This Week in Women’s Basketball: A Liberty parade, Unrivaled team names, WNBA leadership changes and more

The 2024 WNBA season closes with a cascade of news from around the league and across the sport, beginning with the best moments from the New York Liberty’s championship celebration:

Scenes from the Liberty’s championship parade

Breanna Stewart embodied Stew York City. Jonquel Jones waved the Bahamian flag. Sabrina Ionescu showed off her speciality jacket. The Sabally sisters and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton stunned. Courtney Vandersloot reveled with Allie Quigley. Kayla Thornton and Kennedy Burke flashed grins and puffed cigars. Leonie Fiebich and Jaylyn Sherrod soaked it all in. Sandy Brondello proclaimed her New Yorker status. Big Ellie vibed with everyone, including Senator Chuck Schumer. Maddie was there too! As were Liberty OGs Teresa Weatherspoon, Vickie Johnson and Kym Hampton.

It all was part of the New York Liberty’s 2024 WNBA championship celebration. The parade down Manhattan’s Canyon of Champions culminated with a ceremony at City Hall, where October 20 was declared New York Liberty Day.

Unrivaled reveals team names

Unrivaled continues to entice fans with a drip, drip, drip of news. This week, the forthcoming 3x3 professional league, fresh off of inking a lucrative media rights deal with TNT Sports, introduced the names of its six teams.

Laces Basketball Club, Mist Basketball Club, Phantom Basketball Club, Lunar Owls Basketball Club, Rose Basketball Club and Vinyl Basketball Club will compete in Miami beginning in mid-January. The league is borrowing from soccer by identifying teams as “clubs.” As declared in a promotional video, “We’re starting a new tradition this week and inviting you to imagine what is possible for the future of our basketball clubs with us.”

Each team has its own social media accounts on X, Instagram, TikTok and Threads, which presumably will distribute the exclusive, behind-the-scenes content promised by the league.

Currently, Unrivaled has announced 26 of its 30 participants. As reported by Front Office Sports, the league continues to recruit Caitlin Clark, hoping the prospect of a hefty payday will encourage the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year to participate in the inaugural season.

WNBA front office, coaching carousel keeps spinning

On Saturday afternoon, the Las Vegas Aces became the latest WNBA team to make a leadership change, announcing that general manager Natalie Williams’ contract would not be renewed as the organization looks to restructure its front office. Williams, who was an original member of the Utah Starzz, the grandmother of today’s Aces, was hired before the 2022 season.

Vegas president Nikki Fargas thanked Williams for her time with the organization, saying in a statement:

We are incredibly grateful for Natalie’s invaluable efforts in helping build the Aces into the premier franchise in the WNBA. Her time with the organization extends back to the league’s formative years in Utah, and she will forever be a part of our history, having left an indelible mark as both a player and an executive.

Three teams now have a general manager vacancy (Las Vegas, Washington, Dallas), while five remain without a head coach (Washington, Dallas, Atlanta, Chicago, Los Angeles).

According to Howard Megdal of The Next and the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast, a number of teams with vacancies are interested in Latricia Trammell, who was dismissed from her post with the Dallas Wings after two seasons. Megdal does not identify the franchises that are considering Trammell.

A bit more clarity also has emerged regarding the Washington Mystics’ decision to dismiss both general manager Mike Thibault and head coach Eric Thibault. As reported by ESPN’s Alexa Philippou, the Mystics intend to rebuild through the draft rather than free agency, a strategy, presumably envisioned by Monumental Basketball president Michael Winger, that diverged from the Thibaults’ preferred approach.

However, as Albert Lee discusses at Bullets Forever, Winger’s draft-centric direction seems shortsighted. Because the WNBA’s current CBA was expected to expire after next season, a date confirmed with the WNBPA’s decision to opt out, few players signed contracts that go past the 2025 season, creating a free agency bonanza in the 2026 offseason. This coming reality makes the organization’s decision to not prioritize free agency puzzling.

Milwaukee headlines next WNBA expansion candidates

On Wednesday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that the Milwaukee Bucks ownership group has submitted a proposal for a WNBA expansion franchise.

