There are innumerable great moments to choose from out of the WNBA’s 30th season. While its low points continue to be cherry picked into oblivion as representative of the league, it’s more than worth highlighting the exceptional.
No rankings, and no exclusion. This is “5 of (the) Best,” not “Best 5.”
CBA Changes the Game
Technically this happened before the regular season got underway, but it’s the springboard from which the 30th season leapt.
The WNBA Player’s Association and the league came to a history-making collective bargaining agreement after negotiations went on for so long that it was a genuine question whether the 30th season would be happening at all. But after all was said and done, the path was cleared for the WNBA to have its first million-dollar-plus players (the previous maximum salary was around $250k). More importantly, the players were guaranteed to benefit directly from the league’s success through a revenue share system.
Much more was also agreed upon, of course — these kinds of documents are long and complex. Compromises were made, but the union led by Nneka Ogwumike held fast to their highest priorities of salary and shares. They also set parameters for successful players on rookie contracts, previously locked at a minimum, to get paid their worth sooner based on performance awards, a nod to the next generation.
But they looked back as well, to those who stacked the first bricks in the tower, and obtained retroactive one-time additional payments to former players based on length of time in the league. While future negotiations will seek to gain more robust post-career benefits, the gesture displayed the union’s care for the legacy of the league thirty years in.
The prolonged negotiations caused the offseason to be cut extremely short, and with over 100 players as free agents and brand new contract elements to put into action, it was hectic at best. But in 1997, the average salary for a WNBA player was just $28k and there was no formal labor agreement to speak of. It felt only right for the 30th season, amidst massive growth, to take an explosive step forward into the future — with its legacy, not without.
The Olivia Miles Show
It’s not as if no one knew Olivia Miles was good. Making enough of a college career to be picked second overall — even without reaching the Final Four — is a feat in itself. But no one saw the eventual Rookie of the Year coming in so hot and flashy right from the jump.
“The Show.” “The Spectacle.” Comparisons to Magic Johnson, the much more underrated Ticha Penicheiro. The fresh-faced point guard took the reigns of one of the most storied teams in the league in the Minnesota Lynx, where a perfect confluence was waiting: a winning head coach willing to put her in front, an assistant coach best known for being one of the greatest point guards of all time, and a team of veterans without ego who wanted to see her shine.
She captured the attention of Lynx fans and everyone else from the very first game. It was a loss in the end, but she had already put the league on notice. The weeks and months afterwards showed off her sensational assists, rocket-powered drive-bys and long-range shots. But more than anything, she made known her quick and adaptable mind for the game.
Miles averaged 19.8 points, 4.7 rebounds, 6 assists, and 1.3 steals per game in her rookie season.
4x Rookie of the Month, Rookie of the Year, leading the Lynx to #1 for the regular season.
The Lynx’s disappointing and unexpected first-round playoff exit shouldn’t eclipse the talent put on display by Miles. In fact, that shows that she has room to grow — and if a season like this is only stage one, then watch out.
P.S. How did 2025’s #1 team get the second overall pick? Just ask the Chicago Sky. And while you’re at it, ask them how their side of that trade worked out (hint: she’s making a run for a ring in Atlanta).
A Presidential Game-Winner
On June 21st, the WNBA scheduled a very special game. In honor of the league’s 30th season, the Los Angeles Sparks and the New York Liberty would don jerseys calling back to their respective late-90’s branding and play a rematch of the inaugural WNBA game on its anniversary.
In 1997, players like now-legendary centers Lisa Leslie (Sparks) and Rebecca Lobo (Liberty) faced off without knowing how long this new league, owned by the NBA, would last.
In 2026, Leslie and Lobo re-enacted their tip-off. Lisa Leslie won, just as she did back then. The next question was whether the Liberty would win, just as they did. It seemed likely, after all; the Los Angeles Sparks, and this is said with respect, have struggled to find their old success in recent seasons and this one was more of the same. The Liberty, meanwhile, had a roster designed for championships.
The game is faster and the scoreboard ticks up higher. It’s still gritty and physical — it hasn’t ever really lost that. The first game was relatively sloppy seeing as teammates barely knew each other or their opponents, with very little practice time leading up to it. Now, many of the players have played with or against each other for years, and the teams are well-prepared for strategizing.
In 2026, it appeared as if the Liberty would take the win — by a much slimmer margin than the 67-57 victory back in the day, but a win nonetheless.
