make a substantial investment because part of their strategy was to double down on women’s sports,” she said.
Investors in the capital raise took a roughly 16 percent stake in the league, with WNBA owners and NBA owners each splitting the rest in half, and took preferred equity. That gives them a priority return on their investment with a 5 percent dividend, said one person with knowledge of the capital raise who was granted anonymity because the person did not have the authority to speak publicly about the league’s financial structure. Though they have non-voting shares in the league, they also have two observers on the Board of Governors.
“I was just intrigued that there was this league where the quality of the players is so great,” Karen Finerman, Metropolitan Capital CEO and a WNBA investor, said. “And yet the league was struggling.”
The WNBA’s financial situation has improved since then, and high-ranking executives and owners point to the raise as a reason. It helped supercharge the league’s growth and put the WNBA in a place where it could take advantage of the surge in popularity since 2020.
Increased globalization was announced as one of the uses of the money. After playing multiple exhibition games in Canada, a Toronto expansion team will begin play in 2026. Engelbert said the league would like to play games on various continents. Last week, she singled out Mexico City for its interest in hosting competition. The WNBA has also undergone a digital transformation after the raise, revamping its app and website. That change also helped with its marketing efforts, as did increases in promotional and paid media campaigns.
Human capital was another area where the money was allocated. When Engelbert took over as commissioner, the WNBA had roughly 12 employees, she said. It still works out of the NBA’s midtown Manhattan offices, but now it has more than 60. It has gone from what Engelbert said was a one-person marketing department to around two dozen employees there. The league hired its first chief marketing officer in December 2020.
“If we weren’t already making incremental progress in our business, then the moment that we’re experiencing right now would not be as big as it is,” Dallas Wings CEO and president Greg Bibb said.
WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert took a “go big or go home” approach to running the league. (David L. Nemec / NBAE via Getty Images)
Engelbert believed the capital raise also showed the WNBA could be a growth property. That wasn’t always the case for teams around the league.
When Wu Tsai and her husband, Joe Tsai, bought the Liberty in January 2019, they purchased an organization she said was a distressed asset. James Dolan, the franchise’s first and then-only owner, put the Liberty for sale in November 2017, and moved it out of Madison Square Garden a season later and into Westchester County Center, where they played for two seasons.
“Nobody wanted to touch it,” Wu Tsai said.
Nevertheless, the Tsais found the franchise attractive. They recognized the power of New York as a media market and knew how much the city loved basketball. They believed there was a fan base just waiting to be reinvigorated.
Entering the finals, New York has been re-energized and is viewed around the league as one of the franchises responsible for raising the bar. (Before the WNBA implemented full charter travel this season, the Liberty were fined a league-record $500,000 for chartering their players during the second half of 2021.)
They reshaped the roster and the business, too. In New York’s opener against the Indiana Fever, it recorded $175,000 in merchandise sales, a single-game record for the Liberty and the Nets. Attendance is up to an average of nearly 13,000 fans per Liberty home game, up 64 percent from last year. They have 53 sponsors, up nearly 61 percent year over year, with revenue generated from such partnerships up 68 percent. Wu Tsai said the franchise is heading in the direction of profitability.
“I couldn’t be happier about the demand for tickets for our games, the interest from sponsors and the viewership,” Wu Tsai said.
They aren’t alone, of course. Clark has served as an accelerant in a record-setting year for the Fever (and league more broadly). The Wings rebudgeted their ticket revenue three times this season as a reflection of exploding interest, with signs pointing to another record year next season, Bibb said. They set merchandise records and added more partners, ones who aren’t just local but also national and international brands. They sold two half-percent ownership stakes this summer at a record $208 million valuation.
Transformations in the business also are part of what set the Wings up for a forthcoming move from Arlington to downtown Dallas. They are targeting to begin working in a new practice facility by the start of the 2026 season. The Dallas Memorial Auditorium is undergoing a renovation and will serve as their home arena. “It just changes the game for us,” Bibb said.
“We now have breathing room. Revenue is good. Growing the top line is good. People coming to games and selling out arenas, that’s fantastic,” co-owner and operating chairperson Nadia Rawlinson said. “What has happened over the last 18 months has been nothing short of extraordinary.”
A franchise-specific 40,000-square-foot practice facility is on the way in Chicago. The Sky broke ground on their new facility Oct. 9 with plans to open before the 2026 season. They join Phoenix, Seattle and Las Vegas as franchises that have all recently unveiled new facilities.
“Practice facilities are going to just quickly become table stakes,” Rawlinson said. “I think it will be something most franchises, if not all, will have over the next five years.”
She’s not alone in that belief. Storm co-owner Ginny Gilder said she believes that in five years every franchise will have its own practice facility. If that comes to fruition, it will be one more example of how far the league has come.
“This was a leap (from) many years where people thought, is this going to be sustainable?” said Joe Soper, the governor for the Connecticut Sun. “Are there going to be teams choosing to fold or sell or relocate and just trying to get out because they don’t know if financially it’s going to have the support, even though the talent is there on the court. Now you’re getting this visibility, and everybody gets to see the talent and the growth.”
The WNBA has seen franchise valuations jump, and Engelbert said she thinks they will continue to rise “considerably.” It is a stark difference from a half-decade ago when franchises were sold at values in the single-digit millions. Mark Davis, The Athletic reported in 2022, bought the Las Vegas Aces for a little more than $2 million.
This year, the league drew an all-in fee of $125 million for the expansion franchise in Portland, more than doubling not only what the league sought in expansion fees when it started but also what it cost the Golden State Warriors ownership group to buy in with the Valkyries.
GO DEEPER
How the Golden State Valkyries marketing themselves as the new WNBA expansion franchise
This past season, WNBA games averaged a record 1.19 million viewers on ESPN platforms compared with an average of 1.56 million viewers tuning in to watch NBA regular-season games across ABC, ESPN and TNT. And heading into the finals, the playoffs had been the most viewed in 25 years. The league’s new media deal — worth $2.2 billion over 11 years, and potentially more if it lands additional media partners, as it expects — could help lift valuations even higher. There has been so much positive momentum, Engelbert said, that the league decided to pause the search for its 16th team to reassess where it stands and hire an investment banker to run it. She said 10 to 12 cities are viable options.
It is one of several ways the WNBA has had to reorient itself on the fly.
“It’s interesting to talk today about where we are, but I think it’s changing so rapidly, and everything’s changing in the W,” Engelbert said. “I tell my team, everything’s changed, so don’t base this on last year because everything changed this year and how we should be thinking about what’s next for us.”
The next few years will continue to mold the league. The WNBPA is widely expected to opt out of the current collective bargaining agreement, and there could be a new one in place in 2026, the same year the new media deals kick in. The new CBA will determine what proportion of revenue players and teams get.
