Libs-Aces can take WNBA to next level
The entire 2023 WNBA season revolved around the superteams, with an aura of suspense complementing their budding rivalry, and in the end, it’ll all come down to the Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces.
They were the top two teams in the standings, combining for 66 wins and an .825 winning percentage. They had the stars that packed the starting lineups, and their collision in the championship was always the underlying storyline. Their five meetings, including four in August, only fueled the anticipation.
The best-offive Finals series that begins Oct. 8 will occur at the perfect time, too. WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert told Front Office Sports in May that she wanted to add two teams by the 2025 season, and last week, The Athletic reported one of those expansion organizations could share the Chase Center with the Warriors. The Liberty-Aces matchup could help accelerate the league’s future just as the Lakers versus Celtics showdowns from the preMichael Jordan era did for the NBA, Oregon women’s basketball head coach Kelly Graves told The Post last week.
“They really elevated the game of basketball,” Graves said last week about the Lakers-Celtics rivalry before the Liberty took two games in Connecticut to win their series and the Aces swept the Dallas Wings. “Some people say they saved basketball back in the ’80s, and then Jordan obviously took it to another level. I think these two teams have that opportunity with the WNBA at a time when we’re talking expansion, salary.
“If we can get those two in the finals, tell me that’s not gonna be, No. 1, the most-watched series ever, but that will elevate the whole game. The whole sport.”
It’ll also mark just the fourth WNBA Finals — and the first since 2015 — in which both teams will be coached by women and the first that involves a pair of former players. Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello also coached Becky Hammon, now in charge of the Aces, for four years as a San Antonio Silver Stars’ assistant and head coach.
“Former players getting the opportunities to be head coaches in this league that we were a part of, I
think that’s really special,” Brondello said Sunday. “We both created our own journey here.”
When the Liberty and Aces met Aug. 28 for their final meeting, the No. 1 seed was still in play. It remained unlikely, since the Aces would play three of four games at Michelob Ultra Arena and had lost just one home matchup (to the Liberty) all season, but a chance still remained. And that Barclays Center game turned into the WNBA’s most-watched regular-season contest on ESPN2 in five years, with the network reporting that it averaged 328,000 viewers and peaked at 357,000.
Brondello didn’t necessarily buy into the preseason superteam storylines, but she said the fact that the Liberty will play in their first Finals since 2002 against the reigning champions should make it a “promotion for the WNBA.”
“I think it’s going to be a really competitive series,” Brondello said Sunday, “and hopefully more and more people turn their eyes into the game and we can continue to grow it.”
In a September release, the league reported numbers that reflected a 21 percent increase in viewership across television partners from 2022. Its attendance was up 16 percent, and for the Aug. 28 game, the Liberty set an attendance record with 11,615 fans at Barclays Center.
Those four meetings in August, including two in three days, were essentially a peek at what a postseason series between the two teams could resemble. Brondello experimented with different adjustments just as she would in the playoffs.
“The chess match begins now,” Brondello said. “I mean, it’s a whole new series.”
Graves said the Sun, which advanced to a fifth consecutive semifinals, demonstrated they belong at the top of the league, too. But for the next two weeks, the league’s discourse will revolve around the superteams. Around the Liberty and the Aces. Around Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson, Sabrina Ionescu and Kelsey Plum, Brondello and Hammon.
It won’t mark the final chapter in their rivalry, either.
“It’s elevated the league for sure,” Graves said.