A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
A record-breaking WNBA season ended with an historic winner-take-all championship game.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
UNIDENTIFIED SPORTSCASTER: Twenty-eight years in the making. The New York Liberty WNBA champions.
MARTÍNEZ: That was the final call on ESPN as the Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in overtime in the fifth and last game of the WNBA finals. New York has won the city's first professional basketball championship since the Knicks in 1973. Here's series MVP Jonquel Jones.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED RECORDING)
JONQUEL JONES: It means everything to be able to pull out a championship and pull out a win. I just know how bad everybody in the locker room wanted it. And, you know, it's a great group. We really love each other, so to be able to finish the season like this, as champions, is second to none.
MARTÍNEZ: To break it all down is Jesse Washington from ESPN's Andscape. Jesse, how did the Liberty win last night's game? I mean, they could barely make a bucket, but they wound up winning the game.
JESSE WASHINGTON: Man, they won it with mental toughness. I mean, let me tell you, Breanna Stewart, you know, the star Liberty forward going 4-for-15. Sabrina Ionescu going 1-for-19 from the game. This is a woman who went shot for shot with Steph Curry in the three-point contest. But check it out - Ionescu had eight assists. Breanna Stewart had 15 rebounds. And so they're adding in other areas if their shot wasn't falling. It was a slug fest, it was physical, and the Liberty just turned out to be tougher.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. They've been runner up four times at the WNBA finals, so it's their first championship, so great season for them. Now, Jesse, the WNBA as a whole, though, they had an incredible season, meteoric raises in ratings and attendance. How can the league now build off of the exposure and the excitement that's growing around women's basketball?
WASHINGTON: Yeah, well, the first way they're going to do it is by extending the championship series to seven games. And I got to tell you, after last night's game and this whole series, I wish we had some more basketball to watch...
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter) Yeah.
WASHINGTON: ...You know, but we don't. So next year, the finals will go to seven games. That's going to be great. They have expansion on the way with a couple of new teams, one out in Golden State. And so they're really going to keep this momentum going - these rookies that we had this season that came in and injected a dose of excitement. And then it never hurts to have the champs in the biggest media market in the country, in New York.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah. Now, here's the other thing, too, because the WNBA players' union has until November 1 to decide to opt out of their current collective bargaining agreement. Jesse, I mean, anyone that's negotiated a deal knows you got to strike when the iron's hot. And right now, the iron is very hot for the WNBA. What are they risking, though, if they do?
WASHINGTON: You know, I don't think they're risking that much. So the big thing with these pro leagues is what percentage of the revenue did they receive? And for comparison's sake, the NBA players get half of all league revenues. The WNBA players only get 10% right now, so I think that they've got - only place they can go is up. They've got millions, hundreds of millions in new money coming in, 200-million deal with Disney and Amazon to broadcast games. So I think that the WNBA does opt out to get a larger percentage of the revenue, get the players' salaries to go up - right now, the top salary is only about $250,000 a season - and to get all these amenities that they really deserve as some of the best basketball players in the world.
MARTÍNEZ: And quickly, I mean, both sides want this, I would assume. I mean, can you imagine what a labor strike might mean for all the progress they've made?
WASHINGTON: I'm going to stand on it. I've been jacked up on some of my predictions on this show before.
MARTÍNEZ: (Laughter).
WASHINGTON: But I'm standing on it. It ain't going to happen. Next season, we running it back - running it back, CBA. Let's go W. We got to keep it rolling.
MARTÍNEZ: All right, that's Jesse Washington with ESPN's Andscape. Jesse, thank you very much.
WASHINGTON: Appreciate you.
(SOUNDBITE OF MATT LARGE'S "COME WITH ME") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.