Players have pushed for higher salaries at a time when the WNBA has had to deal with criticism that they aren’t being paid enough. Teams, after decades of losing money, are hoping to soon crawl into the black. Valkyries president Jess Smith didn’t dismiss profitability in the franchise’s first season.
Though the WNBA’s new media deal is relatively flush, it won’t all trickle down to the teams in the same way it would in the NBA or NFL, which don’t have outside investors. The income the league distributes will hit teams through a waterfall process, though team owners will get the largest share.
But there is a belief across the league that the WNBA is entering a different stage. Its recent prosperity, its stakeholders say, should become normal.
“This is the new baseline,” Rawlinson said.
(Illustration: Dan Goldfarb / The Athletic; photo: Bruce Bennett/ Getty Images)
After a narrow overtime loss in Game 1, New York bounced back Sunday in Game 2 with a robust 80-66 double-digit win over the Minnesota Lynx.
Breanna Stewart, as usual, was everywhere for the Liberty, posting a game-high 21 points on 7 of 18 shooting to go with eight rebounds, seven steals, five assists and a block.
But it wasn’t Stewart or co-star Sabrina Ionescu, who scored 15 points, that emerged as the Liberty’s hero on the day. Instead, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton dropped her best scoring performance since July 6, right before the Paris Olympics.
The 30-year-old came up clutch with 20 points on 8 of 14 shooting overall, including a healthy 4 of 6 clip from long range. She added two rebounds, two assists and one steal.
Jonquel Jones rounded out New York’s double-digit scorers with 14 points, adding nine rebounds, as well.
Whereas New York converted on 11 of 24 (45.8%) of its triples, the Lynx suffered a different story. Minnesota hit on just 6 of 20 deep attempts, with Defensive Player of the Year Napheesa Collier leading the team’s scoring column with 16 points.
Collier, who shot 7 of 12 overall, also had eight rebounds, four steals and three assists, with Courtney Williams (15) and Alanna Smith (14) the only other notable scorers.
Game 3 will head to Minnesota on Wednesday, with tipoff slated for 8 p.m. ET, 5 p.m. PT.
From historic individual performances to skyrocketing attendance and viewership, here are the eye-popping numbers you need to know from the 2024 WNBA regular season.
NEW YORK — There was no singular way for members of the New York Liberty to turn the page after their historic Game 1 collapse to the Minnesota Lynx.
Star guard Sabrina Ionescu said she couldn’t just “flush” the result. Forward Leonie Fiebich watched the contest three full times in the 36 hours immediately after the overtime loss. Veteran guard Courtney Vandersloot described moving forward “as a process.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello was glad two days separated Game 1 and Game 2 so she had more time to watch film and reflect. But just after 3 p.m. Sunday, a new game began. And with it, a new chapter in the series was written.
Though there were moments that felt eerily similar — New York, for instance, saw a 17-point lead shrink to only two with 3:21 remaining in the game — Sunday’s sequel featured a player who had a relatively minimal impact in the opener: Liberty wing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.
Laney-Hamilton played the fewest minutes (26) of any New York starter in Game 1. In the Liberty’s 80-66 Game 2 victory, she scored 20 points, tying her season high. Laney-Hamilton nailed a 3-pointer with 3:20 remaining, the biggest shot of the contest, which stretched the lead back to five.
Then, she grabbed a rebound on the ensuing possession as the Barclays Center-record 18,040 fans in attendance rejoiced.
That Laney-Hamilton emerged as Sunday’s star is especially impressive considering Brondello’s prognosis of the wing Saturday. She played in only 28 games during the regular season, missing time from July 6 to Aug. 26 because of a knee procedure.
“She’s giving whatever she can,” Brondello said Saturday. “I think everyone sees that she’s trying. It’s not the same B that we’ve seen all season long, but it is what it is.”
She did more than just try. In addition to her offensive contributions, she spent time guarding Courtney Williams (who finished with only 15 points Sunday compared to 23 in Game 1) and Kayla McBride (who had a mere eight points after tallying 22 on Thursday).
And yet, despite Laney-Hamilton’s boost, plus bounce-back games from Stewart (21 points, eight rebounds, and five assists) and Ionescu (15points), there were still moments in which the two games seemed the same. New York jumped out to a 10-point first quarter lead, but by the 6:52 mark of the period, it led by just six.
The Liberty led by 10 heading to halftime, but that was slashed to four points with just 90 seconds remaining in the frame. In the fourth quarter, New York’s lead grew as large as 11, but it shrunk, too. With just under four minutes left, the Liberty led by only two and those in attendance felt tension similar to the waning moments of Game 1.
This time, however, there would be no collapse.
Stewart had three, of her finals-record seven, steals in the final five minutes. Jonquel Jones hit a timely layup with 3:57 left. Fiebich paused, took a deep breath and nailed a wide-open 3-pointer with 90 seconds left to extend New York’s cushion to nine points.
After doing so, with Minnesota having taken a timeout, Laney-Hamilton pumped her fist. So, too, did Ionescu.
Collier had a modest game by her standards (16points and eight rebounds), while a late 3-point attempt by Williams that rolled off the rim was a sign that Sunday afternoon would be different than Thursday night.
Game 3 of the 1-1 series is Wednesday night. Tipoff is set for 8 p.m. ET.
Laney-Hamilton becomes X-factor
Laney-Hamilton is less than three months removed from a procedure to remove two loose bodies from her right knee. She came off the bench during her ramp up to a full return and is still playing limited shifts in the postseason, with everyone acknowledging Laney-Hamilton isn’t going to be at 100 percent in this series.
But even at less than her best, the 2021 All-Star was still capable of being better. Laney-Hamilton had scored in double digits once in New York’s seven postseason games entering Sunday, and she was shooting 29.1 percent from the floor.
The Liberty needed more offense in Game 2 with Minnesota covering Fiebich more tightly after her five 3-pointers Thursday, and Laney-Hamilton came through. She was aggressive pulling up off of screens and made strong drives to the basket.
When New York’s movement on offense stalled, she took advantage of switches by posting up smaller defenders in the post.
Laney-Hamilton hit one of the biggest shots of the night, a corner 3-pointer off of a no-look, kick out pass from Ionescu to extend the Liberty’s lead to five points, 71-66, with 3:21 left in the game. Minnesota would never get within one possession after that.
Her 20 points tied a season-high; the last time she reached that total came before the Olympic break, and before her surgery.
In Game 1, Brondello couldn’t get Laney-Hamilton on the court down the stretch because of the way she was moving. On Sunday, it would have been impossible to justify keeping Laney-Hamilton off the floor. — Sabreena Merchant, women’s basketball staff writer
Minnesota remains resilient in defeat
The Lynx once again found themselves trailing early against the Liberty, this time facing down a 17-point deficit in the second quarter (compared to 18 in Game 1).
