Welcome to the era of WNBA Super Teams. New stars do not need to be applied.
The Liberty began their much-hyped season as the newest super team on the block, winning their home opener against the Indiana Fever, 90-73.
Fans at Barclays Center welcomed Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jonquel Jones, while Indiana fans got a glimpse of Aliyah Boston, the No. 1 overall draft pick, for the second time in the regular season.
It was Stewart who stole the show, scoring 45 points, a career high and single-game franchise record, in her Brooklyn debut with the Liberty.
But this weekend, fans across the country didn’t see any of the standout players from this year’s NCAA Division I championship game that was drafted last month. They didn’t see Charli Collier, who was the first overall pick just two years ago. Neither a championship ring nor first-round status could guarantee a spot on a WNBA roster.
In the days before the season started Friday, those players were all part of a long list of NCAA stars who were unceremoniously dropped from professional rosters.
Instead, fans saw the emergence of two super teams thanks to a free arms race. The defending champion Las Vegas Aces added seven-time All-Star Candace Parker to a roster that already included A’ja Wilson, last season’s most valuable player, and high-scoring guard Kelsey Plum. The Liberty, a WNBA original franchise hungry for their first championship, added Stewart, Jones and Vandersloot to a group led by 2020 No. 1 Sabrina Ionescu.
How can future super teams like this be created if newcomers are not given a chance to thrive?
“Let me just say this,” Alexis Morris, who started as point guard for Louisiana State in the title game, said on TikTok after the Connecticut Sun cut her. “It’s OK if you’re waived for the 2023 WNBA.”
“Everyone did,” she added. “No one was safe.”
For longtime fans of the league, this isn’t particularly surprising. Dramatic cuts like this happen every year. With 12 teams and 144 roster spots in the league, only about half of the 36 players selected in the WNBA draft make it to Opening Day. Only 15 of the players selected this year are on a roster now.
Players in the United States must wait until the year they turn 22 to qualify for the WNBA, three years longer than men seeking to enter the NBA
“I’m in no hurry to get to the league,” said the star LSU forward Angel Reese, a popular figure in name, image and likeness deals since her team won the title in April. “The money I make is more than some people in the league who might be top players.”
In New York on Sunday, who played was just as remarkable as who didn’t. The Liberty had cut DiDi Richards, a fan favorite since the team drafted her in 2021. LaDazhia Williams, a rookie who was part of LSU’s title run, was no longer included in Indiana’s roster.
“Training at home for an entire league,” says Nneka Ogwumike, the Los Angeles Sparks star forward and president of the players’ union. wrote on Twitter.
There’s also a slew of fans looking for players they watched in early April. An average of 9.9 million viewers watched the championship game between Iowa and LSU, setting a record. The American Airlines Center in Dallas hosted a capacity of over 19,000 fans. None of the three finals players who were drafted made an opening day roster.
It’s a predicament that’s painfully obvious to both current WNBA stars and those who have been cut. This spring Plum, the No. 1 overall pick in 2017, started a “Dawg classwith the goal of helping collegiate athletes make the transition to the professional level.
After Morris’ first day of training at the Sun, she said on TikTok, “To grow the league, you have to prepare the players for what’s to come.” She added, “I think the style of play you play in college can help or hurt you as you move up to the next level.”
Even still, skill doesn’t necessarily translate into a roster spot. Current and fired players point to expansion – both teams and roster sizes – as a solution. More investment in the league, players and fans argue, certainly means there could be more teams and more seats for more players. Last year, the league raised $75 million from more than two dozen investors. Last season was the most-watched regular season in 14 years, with a viewership increase of 16 percent from the 2021 season.
But further change will take time.
“We’re in no hurry,” WNBA commissioner said Cathy Engelbert, adding that the league is looking to add at least two teams in the next two to four years. “Longer term, more than that,” she added.
The pressure grows as the number of viewers rises. A sold-out crowd of nearly 20,000 attended the league’s first game in Canada, between the Minnesota Lynx and the Chicago Sky, in Toronto on May 13.
On Sunday, Stewart watched the thousands of fans in the stands celebrate her super team’s maiden victory and home debut. “I think I made the right decision” she said of coming to the Liberty (1-1).
The Fever (0-2) certainly feels the same way about choosing Boston, which had 15 points on Sunday. She hasn’t been able to propel Indiana to victory yet, but at least she’ll get a chance to try.