2024 WNBA Season Recap
The 2024 WNBA season is now over, and we have a new WNBA Champion. The New York Liberty is the new WNBA Champion, and it was their first ever WNBA Championship in franchise history. The 2024 WNBA season was truly historic. The rookie class drew so much attention, thanks in large part to rookie superstars, Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese. The league finally shifted to a higher level this season. Let’s start with recapping the 2024 WNBA season. I recapped all the WNBA’s major events that took place during this season. I headlined each of the major events and I wrote my final thoughts on what this 2024 WNBA season meant for me. This was year eight of covering the WNBA on my blog and my second straight season and third overall of covering the WNBA rookies.
WNBA Commissioner Cup
The 2024 WNBA Commissioner Cup took place for the fourth straight season and the Minnesota Lynx defeated the New York Liberty who won the Commissioner Cup last season to become the new WNBA Commissioner Cup champions. Napheesa Collier of the Minnesota Lynx was named MVP.
WNBA All-Star Weekend/WNBA All-Star Game
The 2024 WNBA All-Star weekend took place in Phoenix, Arizona for the third time in history and Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream won both the Starry 3-point contest and Skills challenge. She became the first ever WNBA player to win both events at a single All-Star weekend. Due to the 2024 Summer Olympics taking place during this WNBA season, the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game took place between Team United States versus the Team WNBA. The United States Team was made up of WNBA players who were representing the United States in the upcoming Summer Olympics. The Team WNBA was made up of WNBA players who were voted in by fan votes, sports media and their own fellow WNBA players. Team WNBA defeated the United States Olympic Team by eight points and Arike Ogunbowale of the Dallas Wings broke the All-Star Game scoring record with 34 points, which she scored in the second half and earned herself a second WNBA All-Star Game MVP award. A historic 3.44 million viewers watched the game, and it peaked at 4.05 million which was record-breaking.
2024 Summer Olympics
The 2024 Summer Olympics took place during this season and the WNBA went on a month break. A total of 32 active WNBA players took part in participating for their national teams, with the United States featuring the most active WNBA players with all 12 players being on WNBA teams. Team Australia had the second highest with eight active WNBA players followed by Team Canada with four. The United States won the gold medal for the eighth straight time in a one-point win over Team France who won the silver medal for the second time in national team history. Team Australia won the bronze medal for the third time in national history after defeating Team Belgium who finished in fourth place. A’ja Wilson of the United States was named the MVP of the Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament and Breanna Stewart of Team United States as well as France’s Gabby Williams, Belgium’s Emma Meeseman and Australia’s Alanna Smith made the All-Tournament Team. Diana Taurasi of the United States made history when she won a record sixth Olympic gold medal which was the most in Olympic basketball history.
WNBA Playoffs
After the Summer Olympics were over, the WNBA resumed and finished up the regular season and the 2024 WNBA Playoffs began. Eight teams qualified for this season’s WNBA Playoffs. The New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx, Connecticut Sun, Las Vegas Aces, Seattle Storm, Indiana Fever, Phoenix Mercury and the Atlanta Dream were the top eight teams. In the first round, New York, Las Vegas, Minnesota and Connecticut easily defeated their opponents (Atlanta Dream, Phoenix Mercury, Indiana Fever and Seattle Storm) 2-0 to advance to the semi-finals. In the semi-finals, the New York Liberty easily defeated the Las Vegas Aces 3 games to 1 to advance to the WNBA Finals for the second straight season. The Minnesota Lynx closely battled the Connecticut Sun and defeated them 3 games to 2 to advance to the WNBA Finals for the first time in eight seasons. Their last WNBA Finals appearance was in the 2017 WNBA season, and it was that season in which they won their franchise’s fourth WNBA title.
The 2024 WNBA Finals were truly a historic and record-breaking series because the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx closely battled in all 5 games and 3 out of the 4 games were won in the final moments of the game. Game 5 went into overtime and the New York Liberty won by five points to become the new WNBA Champion, and they won their first ever WNBA title in franchise history. It was wonderful and remarkable to watch, and many WNBA Finals games drew high TV ratings. Jonquel Jones was named the Finals MVP for the first time in her career as she also had won her first ever WNBA Championship for the first time, after being denied the previous seasons.
2024 WNBA Awards
Now, it’s time to name who won this season’s major WNBA awards. Let’s start with the Most Improved Player of the Year. The Connecticut Sun’s DiJonai Carrington won the Most Improved Player of the Year Award for the first time in her career. Next up is the Defensive Player of the Year. The Minnesota Lynx’s Napheesa Collier won the award for the first time in her career. The Coach and Executive of the Year award went to Minnesota Lynx’s Cheryl Reeve who is both the WNBA head coach and president of basketball operations for the Minnesota Lynx. She won the award for the fourth time in her career. To no surprise, the Indiana Fever’s rookie and top pick of the 2024 WNBA Draft, Caitlin Clark won the Rookie of the Year. The Las Vegas Aces Tiffany Hayes won the 6th Woman of the Year for the first time in her career and finally her teammate, A’ja Wilson won the Kia MVP Award for a record-tying third time in her career.
Final Thoughts
Wow. What an incredible, record-breaking wonderful WNBA season. I could not simply ask for more. I have been wanting the WNBA to become mainstream for the past 16 years and it finally happened this season. If I asked people on the street for who a WNBA player was, they would finally be able to tell you. The marketing and star power of this incredible rookie class is insane. What they can do and draw an even larger fanbase is fantastic. We have 3 new expansion franchises coming. One in San Francisco next season, one in Portland, Oregon and finally, one is coming to my province of Ontario. I finally have a local WNBA team that I can go and see in the capital city of Toronto. In two years, that is a reality. What the WNBA can achieve with the ability of being able to draw even more international attention and bring in a new group of little girls and boys to watch the WNBA is inspiring.
I stopped tweeting last year and this was my second season of WNBA Threads, but my first full season of only posting to Threads and Instagram and I was able to find a new WNBA community on Threads. They helped me build a strong following on Threads and I hope it continues to grow as we get ready for the WNBA Draft Lottery, the WNBA expansion draft, the 2025 WNBA Draft and the introduction of the new WNBA expansion team, the San Francisco Valkyries next year. I can’t fully comprehend of what this season has meant for me. It meant a lot as a WNBA blogger and freelance writer for Her Hoop Stats. Thanks for continuing to read my work on both the blog and for Her Hoop Stats.
Best Regards,
Aneela Khan
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