The 2024 WNBA Season
Written 10/28/24
First of all, did y’all know they actually have WNBA League Pass, same as for the dudes? This was my second season subscribing after finding out about it right before the start of the 2023 season. The subscription price for the first year is a damn near ridiculous $15. I mean, I’m a fan of great bargains but that’s a damn shame. Pay those ladies! Especially when my NBA League Pass subscription just increased by $10 to $160 for the 2024-2025 season. All seasons after your first season of WNBA League Pass are $25 smh
Update: I think I know why as mentioned below, but as of today when I went to the site, the cost of WNBA League Pass has increased to either $35 for the season or $12.99 per month
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​Just like with the fellas I will subscribe to the W every year, no matter the cost. There are only 12 teams in the W as of the 2024 season, with a new expansion team, the Golden State Valkyries being added in 2025. Compare that to the 30 teams in the dude association, and the W can seem really light by comparison. But the ladies are experiencing historic growth, with two more expansion teams coming in 2026 (more on that later)
After enjoying my first $15 season last year, in October of 2023 after the season was over, I took a little vacay trip to Vegas. The hotel I stayed in didn’t have an HDMI outlet on their TV’s (because they of course wanted me to order those pricey movies from them), so I couldn’t plug in my devices I always take with me. Just like I am with music, I prefer to take my own collection and listen to what the fuck I want, as opposed to the same four songs that I don’t even like every hour on the radio. But with no HDMI outlet, I was at the mercy of the hotel’s basic cable
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This turned out to be a gift disguised as an STD I got while “cabling in public”. I would get up early in the mornings on vacay, and after perusing all like 15 channels they had, the only thing I could tolerate was First Take. I watched the show years ago and wasn’t a fan. I found the show to be too long, and like most other people, I could only tolerate Steven A for so long before he started getting on my nerves. I also hadn’t watched it since Shannon Sharpe joined the show. But with it being my only decent option in the hotel, I figured fuck it
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To my surprise, this time around I got hooked! The arguing back and forth was exactly what I was going for with my HoopLA podcast. But First Take covered and still mostly covers football. I had no knowledge of anything they were talking about, but I could follow along because their passionate and sometimes heated debates were engaging. I even started watching football for a while, and even considered signing up for whatever version of league pass the NFL has this season. And it wasn’t just Shannon and Steven A in the arguments. They had a heavy rotation of about four or five people, like Dan Orlovsky, who almost never agrees with Shannon or Steven A and the arguments would almost always be super passionate. I looked forward to First Take, especially on Mondays and Tuesdays when Shannon is on the show after Sunday and Monday football games. Oh, and heeeey Molly. How you doin with cho fine ass?
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Why the fuck is this dude talking about football on a WNBA post? Here’s why
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As I said, First Take MOSTLY covers football. But they do provide a little dash of seasoning of other sports, particularly when there’s a salacious headline. And if you follow women’s sports at all, you know there were several massive storylines in the women’s college hoops tournament circa March 2024. And there was no storyline bigger than Caitelin Clark. From her record-breaking final college season to her rivalry with that fine ass yet ruggedly talented Angel Reese, there was plenty for the First Take crew to debate about
Oh, another First Take side note: I have to admit, I do have Steven A to thank for indirectly informing me I had been using a term incorrectly. For years on my podcast, I would say, "at this particular junction". I wouldn't even delete it when I heard myself say it on playback when listening for editing purposes. Why? Because I thought that was how the fucking saying went. It wasn't until I was watching First Take one day and heard Steven A clearly say "juncture", that I decided to look it up to see which one of us was incorrect, although the man is on ESPN and getting paid boo koo dinero, I figured I'd already knew. And, sure enough, uh, it was me, as people reading this who listened to my podcast and knew that shit was all the way wrong back then probably no doubt remember. I had never wanted to go back and 'control, find, junction, replace with juncture, so much in my life, but alas it ain't possible at least not within my scope of current knowledge. So I'll just live with the fact that I sounded like a fucking idiot all those times (insert Kanye shrug here). Hey, despite my name I am far from perfect ladies and gents
I followed along with every story and watched every round of the tournament. Kamilla Cardoso got game too. Aye man, I don’t know if you all know, but these women can ball
