WNBA power lies with two superteams. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing

Over the course of its 27 year history, the WNBA has come to be defined by dynastic superteams and fierce rivalries.

It dates back to the league’s humble beginnings in the late 1990s, when the now-defunct Houston Comets won the first four WNBA finals, defeating the New York Liberty in three of them. The Minnesota Lynx were next, appearing in six finals between 2011 and 2017, winning four titles.

But those teams were built in very particular ways. The Comets became the WNBA’s first dynasty because the league distributed players to each team ahead of its inaugural season and had no idea how good four-time WNBA finals MVP Cynthia Cooper would be. Whereas the Lynx were built primarily through the draft, being fortunate enough to select Maya Moore and Seimone Augustus No 1 overall, and later trading for Sylvia Fowles.

The WNBA’s new superteam era is fundamentally different, because the rising tides in Las Vegas and New York were not born out of the league’s mistakes or chance in the draft, but through free agency. A new collective bargaining agreement ratified in 2020 gave players the freedom to choose their destinations for the first time in league history.

It came to a head this winter when two of the greatest players of all time headed for opposite sides of the US for two of the league’s biggest markets, with Candace Parker joining the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces and Breanna Stewart going to the New York Liberty.

As a result of an unprecedented level of player movement, the WNBA’s next era is going to look fundamentally different. But it could also be a whole lot better for everyone involved.

“I’m a big rivalry [person],” Parker said after a recent Aces practice. “You think about the foundation of every single thing