Getting What We Wanted

The 2023 WNBA Finals tip off on October 8, and the two best teams all year are the matchup. The New York Liberty will take on the Las Vegas Aces in a best-of-5 series. The Access will be looking for their second-straight championship while the Liberty will be looking to capture their first in their 27-year history.

While personally, I would have liked for the Atlanta Dream and Washington Mystics to have had better-ending seasons, this is objectively the best matchup the totality of WNBA fans could have wanted. Sure, there are a ton of factors and analysis to break down, and there are plenty of experts better equipped than me to do that. However, I’d like to focus on a theme that does not happen as often as sports fans would like, and that is getting the best possible championship matchup at the end of the season.

There have been some recent examples wherethe expected matchup was thwarted by some obstacle. For example, late in the 2000’s, NBA fans were cracking a Finals between Kobe Bryant and the Lakers and LeBron James and the Cavaliers and Heat. From 2007-2012, both players’ teams made the playoffs but never crossed paths—mostly due to the Boston Celtics. We never got to see the two iconic legends battle over seven games for the title.

This year’s WNBA Finals features so much start power on both sides, and that’s a big part of why this has been that most anticipated series since the season began. Each team has multiple All-Star players and MVP winners. Each team’s coach was also a former player in the W. The Aces and Liberty had the two best regular season records. As I stated, this is the matchup for this season and the one fans were most clamoring for.

The excitement for this series has been proven by the ticket sales and other sources of engagement. This is the highest-selling and most popular WNBA Finals ever, in a season in which attendance at WNBA games became more abundant and star-studded. Aside from celebrities courtside, the W as a whole saw its highest total attendance in 13 years.

The preseason game in Canada between the Chicago Sky and Minnesota Lynx sold out to approximately 20,000+ fans. Engagement on social media as well as digital consumption increased drastically. This Finals matchup is the perfect summation of an incredible season and I’m sure I echo the sentiment of all WNBA fans when I say I’m rest for an all-time great series of games.