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Then during the 2024 NBA playoffs, both Steven A and Shannon but especially Shannon pissed me off with the blatant disrespect to OKC, my favorite squad. Also when the football season was over, they were still spending the majority of the shows on football. This pissed me off enough to the point where I stopped watching the show. I will catch a sporadic episode here and there if I’m just interested in the nostalgia. And Shannon is too much of a Bronsexual for my liking. One of those people so emotionally willing to defend El Bronio to the point where they say stupid shit. Yeah, historically me and people like that can’t really co-exist so I’m good. But I did appreciate the insight into the ladies game from mostly Andraya Carter and Chiney Ogwumike, who always provide excellent commentary on the WNBA pre and half time shows as well
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​So, like anyone who followed the tournament, I was ready for this WNBA season. And it didn’t disappoint me. But judging by the cost of the damn league pass, I feel like I’m one of like hundreds of subscriptions they sold. Which is too bad because it really is an excellent product they put out
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Last season (2023), Candace Parker’s last in the league, was a little boring because Candace’s final team – the Las Vegas Aces – who had won the whole thing in 2022, coached by former Spurs’ assistant Becky Hammon, and containing the league’s 2024, 2022 and 2020 MVP in A’ja Wilson, basically ran through everybody in the league. And often, it wasn’t even close
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The Aces lost some players in the playoffs last year, including losing Candace before the playoffs and she would not return, so it was just enough to keep things kinda sorta interesting. It made sense to me that their depleted team still went on to win the finals, because their full-strength team was so head and shoulders ahead of everyone
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In the finals, the Aces faced the only team I thought could give them a run for their money. The New York Liberty were loaded – just as the Aces were – led by Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu (Spike Lee always wears her jersey to the Liberty games, so I’m gonna go ahead and assume she’s his favorite player), and one of my favorite players in the league, Jonquel Jones. With the Aces missing so many to injury, I thought the Liberty would at least make it interesting. And to be fair, they did. But there were just no teams that could keep up with the Aces, as they went on to win back-to-back WNBA titles
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​So looking at it, we had the Aces tryna triple peat, Diana Taurasi’s 20th and possibly final season, the arrivals of Caitelin Clark for the Indiana Fever, and Angel Reese and Kamila Cardoso for the Chicago Sky, the arrival of Rickea Jackson for the LA Sparks, and another story line I didn’t find out about until the 2024 playoffs, which is that the Liberty had actually never won a WNBA title
But then in diving deep into them WNBA waters and watching just about every game of the season, I found players, coaches and teams I became a fan of as well
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Rhyne Howard and Allisha Gray for the Atlanta Dream are two of the best guards in the league. And I’m also a fan of Allisha's playing glasses
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The Seattle Storm had a really good squad too, and I like their coach, Noelle Quinn. She’s quiet but intelligent and forceful. That’s some sexy shit. It’s closer to the end of her career, but Nneka Oguwmike, Chiney’s older sister, can still ball. Jewell Loyd is super good too, although she got hurt toward the end of the season and didn’t seem to have that same spark in the playoffs. But their best all-around player to me, their Scottie Pippen if you will, is Skyler Diggins-Smith. Here’s the thing. All I could ever see about Skyler is that she was fine as a muhfucka. But then she got married and started a family, and ya know, that’s the quickest way to not see you as fine no mo (what up Queen Bey). So then, in a crazy fucking twist, her being off the market caused me to just look at her game. Imagine that, right? Well that and subscribing to WNBA League Pass :)
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This year brought a rare circumstance, as remember I just found out about WNBA League Pass in 2023. This season saw about a three-week mid-season break due to the Paris Olympics. It didn’t dawn on me until all the commentators started talking about the upcoming break for the Olympics during the games, that the WNBA season has the misfortune of being the only of the sports offered at the Olympics who has their professional season in the summertime when the Olympics take place. Makes sense. Players from the league make up the Olympics women’s roster. In fact, their All-Star weekend was before the Olympics, and the Saturday night festivities consisted of a game between the USA Women’s team players and the WNBA All Stars who didn’t make the USA team. The All-Stars team had the super rookies, and beat up on the USA team. But that just goes to show how super duper our women’s USA team could be. But it’s cool. Our women’s hoops team was able to secure the Gold in the medal game against home team France, in what was a pretty good game
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Dude, you should seriously be watching these women
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If you were, you would have witnessed…….