But Minnesota steadfastly sticks to its system of ball movement, trusting that the defense will eventually break and that its pressure defense will cause the opposing offense to stagnate. It looked like the formula might work again, as the Lynx nearly erased the deficit yet again, pulling within two in the fourth quarter.
Although they weren’t able to break through, to have come so close to potentially taking a decisive 2-0 series lead bodes well for when the series switches to Minnesota.
Kayla McBride and Napheesa Collier highlighted their team’s resilience after Game 1 even though the 45 minutes featured a series of mistakes, and that commitment shined through again Sunday, despite the result. — Merchant
There will be no three-peat this season, as the Las Vegas Aces fell in the semifinals to the New York Liberty three games to one.
Joining the Liberty on the ultimate stage is the Minnesota Lynx, which ultimately topped the Connecticut Sun in a winner-take-all Game 5.
With the stage now set between New York and Minnesota, here’s everything to know about the 2024 WNBA Finals, from key players, how to watch and more:
The Minnesota Lynx eliminated the Connecticut Sun to advance to the 2024 WNBA Finals.
Have the New York Liberty ever won the WNBA championship?
Starting with finals history, it may be surprising to hear New York has never won the WNBA title, going 0-5 all time. It made the 2023 finals but lost to Las Vegas in four games, and also reached the stage in 1997, 1999, 2000 and 2002.
Have the Minnesota Lynx ever won the WNBA championship?
On the opposite side, the Lynx have won four WNBA titles, all coming within the same decade. Minnesota first lifted the title in 2011 and most recently did so in 2017. The other two wins came in 2013 and 2015, a coincidental odd-year stretch.
Who are the New York Liberty’s best players?
New York is led by the star-studded duo of Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu. Stewart is the do-it-all forward who can get her own shot from all levels of the floor while being a switchable defender. The 30-year-old has won two titles (2018, 2020) with the Seattle Storm and claimed Finals MVP in both, so she’ll have to pioneer New York to its first ever triumph.
Ionescu, 26, is the sharpshooting guard who can take over games once she picks up momentum. She’s averaging a whopping 49/47/95 shooting split in the postseason and could add to her already impressive resume with a title.
Jonquel Jones and Leonie Fiebich are also averaging double-digit points as starters, while Courtney Vandersloot plays important reserve minutes.
Who are the Minnesota Lynx’s best players?
While New York has Stewart and Ionescu sharing the starpower burden, Minnesota is predominantly propelled by do-it-all star Napheesa Collier, the current Defensive Player of the Year. The four-time All-Star has been a solo menace in the postseason, averaging over 27 points, nine rebounds, four assists and two blocks with a 53/44/90 shooting split.
Collier’s supporting cast includes Courtney Williams, Kayla McBride, Bridget Carleton and Alanna Smith, with Natisha Hiedeman and Myisha Hines-Allen the primary reserve options.
Liberty vs. Lynx head-to-head 2024 games
The Liberty and Lynx met three times in the regular season, with Minnesota winning the series 2-1. Here’s how the results went:
May 25: Lynx 84, Liberty 67 in Minnesota
July 2: Liberty 76, Lynx 67 in New York
Sept. 15: Lynx 88, Liberty 79 in New York
The most recent affair saw Stewart explode for 38 points, while Ionescu was the only other double-digit scorer at 13 points. Minnesota, however, had five total players eclipse double-digit figures, led by Carleton’s 19 and Collier’s 18.
What is the WNBA Finals schedule?
The 2024 WNBA Finals is a best-of-five series. Here’s how it will go down:
Thursday, Oct. 10: Game 1, Minnesota at New York
Sunday, Oct. 13: Game 2, Minnesota at New York
Wednesday, Oct. 16: Game 3, New York at Minnesota
*-Friday, Oct. 18: Game 4, Game 3, New York at Minnesota
*-Sunday, Oct. 20: Game 5, Minnesota at New York
How to watch the Liberty vs. Lynx WNBA Finals
The WNBA Finals between New York and Minnesota will air on ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, with games available to stream on ESPN.com and the ESPN app.
From historic individual performances to skyrocketing attendance and viewership, here are the eye-popping numbers you need to know from the 2024 WNBA regular season.
LAS VEGAS — Becky Hammon has said all season that she has been waiting for the game when all of her Las Vegas guards click on all cylinders.
In 2023, the three-headed monster of Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young and Kelsey Plum was an unstoppable unit most nights, culminating in a WNBA Finals series when the perimeter trio convincingly outplayed its New York Liberty counterparts, even without Gray in the closeout win.
Fast forward a season, and Las Vegas has been mixing and matching. Despite the addition of Tiffany Hayes to an already talented guard group, the Aces have been lucky to get two of their quartet to pop off in any given game. If Young is scoring well, that often portends an off night for Plum, as was the case in Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals series against the Liberty when she notched 17 points and 6 points, respectively. Plum was on her A-game in the series opener with 24 points, but then Gray stumbled to four points and one assist in the loss.
“We’ve had two on a night have good nights,” Hammon said. “A’ja (Wilson has) been ridiculous, is ridiculous, she will continue to be ridiculous. But then after that, it’s all those other little pieces.”
On Friday, Hammon was finally dealt her long-awaited hand with four Aces delivering peak performances. Five players scored double digits in Friday night’s 95-81 Aces’ victory to stave off elimination and ensure Game 4 on Sunday to keep their three-peat championship quest alive.
Aces NOT done yet ♠️
After facing elimination for the first time since 2021, the Las Vegas Aces force a Game 4 against the Liberty in the Semi-Finals! Jackie Young led the charge with 24 points 🔥
“Everything was just on point really with everybody,” Hammon said. “I thought that was probably our most complete game of the season. It’s the game I’ve been waiting for and believing in.”
The effort for the Las Vegas guard group started on defense. Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu had been the best perimeter player in the series, dicing up the Aces’ pick-and-roll coverages and scoring at will from all levels in addition to setting up her teammates for open shots.
Hammon said after Game 2 that she wanted to get to a C-plus effort defending Ionescu because the defense hadn’t even been average in the first two games at Barclays Center. What that meant was simplifying the scheme and making it exceedingly clear what the principles were on Ionescu and which Liberty players to help off of.
Ionescu broke free of the defense on a couple occasions in the first quarter to get to her floater, but she wasn’t able to convert. Once the Aces tightened up coverages, Ionescu was repeatedly trapped far from the basket, unable to turn the corner or find outlets in the half court. She had as many assists as turnovers (five) and submitted the lowest-scoring playoff output of her career with four points on 1-of-7 shooting.
