The Las Vegas Aces capped off an historic year in franchise history with the club’s first WNBA Championship Sunday night, defeating the Connecticut Sun 78-71.
The championship is just the latest piece of hardware Aces personnel have picked up this season. In addition to the title, the Aces also claimed the Commissioner’s Cup this season to go along with a slew of personal accolades.
Connecticut forward Alyssa Thomas put up another triple double stat line recording 11pts/11ast/10reb in the loss as her team fell agonizingly short yet again after another strong regular season performance.
Meanwhile, Aces guard Chelsea Gray led the way for Vegas with 20pts/5reb/6ast en route to being named the Finals MVP for her efforts over the course of the 4 game series.
“We champs! We champs! We champs!” screamed A’ja Wilson as she and her teammates put on their championship shirts and hats following the final buzzer. “This is what we’re building. This is what we’re doing. This is it. I’m so happy right now.”
Las Vegas finished first in the conference for the 3rd consecutive year, and were determined to make sure the “third time’s the charm” in 2022. After 2 conference final losses and a WNBA finals loss between 2019 and 2021, the Aces were finally able to summit the mountain in head coach Becky Hammon’s first year with the organization.
Hammon, who is the first rookie head coach to capture the WNBA championship in league history couldn’t say enough good things about her team following the win. “They’re unbelievable on the court, but they’re unbelievable humans first and foremost…They care about each other. They invest in each other. It’s been an absolute honour to be their coach. I saw excellence and I wanted to be a part of it.”
The former Spurs assistant previously interviewed for head coaching positions with the NBA’s Portland Trailblazers and Orlando Magic. After being passed over for those vacancies, the 45 year old signed a $1M contract with the Aces becoming the highest paid coach in WNBA history. That faith, shown by Aces owner Mark Davis, was rewarded in spades as Hammon and the Aces steamrolled the competition all season long.
A’ja Wilson took home MVP honours for 2022, along with the defensive player of the year mantle and a first team All-WNBA selection. Joining her on the All-WNBA first team was guard Kelsey Plum. 1st time All-Star Jackie Young was named the league’s most improved player. And coach Becky Hammon took home Coach of the Year honours while capturing the WNBA championship in her first year at the helm.
-Kyle Skinner
Twitter: @JKyleSkinner
Photo: Laurie Shaull. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.