For a league that began with a team winning not one, not two, not three, but four championships in a row, repeats have been rare. After the Houston Comets launched the WNBA with four-consecutive championships from 1997 to 2000, the Los Angeles Sparks captured back-to-back titles in 2001 and 2002. It took until 2022 and 2023 for another team to repeat, with the Las Vegas Aces completing the feat.
Now, the defending champion New York Liberty, who bore close witness to the Aces’ back-to-back triumph, are attempting to become the fourth repeat champion in WNBA history.
Their quest is off to an inauspicious start, evidence of why it has been so hard for great WNBA teams, including the dynastic Minnesota Lynx of the 2010s, to consolidate a championship with another one in the following season. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton is expected to miss the entire regular season, while Breanna Stewart was limited to begin training camp after undergoing a knee scope in March. Then, the team will be without Leonie Fiebich, Nyara Sabally and Marine Johannès beginning in the mid-June, as the three will represent their national teams—Germany for Fiebich and Sabally; France for Joahnnès—in EuroBasket Women.
Navigating a 44-game season to make it to the first-ever best-of-seven WNBA Finals…