Hammon’s grade Friday? A-plus, no notes.
“She’s been playing great, so of course, they want to make it hard for her,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “They put her in action down the other end, they were being really aggressive in the pick-and-rolls this time. She wasn’t able to get downhill. It was more of a hard hedge and very active with their hands getting deflections.”
Without Ionescu running the show, the Liberty devolved into isolation basketball, a style of play incongruous with the movement and screening that defined them during the regular season, when they had the league’s best record.
Meanwhile, the Aces’ defense propelled them into the offensive rhythm that was lacking earlier in the series.
“We always say our defense drives our offense,” Hayes said. “We know that we thrive on the defensive end, and even though we’re a little bit smaller, we got some dogs out there, and we’re able to get a lot done.”
New York’s starting perimeter trio of Ionescu, Leonie Fiebich and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton combined for 21 points. Young exceeded that on her own with 24. Plum added 20, Gray chipped in 10, and Hayes provided 11 off the bench.
Their collective might was on full display during a game-defining 16-0 run in the third quarter, as the Aces extended a four-point lead to 20. Plum got things started with a drive to the hoop off the dribble, then found Gray for the next score in early offense on a trailing 3-pointer. Gray followed that with a beautiful lob over the top to Wilson as Breanna Stewart fronted her in the post to push the lead to double digits.
Then it was Hayes’ turn. She faked left and drove to her weak hand, leaving Nyara Sabally in the dust. Plum had a 3-pointer off an offensive rebound, hit a technical free throw, and then added another 3-pointer off a drive-and-kick from Hayes. Fourteen points and three assists came from the guard group, while the Liberty missed nine shots and committed seven turnovers in that stretch.
“I think our attention to detail defensively was super sharp,” Gray said. “They’re a good team but you want to make them take tough looks, and it was the same with Sabrina. We were just attentive to detail coming off the pick-and-roll, making sure she’s not comfortable. And it all starts in the defensive end so we can flow into our offense a little bit better.”
The Aces know that their advantage has to come in the backcourt, given the Liberty have two frontcourt MVPs in Stewart and Jonquel Jones. Wilson’s excellence is consistent, but the perimeter has been the separating factor during the last two title runs.
Wilson was confident that the desperation of the situation would bring out the best in her teammates. “One thing I know for sure is that sometimes when our backs are against the wall, that’s when we really break loose and shine the brightest,” she said.
A 14-point victory that was more lopsided than the margin would suggest, validating Wilson’s belief. The Aces finally executed defensively and set the tone. Their pace was infectious on offense, involving their guard quartet for the first time this season, enabling Las Vegas to play at least one more game and remain in pursuit of a three-peat.
“We’re the Aces,” Hammon said. “We’re not going to fold.”
(Photo, from left, of Chelsea Gray, Jonquel Jones and Kelsey Plum: Ethan Miller / Getty Images)
Napheesa Collier scored 26 points and the Minnesota Lynx beat the Connecticut Sun 90-81 to take a 2-1 lead in the best-of-five semifinal series Friday night.
Game 4 is Sunday in Connecticut with the Lynx looking to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time since 2017. That season ended in the fourth of Minnesota’s championships during a seven-year stretch. Game 5 would be in Minnesota on Tuesday night if necessary.
Collier, who averaged just 14 points in the first two games of the series, had 16 in the first half in Game 3. The runner-up for league MVP was aggressive from the start. Minnesota led by seven after one quarter and 48-36 at the half thanks to Collier, who made seven of her 10 shots in the opening 20 minutes.
The Sun tried to rally, cutting the deficit to seven on a three-point play by Marina Mabrey midway through the third quarter. But that’s as close as they got.
DeWanna Bonner moved into second place on the WNBA career postseason scoring list in the third quarter. She passed Candace Parker, who had 1,149 during her illustrious career. Bonner now has 1,159, moving ahead of Parker by hitting a free throw with 1:36 left in the quarter. Diana Taurasi is the leader with 1,455.
Brionna Jones, who had just eight points combined in the first two games, led Connecticut with 21. Bonner added 16. All five of the Sun starters scored in double figures, but they got little contribution from the bench. The Sun reserves were outscored 16-4 by their Minnesota counterparts.
The first two games featured a chippiness between the teams, who pride themselves on playing physical defense. They were the two best defensive teams in the regular season — the Sun allowed an average of 73.6 points per game, the Lynx 75.6.
There had been hard fouls on both sides in the two games in Minnesota. There wasn’t much of that at all in Game 3.
There’s also been a lot of trash talk on the court especially between Courtney Williams and Mabrey. The pair were teammates in Chicago last year and say that it’s just on-court fun and there’s no bad blood between them.
The Lynx have a chance to clinch the series on Sunday in Connecticut.
MINNEAPOLIS — Marina Mabrey scored 20 points and Alyssa Thomas added 17 points, 10 rebounds and nine assists and the Connecticut Sun defeated the Minnesota Lynx 73-70 on Sunday night in Game 1 of their semifinals series.
DiJonai Carrington had 13 points and DeWanna Bonner had 10 points and 11 boards for the Sun.
Napheesa Collier, who averaged 40 points in the first round of the playoffs, led Minnesota with 19 points and nine rebounds. Bridget Carleton scored 17 and Kayla McBride added 12.
Game 2 of the best-of-5 series will be played Tuesday in Minneapolis.
In their first-round sweep of Phoenix, the Lynx shot 50% from the floor and 40% from the arc, topping 100 points in both games.
It was a different story against the Sun, who had the stingiest defense in the league this season. Minnesota shot just 41.5% from the field and made 5 of 20 3-point attempts.
Mabrey opened the fourth with her sixth 3-pointer of the night, and Carrington scored on a putback to tie the score 62-all with seven minutes to play. Bonner hit a corner 3 and added a transition layup as the Sun crept ahead by three.
Marina Mabrey #4 of the Connecticut Sun celebrates her basket against the Minnesota Lynx in the third quarter of Game One of the Semi-Finals during the WNBA Playoffs at Target Center on September 29, 2024 in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The Sun defeated the Lynx 73-70.
David Berding / Getty Images
After the Lynx were held without a basket for more than three minutes, Collier’s driving layup cut the Sun’s lead to 71-70 with 33.9 seconds to go.
However, Thomas hit a 15-foot jumper with 11.7 seconds left and after a disjointed final possession, Collier’s desperation 3-pointer came up short.
The Lynx trailed by four entering the third quarter, when McBride hit a 3-pointer and a long jumper on back-to-back possessions to erase the deficit. Tied at 57 in the final minute of the quarter, Myisha Hines-Allen scored on a baseline drive, then after getting a stop on the other end, Williams drained a 3 to give Minnesota a 62-57 lead after three quarters.
