Written by Tim Hofftstaetter
The WNBA finals are now set, it will be a star-studded matchup between the reigning champions Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty. This was the matchup many of the WNBA fans thought was going to happen after an off season of league shattering transitions. During the offseason the Liberty completely reconstructed their team adding Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot, and Jonquel Jones. Breanna is the current league MVP and 2018 MVP, Courtney is a three-time all-star, and Jonquel is the 2021 league MVP. The Liberty brought in three stars and already had an incredible core there with Sabrina Ionescu, Betnijah Laney, and Marine Johannès. Sabrina and Betnijah are both allstars, Betnijah is an all-defensive player, Sabrinia just set the WNBA record for most 3’s in a single season, and Marine is one of the flashiest playmakers in the game off of the bench.
The Aces won the championship last year with a big 4 of A’ja Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young. A’ja last year won the MVP, Defensive Player of the year, and she is the 3rd ever WNBA player to win both in the same season. Kelsey is an all-star and an all-WNBA team member. Chelsea is the finals MVP from last year, 4 time all-star, and WNBA all teamer. Jackie is another all-star for this team in her young career from being the 1st pick in 2019. With this championship core already in place the Aces added Candace Parker to their roster, who is potentially the greatest WNBA player ever, she played half of the season with the Aces and then went down with a shoulder injury, before the injury the Aces were 17-1.
These two teams have the two best players in the league, A’ja and Breanna, these two were top two in the MVP race with Breanna winning and A’ja winning DPOY this year. These two are going to battle it out for the next 5 games to determine who will be the champions of this year. These two teams met 5 times in total during the year, during the regular season they split the series with both teams winning two games. The 5th time they played was during the WNBA’s in-season tournament with the Liberty coming out on top. The Liberty are the only team to have beaten the Aces this year more than once, the aces final record was 34-6. Both teams have been rolling through the playoffs, Aces haven’t lost, and the Liberty have only lost once so far. These finals will be the most captivating and star sprinkled finals the WNBA has ever seen, and I hope that A’ja gets to win a finals MVP and get the proper respect she deserves.
