WNBA Finals Feature a Tale of Two Differing Success Stories

The WNBA Finals tip off Thursday night between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx—two organizations that have reached the mountaintop in different ways.

Liberty’s Rise Fueled by Investment

The top-seeded Liberty, the only one of the W’s original eight teams that is active but without a title, have capitalized on the New York market and investments from owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, who bought the team in 2019.

In a league where funding has been scarce for some teams, the Liberty’s new billionaire owners invested in new facilities, lucked into Sabrina Ionescu in the 2020 draft, and recruited the likes of Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot. The organization even violated the league’s charter flight rules and was penalized half a million dollars in 2022.

The Tsais had the deep pockets to pay the fine, and they did, while showing how far they were willing to go to invest in the team.

“From the earliest days, what I remember is that no one wanted to buy the team,” Wu Tsai told CNN. “The first feeling out there was we thought that the fundamentals were actually very good … of course New York and the tri-state area is this country’s largest media market.”

The Liberty have built a juggernaut on the court. They finished with a league-best 32–8 record in the regular season and are nearly 3-to-1 favorites to win the title.

Off the court, the team also thrived, securing the second-highest attendance this season, behind the Indiana Fever, with an average of 12,729 fans, a 64% increase over last year. They also have perhaps the most popular non–Caitlin Clark or Angel Reese figure in the league this season: their mascot, Ellie the Elephant.

Lynx’ Legacy Built on Loyalty

On the other side, the Lynx play in one of the league’s smallest markets and have a murky ownership situation given the ongoing dispute for the Lynx and NBA’s Timberwolves between longtime owner Glen Taylor and prospective buyers Alex Rodriguez and Marc Lore.

But the Lynx have built a culture of winning—which includes four championships between 2011 and 2017 and playoff appearances in all but one season since that first title. The success helped them build a loyal fan base that has mostly been in the upper half of the league in attendance since 2011.

The one time the Lynx missed the playoffs was in 2022, when star forward Napheesa Collier missed all but four games after taking parental leave. Collier informed the Lynx immediately after she found out she was pregnant—and the two sides agreed to let their best player take time off.

The decision mirrors what happened with Lynx great Maya Moore. The 2014 MVP sat out the 2019 season as she dedicated her time to work on freeing her now-husband from prison. Moore was 29 at the time, and never returned to action, retired in 2023, and had her jersey retired by the team in August.

The Lynx’ player-friendly decisions come as the Las Vegas Aces deal with a lawsuit filed in August by Los Angeles Sparks forward Dearica Hamby, who alleged the Aces discriminated against her when she informed them of her pregnancy. Las Vegas coach Becky Hammon has denied any mistreatment of Hamby.