Connecticut used a 9-0 run late in the first quarter to jump out to a 23-14 lead. Carrington sparked the rally by converting a turnover into a breakaway layup and hitting a corner 3 the next time down the court.
Minnesota clawed back in the second quarter, as Williams’ steal and fast-break assist to McBride sparked a 15-0 spurt that gave the Lynx a 35-29 lead. Carleton hit a pair of 3s and Alanna Smith converted a three-point play over that four-minute stretch, which Mabrey snapped with a 3 from the wing.
Mabrey’s bucket triggered a 13-2 run that ended with another Mabrey 3 as the Sun took a 42-38 lead into the half.
In June of 1984, Larry Bird and Magic Johnson met in the NBA Finals for the first time; the following week, Michael Jordan, Hakeem Olajuwon and Charles Barkley were drafted; and the league would never be the same…Forty years later, the WNBA arrives at a similar hingepoint. A rookie class, as good as advertised, has made a seamless transition from college to the pros, blending with established stars. Sports have a knack for bending stats to fit desired narratives, but the W’s growth figures astound. TV ratings have spiked 153% from last season—and that’s before the playoffs, which began last week… Gradually, then suddenly, this 27-year-old league has become a prominent player in the modern sportscape.
Never mind her slick drives in traffic, the deadeye passes…
…the three-pointers like this.
Caitlin Clark: Hello.
Jon Wertheim: Hey. How are you? Jon.
Caitlin Clark: Caitlin. Nice to meet you.
Jon Wertheim: Good to see you…
A few weeks ago in Indianapolis, we asked Caitlin Clark…
Caitlin Clark: Ask me the hard hitting questions…
…to pinpoint the signature moment of this signature season…and, well we didn’t see this coming… but neither did she.
Caitlin Clark: I remember we were in New York and Jonquel Jones set– a good screen on me, and my– I actually popped my eardrum, ruptured my eardrum just on a screen.
Jon Wertheim: Your eardrum?
Caitlin Clark: Yeah, it was actually, it was a really good screen by– by JJ. She’s a tremendous player, but I think that just kinda speaks to the physicality of the league. It’s just she kinda got me in the right spot.
Caitlin Clark
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: You smiled when you told that story. Good clean basketball play.
Caitlin Clark: It’s a good story. I think it’s something that I’ll always remember, like, coming into this league.
Jon Wertheim: Triple doubles, tho– those are all well and good, but it’s the eardrum rupture that–
Caitlin Clark: That’s probably more memorable, honestly.
Then again, maybe it’s fitting…as this is the season the WNBA lowered its shoulder, made its presence felt, and expanded its reach.
These fans came to central Indiana from…Newfoundland, Canada.
Jon Wertheim: And you’re here why?
Fan: Just to see the Fever game.
Fan: Caitlin Clark.
Clark—22, in number and in age—just led the Fever to the playoffs…She’s unquestionably the league’s main attraction …but not the only one. Another rookie, Angel Reese, made her mark too.
But the real breakthrough star of this WNBA season is…the W itself.
Building off a college season in which—unimaginable just a few years ago—the women’s championship game outdrew the men’s, W games can draw more eyeballs than NBA games do….League wide, attendance is up 48%.
In Minnesota, Napheesa Collier is this season’s Defensive Player of the Year…
She just dropped 80 points in the first two playoff games. Collier was drafted in 2019 and bridges two eras of the WNBA….we asked her about the difference this year.
Jon Wertheim: Home and away, you look into the crowds. What are you seeing?
Napheesa Collier: People, which is what we want. (laugh) It makes the game so, so fun. It’s like you’re sixth-man when you’re at home. And then when you’re away, you just can’t wait to silence the crowd. And that’s, like, the best feeling ever.
Jon Wertheim: You figured out a way to benefit from a full crowd even when it’s rooting against you.
Napheesa Collier and Jon Wertheim
60 Minutes
Napheesa Collier: Yeah. It’s almost more fun (laugh) when you’re, like, in a packed arena with the other team. And you hit, like, a big three or a big block or something. And you hear them all go, “Oh.” That’s– I love that feeling.
Jon Wertheim: That’s every bit as motivating.
Napheesa Collier: It really is.
Silencing crowds? Not an issue when the WNBA debuted in 1997, eight teams paired with eight existing NBA teams. From the jump, franchises came and went—the Houston Comets, won the first four titles…only to fold. But amid the instability, the WNBA was giving a generation of girls aspiration and inspiration…. When Clark was growing up in Iowa, already running circles around the boys, her dad took her to see a WNBA game in Minnesota. She returned home hellbent on adding distance to her jump shot.
Caitlin Clark: Like begging my dad to, like, tear up some grass and pour more concrete so I could have an entire three-point line in my driveway.
Jon Wertheim: Did that really happen? You– you extended your range–
Caitlin Clark: Oh yeah.
Jon Wertheim: –by dumpin’ more concrete?
Caitlin Clark: Yeah. ’cause it was, like, kind of slanted. Our driveway was, like, slanted, so I only had a three-point line on one side of the driveway. So… told my dad he had to tear up all this grass, and he did.
Likewise, her Fever teammate, six-foot-five center Aliyah Boston—last season’s Rookie of the Year—had grand ambitions.
Aliyah Boston: So when I first picked up a basketball, at first, I was like, “I want to go to college,” and that was really my goal. Until probably about sophomore year. I was like, “Yeah. Everything I do is for the number one pick.”
Jon Wertheim: I love that. So– so making the WNBA, that’s– became, like, a secondary goal (laugh) at some point. You– you wanted to be the number one pick.
Aliyah Boston: I wanted to be the number one pick.
Aliyah Boston
60 Minutes
She was. Then, this spring, came Clark, Reese, Cameron Brink and the 2024 vintage…
Jon Wertheim: Did you have the level of confidence that this draft class seems to?
Napheesa Collier: I don’t think anybody has (laugh) the level of confidence this draft class does. I think that’s what’s so amazing about them actually is they don’t act like rookies. It feels like nothing gets them down. And I think that’s amazing.
Jon Wertheim: Not a lot of impostor syndrome going on–
Napheesa Collier: Not a lot. No.
New confidence. Old school hoops… This is the league of choice for the basketball purist.…all passing and precision.
Napheesa Collier: Obviously– the men are really fun. They’re very athletic. They can dunk and all those things. But if you’re a true fan of basketball, I think that ours is really interesting. Because we play it the right way. We play it really smart. Our– season is shorter also. So, you know, we go a lot harder I think in our games.
Twelve teams of 12 players. 144 of the world’s best…A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces—the league’s reigning champs—is a three-time MVP, including this season. Her game, equal parts grace and power.
