Commentary + Critique
In celebrating the WNBA’s 25th season, the league on Sunday (Sept. 5) revealed during halftime of the hotly-awaited matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and the Chicago Sky (ABC) “The W25” — or the 25 best players in the league’s storied history. Here are the players who made the exclusive list.
ESPN brazenly favors University of Connecticut Huskies women’s basketball players for its Best College Female Athlete ESPY. The blind devotion to UConn sent Caitlin Clark (University of Iowa) home without the award in 2021 even though she outperformed Paige Bueckers: the anointed Husky du jour who received it. UConn has dominated the category so egregiously in the 20-year history of the ESPYS that only two players from other other programs — Candace Parker (University of Tennessee) and Brittney Griner (Baylor University) — have ever won it.
A’ja Wilson, the eventual No. 1 overall draft pick in the 2018 WNBA Draft, would have been the rightful winner had ESPN not made the dubious decision to cancel the category that year.
Watching Diana Taurasi engaged in war with her own body is as painful a sight to watch as the look of USA Basketball no longer dominating on the world stage, and putting its gold medal potential at risk because of loyalty to a few individuals over the good of the team. It is long past time for USA women’s basketball to ensure that more players get the chance to realize their Olympic dreams.
USA Basketball and the WNBA have worked hard for years to ensure the individual legacies of Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi. Such unbridled devotion, however, has come at increasingly steeper costs in recent years — putting at risk the success of the teams they play for and denying other players the opportunity to chase their dreams. Seimone Augustus held this awareness of other players in mind when considering retirement. By putting “we” over “me,” she surrendered ego and greed, and humbly stepped aside. Is it time for other players who’ve already fulfilled their dreams to follow suit?
Like Lindsey Whalen and Rebekkah Brunson before her, Seimone Augustus was a key figure in helping the Minnesota Lynx win four championships in seven seasons. She deserved to retire in Minnesota, where she built her legacy and helped turn the struggling Lynx franchise into a dynasty. Her retirement press conference was filled with wisdom. And on her way off the basketball court, she showed uncommon selfishness toward younger players seeking to become one of the 144 lucky women to claim a roster spot in the WNBA. But the biggest question looms: Which superstars get to retire where they built their legacies and which do not?
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have been elected President and Vice President of the United States, respectively, and various figures in the WNBA (and beyond) couldn’t be happier.
Sue Bird’s jersey topped sales during the 2020 WNBA regular season suggesting the veteran Seattle Storm star, and other future Hall of Famers such as Diana Taurasi of the Phoenix Mercury (second in sales) and Candace Parker of the Los Angeles Sparks (third in sales), are gaining long overdue mainstream recognition. But what about the league’s young stars like Breanna Stewart and A’ja Wilson, who will battle in this year’s WNBA Finals for the Storm and Las Vegas Aces, respectively? Will culturally ubiquity come for them before they’re teetering on the door of retirement?