WNBA commissioner’s gown for trophy presentation is sports activities’ wildest new conspiracy concept

The 2024 WNBA season shattered league information for attendance and viewership. It culminated with an instantaneous basic WNBA Finals collection between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx that produced 5 wonderful video games of high-level basketball.

The Liberty took dwelling an additional time win within the decisive Sport 5 on Sunday night time to assert their first championship in franchise historical past. The Liberty have been the very best crew all season, which ought to make them really feel like a becoming champion. There’s solely drawback: the ultimate sport had so many controversial calls go New York’s method in crunch-time that nobody felt happy with the ending.

Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve (who additionally coached Crew USA to a gold medal on the 2024 Paris Olympics) completely obliterated the refs after the sport, saying the sport was “stolen” from her crew by the officers. There have been a number of unquestionable calls down the stretch, beginning with a late foul name on Minnesota in opposition to Breanna Stewart that allowed New York to tie the sport (the foul was tender and it additionally regarded like Stewart traveled). There have been a number of situations of Lynx famous person Napheesa Collier getting hit with out a foul being referred to as. The refs additionally selected to not name a transparent path foul on the Liberty in additional time after a assessment. The Liberty ended the sport with a 25-8 free throw benefit.

It’s lame to complain in regards to the refs after such a basic collection. Minnesota led by 12 factors earlier within the sport, and shouldn’t have wanted a dramatic end to beat the Liberty. On the similar time, the tip of that sport and this season simply didn’t really feel proper. That sentiment went into overdrive when WNBA commissioner Cathy Engelbert got here out to current the championship trophy to the Liberty.

Engelbert confirmed as much as the sport sporting a gown with the New York Metropolis skyline on it. That’s a horrible search for somebody who is meant to be goal heading right into a decisive Sport 5. The WNBA even deleted a tweet displaying Engelbert’s gown that everybody was criticizing within the quotes. Right here’s a take a look at the commish’s gown:

And right here’s a few of the criticism, solely including to the concept the league wished New York to win the championship:

WNBA participant Sydney Colson of the Las Vegas Aces even discovered the gown and tried it on because the controversy was brewing Monday.

The WNBAPA opted out of the CBA on Monday afternoon following the tip of the season. Solidarity with the gamers.

That is doubtless going to be a messy labor affair. Curiosity in ladies’s basketball is thru the roof. Two years in the past, underneath 400K folks watched the WNBA Finals. This 12 months, that quantity was at 1.7 million. It’s solely going to maintain going up as a result of the product is improbable. The league nonetheless feels prefer it’s run like a minor league in some ways, with a lot low-hanging fruit to scrub up on the enterprise and advertising and marketing aspect. Engelbert doesn’t really feel match to guide the league into the long run if she’s going to make a mistake as foolish as sporting that New York gown.

The WNBA is in an awesome place, and nonetheless has a lot room to develop. Did the league actually rig the championship finale for New York? We’ll by no means know, however everybody already has their thoughts made up.