And there’s the O-G, Diana Taurasi, still doing this in her early 40s.
Caitlin Clark: A lotta these players are who I grew up watching on TV and wanting to be like, and now I get to play against them.
Jon Wertheim: Now they’re guarding you on the perimeter.
Caitlin Clark: Yeah, it’s pretty cool.
Clark herself already has a trademark shot: a jumper from just inside midcourt….the logo 3.
Caitlin Clark: Are you guys gonna make me shoot–in these nice clothes?
Jon Wertheim: We got confidence in you.
Caitlin Clark: That’s crazy. I’m not even warmed up either–
Caitlin Clark: I only shoot from back there in games if I’ve, like, made a couple. Then you get a free pass to, like, launch– launch a long three.
Caitlin Clark and Jon Wertheim
60 Minutes
Jon Wertheim: So that’s a free pass with the coach? Or that’s a free pass with yourself, with your own basketball values–
Caitlin Clark: Both, both, both
Jon Wertheim: What would you say your range is?
Caitlin Clark: I don’t know. Sometimes I–I feel like I’m closer than I– than I am. Like, I don’t feel that far back, especially in a game. I don’t know. I kinda just lose sight of where I actually am, which is probably a good thing.
Jon Wertheim: But you know you’re, like, one dribble (BALL) past mid-court sometimes.
Caitlin Clark: Yeah, couple dribbles past mid-court.
Part of her process: gauging the distance… this isn’t like shooting a free throw. Logos vary court-to-court.
Caitlin Clark: Like I would always wanna see how big the logo is. ‘Cause, like, some people have, like, bigger logos at center court, some have smaller ones. So it’s, like, if it’s pretty big, I can usually get there. I can probably get it here from here.
Jon Wertheim: All right.
Caitlin Clark: But I’m not– (ball) do you want me to try–
Jon Wertheim: Heck, yeah. (ball)
Caitlin Clark: OK, but you have to try second.
Jon Wertheim: All right.
Caitlin Clark: Let’s see.
Jon Wertheim: All right.
Caitlin Clark: This is my off day. You guys are putting me through a workout, it’s crazy. It’s crazy. I didn’t know I was signing up for this. There we go–
Jon Wertheim: Bang…
Caitlin Clark: Whoo.
The bottom-of-the-net success has changed the W’s balance sheets. Corporate sponsors have arrived.
So have the celebrities. The league recently signed a media rights deal that will pay $200 million a season, more than a three-fold increase….Cathy Engelbert is WNBA commissioner.
Jon Wertheim: The Caitlin Clark phenomenon. How do you describe it?
Cathy Engelbert: She’s clearly an unbelievable player, came in with an unbelievable following, has brought a lot of new fans to the league. If you look at our historic season around– our attendance, our viewership, Caitlin, Angel too, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink. This class of rookies, we will be talking about them a generation from now.
Jon Wertheim: I notice when you’re asked about Caitlin a lot, you– you bring up other rookies as well.
Cathy Engelbert: No league’s ever about one player. That player could get hurt or whatever. So I think it’s just to give recognition that in sports, people watch for compelling content and rivalries. And you can’t do that alone as one person.
Though the commissioner touts league rivalries, competition has also brought out a certain ugliness…. this season saw an onslaught of vitriol – often racist – targeting players…this in a league that is 75% black.
Here’s veteran star Breanna Stewart, earlier this month, welcoming new fans, but demanding they act respectfully.
A happier earmark of growth: The WNBA announced plans to expand from 12 teams to 16. And for the first time this season, players travel on charter flights.
Aliyah Boston: I mean, that’s amazing. I– I miss my points a little bit. It’s OK.
Jon Wertheim: Oh, your miles? Your air miles.
Aliyah Boston: I miss my little points.
Jon Wertheim: No Delta miles–
Aliyah Boston: My little miles.
Jon Wertheim: –this year.
Aliyah Boston: No Delta miles but it’s ok. I think this is great, too, especially for recovery. You’re able to get back on that plane, get right back home after a game. The women that came before us, it’s like, this is because of you guys. Like, you guYs worked all this and now here we are. We’re able to step into that. And it’s– it’s a blessing for us.
Napheesa Collier recalls the old days on the road, staying two-to-a-room.
Napheesa Collier
60 Minutes
Napheesa Collier: We used to have to stay in, like, the team accredited hotels and now we can stay wherever. So a lot more five star hotels which is nice.
Jon Wertheim: Five star hotels flying private.
Napheesa Collier: I know. We’re living the life.
Jon Wertheim: Life’s good. You’re living the life.
Napheesa Collier: We’re like professional athletes or something.
The surge in success this season is about more than the basketball. The arrival walk to the locker room is now a fixture in pro sports— W players absolutely own this space…social media rocket fuel that engages fans. Players love it, Caitlin Clark included.
Consistent with the life cycle of other successful pro sports leagues, the players are done taking one for the team… They now want to get paid. Note the upcoming collective bargaining negotiations between the league and the players…A rookie salary for the 42-game season? $76,000. Base salary for the MVP? $200,000…Yet, the median NBA player salary this season: roughly $12 million.
Jon Wertheim: You talk about this growth and these ratings numbers. What’s a fair salary?
Aliyah Boston: I mean, someone like me, I love multiple commas just because, like, we deserve it. That’s– we come in here night in, night out. We work hard. You see the viewership numbers up. You see everything up. I mean, I’m– I’m all for it, ’cause I love a comma.
Jon Wertheim: Like a comma in that salary.
Aliyah Boston: Yeah.
As a union leader, Napheesa Collier will be at the bargaining table….The NBA shares revenues with its players roughly fifty-fifty and she wonders: is the W willing to do the same? As for commas?
Napheesa Collier: Of course, that would be obviously amazing. I don’t know how realistic. Like, that is obviously the goal. And I hope that we can get there.
Jon Wertheim: How much should we compare NBA and WNBA?
Napheesa Collier: We’re not asking for the same salaries as the NBA. What we’re looking for is rev shares. They’re making that because of rev shares. And so that’s what we’re wanting. That’s how we close that gap.
Jon Wertheim: How we’re sharing that pie.
Napheesa Collier: Yeah, how we’re sharing it.
Meantime, building on this watershed season, the women of the WNBA will keep shooting their shot.
Caitlin Clark: There we go.
Jon Wertheim: Bang. You knew that when it left your hands?
Caitlin Clark: I know when I’m gonna miss–I know when I’m gonna make it. The worst is when it feels good and you still miss–
Jon Wertheim: But you know as soon as– soon as it leaves your fingertips.
Caitlin Clark: If it feels good, yeah. So, like, if I miss it and it feels good. Like, that’s fine.