Caitelin Clark's Historic Rookie Season
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She was named Rookie of the Year and to the All-WNBA first team, and is the first rookie to do so in more than 15 seasons; since back in 2008. After a rough start, she would eventually set rookie season records for both points and three pointers made, while also becoming the first rookie in the history of the league to record a triple double. While her points and three pointers made records were only among rookies in history, she set the all-time WNBA league record for assists in a single game as well as a single season. Finally, there were also attendance records she set
Angel Reese’s Almost Historic Rookie Season
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So, I don’t understand the way the vast majority of the world thinks. Earlier this season, WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert compared the Caitelin Clark / Angel Reese rivalry to Bird and Magic back in the day. Many people around the W called for her head and to lose her job over that comparison. If you’re confused as to why, well, so was I. In fact I still don’t get it. That dynamic literally saved the NBA. And no one who’s followed the sport this year can deny the spark these two rookies gave the league
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But in the head to head, it would have to go to Caitelin. Mostly because unfortunately Angel hurt her wrist with about five or six games left and it would cause her to miss the rest of the season. Chicago was on the verge of the playoffs, and in the eighth and final spot when Angel got hurt. But after losing her they couldn’t sustain that spot and fell out of playoff contention. Then her coach T Weatherspoon got the axe, unfairly in my opinion. But before all of this, Angel had a rookie season for the ages. She led the league in rebounds per game (averaging an astounding 13.1 pg) and set a record with 15 consecutive double doubles. The almost historic part comes in because she actually set the single season all-time rebound record before she got hurt. Unfortunately for her, while she was out those last few games of the season…..
A'ja Wilson’s Historic Season
She was named Most Valuable Player of the 2024 season, her third time winning the award. What contributed to her winning the MVP hat trick? Well, it may have something to do with her breaking the single-season scoring record for points per game, as well as total points scored. As if that wasn’t enough, she surpassed Angel’s record set earlier in the season for the all-time most rebounds. The Aces fell short in in the semis this year, but after A’ja’s record setting season and them going back-to-back in 2022 and 2023, I don’t think they’re losing much sleep over it
Three New Expansion Teams Coming in the Next Two Years
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With all of these records being broken, including viewership, it’s no wonder the league is ready to expand. It also appears to have much more major sponsorship than it used to. You can’t turn on a WNBA game without seeing a Michelob Ultra logo on some part of the floor, and the Aces home arena in Vegas is actually called the Michelob Ultra Arena. Adding more teams is the next logical step. The next team to join the league will be the Golden State Valkyries beginning the 2025 WNBA season. In fact, they have already been added to the WNBA website and you can buy tickets to their games next year already. And the draft for the expansion team took place on December 6, 2024
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Then in 2026, the league will add two more teams; one in Portland, and with the other the ladies are going international in Toronto. So for the 2025 season (usually starting in May), here are the teams in the WNBA:
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Eastern Conference
Western Conference
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The Announcement of Playoff Format Changes Beginning 2025
So, these were big deals. And I saw my ladies Andraya and Chiney were super excited about these changes when they were announced on air during the finals too. One of these three changes I didn’t even notice last year, perhaps because as I said the Aces just ran through everybody. But I noticed it this year and I thought it was the dumbest shit I had ever seen in pro sports
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Because the WNBA isn’t as popular as its male counterpart, the playoffs are significantly shorter for the W. The first round is only a best out of three. But here’s where the sheer stupidity kicks in. You would think that with it being best out of three, the format for traveling would be 1-1-1, right? Mm mm. It’s 2-1. Yep, you read that right. The team with home court advantage gets the first two games in their building. So it’s not really home court advantage as much as it is home court dominance. That’s just fucking stupid. Then if the teams split the first two games, the third and decisive game is on the home court of the team that didn't have home court advantage lmfao. I don’t know who came up with that shit but it should have been vetoed from jump! This year, all first-round series ended with 2-0 sweeps, so the team without home court advantage never got to play a playoff game on their home floor despite making the playoffs, smh. Tragic. The league thought so too. So beginning 2025 the first round will be 1-1-1 like it should have been all along
