LAS VEGAS -- The WNBA Finals begin on Friday without any of the three favored preseason contenders. The reigning champion New York Liberty, 2024 Finals runner-up Minnesota Lynx and sparkly newcomer Indiana Fever are all back home watching the first-ever best-of-seven series like the rest of us.
Blame injuries for that one. In a season defined by stars missing time due to them, each of the above teams was bounced from the postseason in part because of injuries sustained during it. And for each team, one of their most important contributors was affected.
While it is not necessarily the fault of officiating -- a topic that has taken over these playoffs -- it remains a problem for a league finally attuned to marketing its biggest stars individually. The WNBA wanted household names and it has them, but those well-known superstars not taking the floor on the largest stage of the year is a knock to the league as a whole.
"You have to protect your product," Aces head coach Becky Hammon said specifically of the type of play that injured MVP runner-up Napheesa Collier in the Minnesota Lynx's semifinal series.
That idea applies more widely as well. Teams are investing in practice facilities to best take care of their players, keeping them healthy and on the floor. The Aces have praised their facility in the past for that exact thing. They're back in the Finals, attempting to win a third title in four years with limited injury difficulties. MVP A'ja Wilson missed a few games, while forwards Megan Gustafson and Cheyenne Parker-Tyus (pregnancy) also missed time.
The Mercury are also healthy at the right time after playing only 10 of 44 regular-season games with their trio of Alyssa Thomas, Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally available.
Every team in the league experienced injury difficulty at some point in the season because that's just how it goes. It's a part of sports, a result of any combination of scheduling, rest and recovery, preparation, training, travel, physicality and, most often, just darn bad luck.
Yet, it's hard to ignore how injuries to star players so vastly shook up the season and the postseason.
The Liberty bowed out first after two-time MVP Breanna Stewart sustained a sprained MCL in the Game 1 overtime win against the Finals-bound Phoenix Mercury. They dropped Game 2 at home while Stewart fought through the injury mentally and physically. New York felt her lack of mobility most defensively, and despite a herculean effort from Stewart in Game 3, their season came to an end. This after a season of absences to Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, as well as almost their entire frontcourt in August.
Next came the Lynx in a semifinals crash-out heard 'round the world, when Napheesa Collier tore ligaments and a shin muscle in her left ankle in the final minute of a Game 3 loss. She did not play in Game 4, nor did head coach Cheryl Reeve lead from the sideline after the league suspended her. Minnesota blew a series-defining 20-point lead in Game 2, ending their year with three consecutive losses despite leading the league nearly wire-to-wire with a comfortable cushion on the No. 1 seed.
DiJonai Carrington, their X-factor pick-up at the trade deadline, was also ruled out with a mid-foot sprain she sustained in the first round against Golden State. The Lynx played 11 regular-season games without Collier, a stretch that didn't faze them amid a relatively injury-free season.
Somehow, the Fever were the last of the trio standing despite becoming the underdogs of the league. The shorthanded squad stole Game 1 in Las Vegas and forced Game 5, even taking the Aces to overtime despite losing guard Kelsey Mitchell in the third quarter. Mitchell said on Wednesday she experienced rhabdomyolysis, a rare muscle injury in which muscles break down. She is expected to make a full recovery.
"In other words, I played literally til [sic] my wheels fell off," Mitchell wrote in a social media message.
How very Mitchell of her, and indicative of the weight she carried for Indiana amid a gutting year. The Fever played the back half of their season with most of their preseason roster on the bench. They had five season-ending injuries this year, including soft tissue injuries to Caitlin Clark, and experienced significant injuries to Aari McDonald and Sydney Colson in the same game.
There doesn't have to be one cause for all of the injuries this year. Maybe it really is just one of those unlucky years. And injuries are not the only reason the Finals will be played between the Aces and Mercury. It never is.
What's clear is that it's an issue negatively impacting both sides. Teams want their best players available to win, and to reap the rewards of that. The league wants the best stars available to grow interest and viewership.
As the standard continues to rise, everyone involved would be wise to assess whether there is progress to be made on the injury front. What comes of that, after Collier went scorched earth with swift backing from players, is the story of the offseason.
Once the Finals of healthy teams are through, of course.