Jon Wertheim: You’re OK with that.
Caitlin Clark: You feel good about your shot, yeah.
With that as encouragement, from this season’s Rookie of the Year, we finally gave in.
Caitlin Clark: I think you have to go now. Come on. Let’s see if you can get it there–
Jon Wertheim: Two more, two more. You know, I have no legs.
Caitlin Clark: No, I feel confident. Let’s see.
Jon Wertheim: I’m wearing this jacket.
Caitlin Clark: Oh.
Jon Wertheim: Uh, terrible.
Caitlin Clark: That’s not bad. Get it there.
Jon Wertheim: Oh my god.
Caitlin Clark: You got to jump.
Jon Wertheim: Tight rims.
Jon Wertheim: I’m tellin’ you.
Caitlin Clark: No. (laugh) I think that might just be you, honestly.
Produced by Nathalie Sommer. Associate producer, Kaylee Tully. Broadcast associate, Elizabeth Germino. Edited by Craig Crawford.
It’s been a year unlike any the WNBA has seen. Players Caitlin Clark, Napheesa Collier, and Aliyah Boston talk about sold-out arenas and the physicality of the league.
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Having etched her name across the record book during the 2024 WNBA season, Caitlin Clark has been named the league’s Rookie of the Year, league sources told The Athletic on Friday.
That Clark won the award came as little surprise considering how prolific her debut season was.
Clark broke both the WNBA’s single-season and single-game assist records. She scored the most points by a rookie ever, and the most points by a point guard ever. She became the first rookie to record two triple-doubles and the first Fever player ever to record a triple-double.
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Those are just some of her many accomplishments among averaging 19.2 points and 8.4 assists per game — numbers that were even better in the second half of the season — and led the Fever to their first postseason appearance since 2016. Indiana also improved its win total by seven in 2024.
Clark, the No. 1 pick in the 2024 WNBA Draft, entered the league as the most-anticipated rookie in league history. She flourished at Iowa for four seasons, leading the Hawkeyes to two Final Fours and setting the women’s NCAA Division I and major college women’s basketball scoring records.
The spectacle around Clark followed her to the professional ranks. While Clark dazzled fans and tormented opponents, she also played an instrumental role in a season of explosive growth for the WNBA. Six different league television partners set viewership records this year for its highest viewed WNBA game, and all six included the Fever.
Attendance in Indianapolis hit a record high, with an average of 17,036 fans packing Gainbridge Fieldhouse for home games. Indiana led the league in attendance for the first time in WNBA history.
Friday’s news, however, is not a reflection of the off-court Clark Effect, but her successes between the court’s four lines.
“She’s been special,” Indiana coach Christie Sides said ahead of the playoffs. “She came into the best league in the world, the best women’s basketball league in the world. She found her footing. She’s continued to get better. She’s put herself in position to be called one of the best players in the league. That’s incredible for a rookie.”
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For the first half of the season, the Rookie of the Year race seemed as if it would be among the tightest ever. Through the first two months of the season, Angel Reese helped the Sky remain in playoff contention. She had 14 double-doubles in 20 games and broke Candace Parker’s consecutive double-double streak.
Reese, like Clark, earned All-Star honors and was awarded WNBA Rookie of the Month in June. She set the league’s single-season total rebound record (446) and recorded the highest per-game rebound average in WNBA history (13.1).
The No. 7 draft pick, Reese would have become only the third player taken after No. 6 in the WNBA Draft to win Rookie of the Year. But her second half proved different than her first. Chicago slumped and Reese eventually was ruled out for the rest of the season on Sept. 8 with a wrist injury. The Sky missed the postseason.
During the season Clark and Reese downplayed the importance of the race.
“I’m sure (Angel) would give you the same exact answer—I’m sure she has given you the same exact answer,” Clark said in late August. “So for us, everybody can write that, but our focus is on winning basketball games. It’s as simple as that.”
Said Reese: “We don’t either care about Rookie of the Year. I think you guys have made it a big thing. We haven’t. We both want to win. We’ve been wanting to win, and that’s what we’ve done in our collegiate career.”
Clark became the third consecutive No. 1 pick to win top rookie honors.
“I know there’s a lot of room for me to continue to improve,” Clark said after the Fever were knocked out of the playoffs by the Connecticut Sun. “I feel like I had a solid year, but for me, the fun part is I feel like I’m just scratching the surface.”
Collier wins DPOY award
From the beginning of the regular season until its conclusion, the Minnesota Lynx had one of the WNBA’s top defenses. And that defense now boasts the league’s top defender after Napheesa Collier was named the 2024 WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award winner, league sources told The Athletic on Friday.
The Lynx finished the year first in opponent field goal percentage (41), first in opponent 3-point percentage (30.1), first in opponent assist rate (18.6), and a close second in defensive rating (94.8). Collier’s versatility was key to all their success as an anchor Minnesota’s defense.
Often Collier was tasked with guarding an opponent’s top frontcourt players. At other moments, she rotated over to provide crucial help. She was especially impactful against top competition as the Lynx went 7-4 against the other top-four playoff seeds, including Minnesota’s Commissioner’s Cup victory.
Collier finished second in the WNBA in steals per game (1.9) and eighth in blocks (1.4 per game). According to Synergy Sports, opponents shot only 34.3 percent against her.
“I’m so proud of Phee’s defensive work in 2024. Her commitment to all aspects of our defense — deflections, denials, steals, blocks, rebounds — anchored one of the top defensive teams in the league and led to her best season yet as a pro,” Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve told the AP.
Minnesota finished second in the WNBA standings and swept the Phoenix Mercury in the first round of the playoffs. The Lynx, winners of four WNBA titles, will be looking to win their fifth this postseason. If they do, they would move into first place for titles won by an active WNBA franchise, breaking a tie with the Seattle Storm.
Tipoff for Game 1 of their semifinal series against the third-seeded Sun is set for 8:30 p.m. ET on Sunday.
The WNBA has undoubtedly had a historical season with a dedicated yet largely new fan base breaking records in attendance, viewership, and interest. Most recently, the WNBA playoffs have been earning some of the highest viewership numbers ever seen in the league’s post-season games, per The New York Times. The attention has been exciting, but also unveiled some of the racism that continues to stain the game.
At a post-conference interview following Sept. 25’s first-round playoff game, where the Indiana Fever were defeated by Connecticut Sun, Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas expressed her sentiments about the racism and harassment that she and fellow players experience. She referenced many comments made on social media that exacerbate the issue. “In my 11-year career, I’ve never experienced the racial comments … I’ve never been called the things I’ve been called on social media, and there’s no place for it,” Thomas said, per ESPN. Thomas spoke candidly about the pain of those experiences and how the WNBA needed to do something to protect players; she also called out the Indiana Fever organization to check its fans.