Previously, the Sports Business Journal had identified Milwaukee as one of a number of cities or regions interested in an expansion team. Others include: Austin, Central Florida, Charlotte, Cleveland, Denver, Kansas City, Miami, Nashville and Philadelphia.

Final numbers for a record-breaking Finals, season

After Game 4 of the WNBA Finals was the most-viewed Finals game ever on a cable network, with an average of 1.7 million viewers and a peak of 2.4 million, Game 5 attracted an average of 2.2 million viewers and a peak of 3.3 million, making it the most-viewed Finals contest in 25 years.

Overall, Finals viewership increased 115 percent from 2023 to 2024, the culmination of a season-long viewership increase across WNBA platforms, which included the most-viewed WNBA Draft and All-Star Game.

WNBA, Nike continue partnership

Since 2017, the WNBA has been outfitted by Nike. Now, the brand will provide the league’s uniforms and official merchandise for 12 more years, per a contract extension reported last Monday.

Nike and the WNBA also will continue its WIN (“Women in Nike”) Program, which was established in 2019 and, according to Boardroom, “has placed former WNBA players into 24-month rotational workshops that will look to land them on a career path at Nike.” 72 former players have participated in the program, with 58 currently holding full-time roles at Nike, Jordan and Converse.

At last Tuesday’s public announcement of the continued partnership, Sue Bird and A’ja Wilson shared their excitement, with Wilson emphasizing that “the best is yet to come” because of Nike’s support for WNBA players’ desire to “push the needle.”

No. 22 to be retired on 2/2

“Pushing the needle” also describes what A’ja Wilson did at South Carolina. And for that, her No. 22 jersey will be raised into rafters of Colonial Life Arena on February 2.

Angel Reese set for Reebok signature shoe

Last year, Angel Reese was the first athlete signed by a revamped Reebok. Last week, Reese and Reebok not only extended that endorsement contract, but the Chi Barbie also is set to debut a signature shoe in 2026.

Dee’s not done?

We thought this was it. But maybe it wasn’t?

On Tuesday, Diana Taurasi indicated to the Associated Press that she had yet to make a final decision about her WNBA future. Taurasi said:

I don’t take retirement lightly. I know the minute I say it or announce it, whether it’s, you know, in a month or two months, I’m going to mean it. I talk to [wife Penny Taylor] and the Mercury, so I’m still in the thought process.

She further elaborated:

I have not taken it lightly. I think about it every day. You know, I’m still in deep thought about it. I want to make the right decision, you know, and I’m just taking my time a little bit. And you know, sometimes when the season ends, the last thing you want to think about is the next season.

I do think with the additions [on court] we made and in the front office we’ll be there for a long time. You know, those are my sisters. I’ve gone through a lot with them. So you know, I’ll chat with them. It’s a lot to process the season as a whole.

Those sound like the musing of someone who is feeling like this was not, in fact, it.

AU does Nashville

In anticipation of Athletes Unlimited Pro Basketball heading to Nashville for the league’s fourth season, Sydney Colson, Lexie Brown and Theresa Plaisance introduced AU to the city through a series of welcome events on Thursday and Friday. After the trio was interviewed at an opening press conference at the Nashville Museum of African American Music, they visited a Vanderbilt practice and a went on a downtown happy hour tour that featured some karaoke action. They also crossed paths with Lynn Williams and Rose Lavelle of the USWNT, who were in town for a set of friendlies against Iceland.

The league also announced that Alissa Pili will be among the AU newcomers who will hoop in Nashville beginning in February.

Storm endorse Harris-Walz

The Seattle Storm have endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris and Minnesota Governor Tim Walz in the 2024 presidential election. The Storm are the WNBA’s lone women-owned franchise, with the Force 10 Hoops ownership group composed of Dawn Trudeau, Lisa Brummel, Ginny Gilder and Sue Bird.

The WNBA, with an assist from Aliyah Boston, also is reminding fans to establish their voting game plan ahead of election day on Tuesday, November 5.