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Each of the following two rounds after the first are best out of five. So even for their finals, game 5 is their equivalent of game 7, which is also a shame. The league thought so too. So beginning 2025 the WNBA finals will be best out of seven
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And the last change isn't really about the playoffs, but the league is expanding from 40 games to 44 in 2025
The New York Liberty Winning Their First Title in a Thrilling Game 5 Over Minnesota
It had all the makings of a photo finish ending to the season
First of all they were the #1 seed (NY) and #2 seed playing for the championship. The final game of the series had lots of lead changes, overtime, aaaaand controversy
With about five seconds left in regulation and Minnesota up two, a foul is called against Minnesota that would send Brianna Stewart to the line for two free throws. Minnesota challenged. It was widely thought upon “court of public review” that there was no foul and that the call would be reversed. But to the surprise of the world the call stood. Keep in mind the game was in New York. Stewart knocks down both free throws and we go into extra time
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Minnesota struggled to score in overtime. And while the NY stars also struggled to score in extra time, other players stepped up. Minnesota wouldn’t score in overtime until free throws with less than two minutes left on the clock. The final score: New York Liberty 67, Minnesota Lynx 62
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After the game, the 2024 coach of the year and coach of the Minnesota Lynx, Cheryl Reeve, was understandably pissed. It was widely thought it wasn’t a foul. She went as far as saying the championship was stolen from them
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Do I think it was a foul? Mm, not really. She got a little arm. I’m not sure if it was not a foul enough to be overturned though. But the biggest reason I can’t get with Coach Reeve on this one is because she’s assuming that even if the call would have been overturned, they would have held on and won the game. If the call had been overturned, they would have had a jump ball. I mean, 5.2 seconds is a lifetime in basketball, enough time for NY to win the tip and get off a decent shot. I don’t understand how she can say it was stolen from them, when that would have to imply that it was a lock to be yours in the first place. Especially when this actually happened just two games prior in game 3
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I personally don’t think it overshadowed the series at all. Sports often have controversies. Still doesn’t change the fact that it was an excellent closing series on a record-breaking WNBA season
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And it’s not without a sense of irony that I’m plugging the league even for next season because……
The WNBA Could Be Facing a Lockout in 2025
This may seem like two random ass pictures for this headline, but that ain't how my brain operates. Nneka is on here because she's actually the president of the WNBA Players Association (WNBPA). And the pic of Barclays was taken during the 2024 WNBA finals, showing how far the sport has come
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Those of us who follow the NBA are very familiar with this storyline. It happens every time a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) expires. They have those in the W as well, and the most recent one expired after the 2024 season. With the increase in viewership and a new tv deal, combined with Angel Reese publicly stating that her WNBA salary alone won’t pay her rent, it’s no surprise that the players rejected the new deal
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They do have about seven months as of the time of this writing to work it out, but if they can’t, May 2025 could see no games in the WNBA. I think they’ll work it out though. The league knows with the growth it’s experiencing now, a stoppage would be the absolute worst thing you could do. Plus there’s expected to be another solid draft this year with UConn's Paige Buecker being one of if not the top pick. The league has too much to lose right now so I feel quite confident they will work it out
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But I’ve been wrong before
The Great Post-Season Coach Shake-up of 2024
Stephanie White
Aight, so I told y'all there were 12 teams in the W for the 2024 season. Well, seven of those teams fired their coach after the season. And I don't know how you are at math, but there are only eight teams that make the playoffs. If only five coaches remain, that means that there were three coaches who got fired AFTER making the playoffs smh