The Sparks had enough time for one last possession. Erica Wheeler drove hard into the lane, collapsing the defenders around her. She whipped a pass out to WNBPA leader — Madam President, as some call her — Nneka Ogwumike outside the the left bend of the arc. And as the seconds ran out and the buzzer sounded, the ball dropped into the net for three, writing the Sparks into the books as the winning team this time around.
It will likely become the exclamation point on Ogwumike’s career as well, seeing as she announced months later that she would retire from the league after the season’s conclusion.
Lights-Out Sharpshooter
Enough records were broken this season to write a several-page essay about it, so let’s focus on one in particular for now: the 3-and-D sniper guard Kayla McBride for the Minnesota Lynx, placing her name on top of an illustrious record list.
The single-game record for made three-pointers had been stuck at the odd number 9 for years. Seven players had managed to make nine in a single game, including McBride herself, on nine total occasions. Marina Mabrey of the Toronto Tempo had done it twice earlier this very season.
Coincidentally, it was August 9th when the Minnesota Lynx tipped off against the Dallas Wings. The 13-year vet, in the course of a career year, must have felt something a little different in the water in Minneapolis that day; she went on to take 14 three-point attempts.
She made 10, not only breaking the single-game three-point makes record, but doing so with over 70% efficiency.
The win was sealed over Dallas, thanks in part to McBride’s unprecedented contributions. But the focus for McBride postgame, shortly after she went to the bench to her name being chanted, wasn’t on the opponent.
“It’s crazy, I’ve been in this league for 13 years, and choosing to come back here in the offseason, I didn’t know — we didn’t know what it was going to look like.”
Kayla McBride
“Moments like this, times like this, you realize you made the right decision.”
Over the course of the season, McBride expressed emotion and gratitude for the Lynx organization on several occasions, referencing that very decision to stay despite the potential for a bigger cut of the salary cap elsewhere. By all accounts, McBride doesn’t just want to succeed as a professional basketball player as her career deepens into the mid-teens of years — she wants to succeed as a Lynx player.
Valkyries Clear the Lynx Hurdle
From a big Lynx win to a big Lynx loss: on August 24th, the Valkyries took the last game of the in-season series 80-66. But it was more than just a win, something which is only coming more clearly into focus the longer the postseason extends for the young franchise.
Since the Golden State Valkyries were established and began playing in 2025, they had managed to get at least one win over every team in the WNBA — except the Minnesota Lynx. It was the Lynx who swept them from the first round of the playoffs last year, when the Valkyries became the first expansion team to reach the postseason in its inaugural year.
Golden State had lofty ambitions even then, however. Despite how impressive that first year was, the team was established with a hard-line goal: a championship in the first five years. And, as they say, to be the best you must beat the best. For the last two seasons, the best (at least in regular season terms) has been the Minnesota Lynx, and the Valkyries just hadn’t figured out how to get the metaphorical cat off their back.
Then, August 24th. The playoffs were on the horizon (obscured slightly by an extended FIBA break). It was one more chance against the Lynx before the postseason. Sure, the Valkyries players and coaching staff don’t publicly weigh any game or opponent over another — but as we watch the team now sweep the defending champion Las Vegas Aces to reach the finals, it’s worth wondering whether something clicked into place with that win, even subconsciously.
Gabby Williams, here suited up to play for France’s national team at the FIBA World Cup, has fallen just short of gold vs. Team USA. But with the Valkyries, she still has a chance to reach the peak of a different mountain.
The Lynx’s weak spots were clarifying as August went on, and the Valkyries are nothing if not a team designed to defensively exploit weak spots. They managed to shut down the Lynx like they had shut down everyone else (at least once) and there was the sense of a dam breaking. It’s hard to imagine there wasn’t a sense of relief in the locker room to know without a doubt that they had the potential to face and defeat anyone.
Winning takes more than being technically skilled — it also takes luck and stubborn belief. The Valkyries have everything, but perhaps the last drop of belief was imbued that day. In this 30th season, the Golden State Valkyries appear confident that they will make history as a vanguard of the newest era of the WNBA. Luck still gets to have a say, though.
As mentioned, this isn’t ranked in any way. Look out for a possible second list of equivalent greatness after a champion has been crowned. Some hints…
- Atlanta’s “Dream” come true
- Sunset in Connecticut
- M’VP no. 5
- Undrafted rookie stardom
- Fever’s blazing offense
- Buzzer beaters galore