Thomas’s comments prompted the WNBA to release a statement on Instagram stating that racism will not be tolerated – leading many commenters to ask what took the league so long, given the fact that the players have been dealing with and calling attention to the vile rhetoric received throughout the entire season.
Additionally, earlier this month the WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert came under fire when she was called out for not speaking out about the racism the players have experienced. When asked about the fan rhetoric becoming more racist, connecting it to what Angel Reese had been experiencing in the conversations about the Reese-Caitlin Clark rivalry, Engelbert’s response referred to it as “a little of that Bird-Magic moment.” She noted that “the one thing I know about sports, you need rivalry. That’s what makes people watch,” seemingly focusing on how athletic rivalries can benefit the league, as reports the Los Angeles Times. Following backlash, Engelbert issued a follow-up comment stating, “To be clear, there is absolutely no place for hate or racism of any kind in the WNBA or anywhere else.” But for many players, it felt too little too late. New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart said the commissioner’s words were “disappointing to hear,” according to AP News.
On Sept. 26 Reese, who had an amazing rookie season before it was cut short due to injury, expressed comments in support of Thomas and other players who are also experiencing the racism that she’s dealt with all season. “I’m sorry to all the players that have/continue to experience the same things I have,” Reese wrote on X. It’s well documented that Reese has received the most vile comments on the Internet, including death threats being made against her. “For the past 2 years, the media has benefited from my pain & me being villainized to create a narrative. They allowed this,” Reese shared, reflecting on how racism has been normalized within the league.
For a game that is experiencing historical growth, the events of this past season have been marred by the racist tropes and stereotypes that have been experienced by the players, and observed by the fans, coaches, and media who cover the WNBA. Considering over 70 percent of WNBA players are Black, ESPN reports, it will be important for the league to set a precedent and clear boundaries around what is acceptable fan behavior. The league must emphasize that critiques that go beyond a player’s basketball game, that attack their racial identity, are unacceptable and must be condemned, and there must be consequences for fans who perpetrate them. Racism shouldn’t be excused or tolerated to advance revenue and ticket sales.
The WNBA has been a champion for diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts with a strong show of activism on social issues – but that was largely driven by the Black women who make up the largest demographic within the WNBA. The time is now for the entire league, from the commissioner and owners to the front office, to take a firm stand – to not only protect its players but also to preserve the future of its legacy. They must take actions such as instituting a dress policy in sporting arenas that bans clothing with racist language, ejecting racist fans who hurl racism, and doing more to moderate social media accounts, including banning offending users and cross-referencing their information with ticket-holders, just to name a few.
It’s also important for players who are not experiencing these attacks to speak up and speak out too, as often one’s silence can be mistaken for permissiveness or acceptance.
What Reese, Thomas, and other players have experienced is truly shameful and unacceptable. Racist, sexist, and discriminatory attacks have no place in women’s basketball, and certainly will not grow or advance the game into the future. But, just as with anything in America, until we confront our ugly past we cannot learn from it, change, and positively shape our future. The next generation is watching this unfold, and what’s not said or done will have an immeasurable impact on the evolving fan base and the future success of the game. So while the WNBA’s statement may have come up short and too late for many, let’s hope it’s not the last time the league and those who run it speak up to protect its players. Above all, the players deserve to play in a safe environment that champions women and the sport of basketball.
Ralinda Watts is an author, diversity expert, consultant, practitioner, speaker, and proven thought leader who works at the intersection of race, identity, culture, and justice. She has contributed to numerous publications such as PS, CBS Media, Medium, Yahoo Life, and the Los Angeles Times.
The WNBA is headed back to Portland, with Oregon’s biggest city getting an expansion team that will begin play in 2026.
The team will be owned and operated by Raj Sports, led by Lisa Bhathal Merage and Alex Bhathal, who also own the Portland Thorns of the National Women’s Soccer League. They paid $125 million for the franchise.
“This is huge for Portland. We are so honored and humbled to be the vessel that delivers this WNBA franchise to Portland,” Bhathal Merage said. “And that’s really how we consider ourselves. Portland is this incredibly diverse, enthusiastic community. We saw the passion first-hand when we started looking into the Portland Thorns and this is Basketball City. So we’re very excited about the future.”
Some 300 invited guests attended a kickoff event at Portland’s Moda Center on Wednesday afternoon with the Bhathals, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert and U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden and other state and local officials. Afterward, there was community-wide event outside the stadium.
The Bhathals started having conversations with the WNBA late last year after a separate bid to bring a team to Portland fell through.
The city is well known for its embrace of women’s sports. In addition to the Thorns, who are drawing more than 18,000 fans on average to each home game, Portland is home to the nation’s first bar exclusively for women’s sports, the Sports Bra, which opened in 2022 and recently announced plans for additional franchises.
“It really wasn’t our intention when we came to the Portland community, but we saw the opportunity, the stars aligned and here we are. We are at the epicenter of women’s professional sports,” Bhathal Merage said.
It’s the third expansion franchise the WNBA will add over the next two years, with Golden State and Toronto getting the other two. The Golden State Valkyries will begin play next season and Toronto in 2026.
“We’ve been working on Portland for a while, so when we did our original data analysis, I guess two and a half years ago, Portland was one at the top of the list, after the Bay Area,” Engelbert said. “So I’ve had my eye on Portland.”
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek was unable to attend at the Moda Center, home of the Portland Trail Blazers, but issued a statement.
“The decision to choose Portland for the next WNBA team is just as much a recognition of our past as it is about faith in our future,” Kotek said. “Portland has an unequivocal love of women’s sports. ”
Portland had a WNBA team, the Fire, from 2000 until it folded in 2002. That franchise averaged more than 8,000 fans when games were played at the Rose Garden. The new franchise will play at the same arena, now known as the Moda Center, and the Bhathals plan to build a dedicated practice facility for the team as well.
In addition to the Thorns, the Bhathal family has been a co-owner of the Sacramento Kings since 2013. The Bhathals added to their sports portfolio earlier this year when they bought the women’s soccer team for $63 million.
“When you look at our numbers, not just the Thorns’ off-the-charts attendance, which is incredible, what you’ve seen, in Eugene, what you’ve seen in Oregon State, we knew that this was going to be one of the great moments in sports for Oregon,” Wyden said. “We saw, February of 2023, what was possible. So I can tell you that right now there are women playing in Portland. They’re rebounding in Roseburg, they’re hooping in Hermiston. Every nook and cranny of our state is into this.”
The new Portland WNBA team is not yet named. The Bhathals said they wanted to tap into the community to select one.
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AP Sports Writer Anne M. Peterson in Oregon contributed to this report.
