What can a person say about the WNBA finals that hasn’t already been said? Nothing. What really matters–that is, the truth–has already been spoken. The title “was stolen” from the Lynx, coach Cheryl Reeve said. True. “That wasn’t a foul,” LeBron James said. Also true.
Not only did Alanna Smith not foul Breanna Stewart on the penultimate play of regulation, but Stewart very obviously travelled before the phantom foul.
Mike Wilbon, a talking head on ESPN’s Pardon the Interruption said that there’s a problem both in the NBA and the WNBA, and that is the desperate desire on the part of the league and the media–and, apparently, the officials–for the big-city teams to win. Wilbon went on to say that the Lynx got screwed by the officials not just in game 5 but throughout the series.
Well, in the end the Liberty shot just 12 more foul shots than the Lynx. Through 4 games, the Lynx had shot 5 more FT than the Liberty. But, twice the discrepancy was more than 10. In game 4 in Minneapolis, the Lynx shot 20 FT, the Liberty just 9. Liberty coach Sandy Brondello went ballistic. She dropped an F-bomb and said she was “pissed” about the officiating. “Just be fair,” she said.
Well, predictably, Brondello’s tirade and the simple fact that game 5 was in New York served to intimidate the WNBA’s junior high school caliber officials, so they went into New York and promptly gave the Liberty 25 foul shots and the Lynx just 8. Now it was Reeve’s turn for a tirade. No word yet on whether either Brondello or Reeve have been fined, but it says here that Cheryl will get fined and Brondello won’t.
Oh, and by the way, WNBA president Cathy Engelbert, another of the league’s junior high school caliber talents, was blasted in the media for her choice of dress at the finals. She wore a dress that depicted the New York skyline, making it just oh, so obvious who she and her league and her officials were pulling for.
You may recall, of course, that the Lynx got screwed once before, in 2016. The Lynx led 74-73, then had a stellar defensive possession, causing the L.A. Sparks to violate the shot clock. Oh, yeah, they hit a shot, but it came probably a full 2 seconds–one-Mississippi, two-Mississippi–after the shot clock had expired and the buzzer went off. Everybody heard it. But, wait, the game continued. The Lynx came down and scored, then L.A. took a timeout. So, no, during the stoppage of play, the officials approached the scorer’s table with the obvious intention of ruling the previous Sparks basket no good. The official scorer said, no, you have to call that when it happens. You can’t call that later on. And, so, the basket counted. Ten million people knew that it was bullshit, but the basket counted. The Lynx now led 76-75 instead of 76-73. And, so, with 3 seconds left in the game, Nneka Ogwumike scored for L.A. and the official (bullshit) score was L.A. 77 the Lynx 76.
Well, you and I know that the Lynx won that game fair and square 76-75. They’re the legit 2016 WNBA champion. And, now, they’re the legit 2024 WNBA champion, winners of game 5 by a score of 60-58.
So is it just bad luck? Or is Mike Wilbon correct? The WNBA wanted L.A. and NYC to win those titles. They wanted the Lynx to lose. Somebody said that Cathy Engebrecht should be fire as league president immediately for wearing that pro-Liberty dress. Well, the fact is that the entire league should be disbanded. It is a bullshit, junior high school organization. It has not earned the right or the opportunity to live. The whole operation should die today.