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I guess the general census is it has to do with the growth of the league. Apparently, some of these teams had their coach for quite some time. So it's an out with the old, in with the new kind of situation
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Whatever the reason, the seven coaches that got the hatchet were as follows:
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Tanisha Wright of the Atlanta Dream**
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Curt Miller of the LA Sparks
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Christie Sides of the Indiana Fever**
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Eric Thibault of the Washington Mystics
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Latricia Trammell of the Dallas Wings
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Stephanie White of the Connecticut Sun**
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Teresa Weatherspoon of the Chicago Sky
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**indicates a coach fired despite making the playoffs
The only one to land on their feet is Stephanie White (pictured above). She was the 2023 COY, and her Connecticut Sun were the #3 seed in the 2024 playoffs. Almost immediately after she got fired, the hoops world seemed already aware that Indiana wanted her to coach Caitlin Clark, after Indiana had already fired Christie Sides. And sure enough, a day or two after Stephanie was fired, she had a new job in Indiana
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While Stephanie had a solid team in Connecticut behind power couple Alyssa Thomas and Dewanna Bonner (how fucking cool is that you get to go into battle everyday as a pro hoops player with your spouse? There's not a lot of openly gay dudes in the NBA so this can really only happen in the WNBA). But to be honest, all of these coaches had something in common; they hadn't won anything. To further examine that, let's take a closer look at the coaches who haven't been fired as of the time of this writing:
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Nate Tibbets of the Phoenix Mercury. Well, he hasn't won shit neither. But he's well respected for his couple of decades of coaching experience in the NBA. Diana Taurasi still hasn't announced if she's returning or not, and if she does, he's had her and Brittney Griner for a while, so they're still riding with him for the time being
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Sandy Brondello of the New York Liberty. Helloooooo. If you're reading this, you had to have read above when we already covered that her team just won the whole damn thing. I don't think there was a safer job in the WNBA this year
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Becky Hammon of the Las Vegas Aces. You also have to have read that Becky was the championship coach of each of the prior two seasons to this one. This was probably the third safest job in the WNBA this year after.....
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Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx. Not only did her team come within an ass hair of winning it all this year, but she was also this year's COY. Yeah, she ain't goin nowhere
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Noelle Quinn of the Seattle Storm. Well, this one seems to have a tiny smidge of controversy. When, amid all of this massive coaching shake-up going on, someone online questioned why Noelle still has a job, one of the Seattle Storm players liked the post. It's never a good sign when your players don't have your back. As soon as Teresa Weatherspoon was fired out of Chicago, Angel immediately expressed her disdain online. Whether they want to admit it or not, management of these teams take note when a player doesn't like their coach. If enough players come out and share that sentiment, that coach is out of there. So, stay tuned with this one. The 2025 season is still several months away
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The only other team that fired their coach besides Indiana that has made a new hire is the Chicago Sky. They hired a guy named Tyler Marsh, which didn't mean anything to me when I heard it. But when I saw his picture, I recognized him as one of Becky Hammon's assistants in Vegas. Becky always wears a jacket over a hoodie, with the hood of the shirt hanging over the top of the back of the jacket. And her assistants, including Tyler, would always wear that too. Instantly, I thought that was a good hire by the Sky. I mean, he was sitting on the bench beside Becky for those back-to-back championships. Turns out he also won an NBA championship with the Toronto Raptors as a player development coach in the 2018/2019 season. I ain't heard a complaint from Angel yet
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Update 6/1/2025: The new 2025 WNBA season has arrived. I'm still focused on the Thunder trying to win it all in the NBA, but I plan on writing about the current season as it goes along on the 2025 page
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