WNBA 2025: The highlights of the season

You bet! The 2025 WNBA season was one for the history books.

The 2025 postseason was the most watched in ESPN history, averaging 1.2 million viewers across all 24 postseason games. Across all networks, this postseason was the most watched since 1999. 

Here’s what you missed.

A draft class for the ages

Led by the Dallas Wings No. 1 pick and rookie of the year, Paige Bueckers, the 2025 draft class stepped out. 

Bueckers broke the WNBA rookie-scoring record against the Los Angeles Sparks with 44 points. The record was previously held by two-time MVP Candace Parker with 40 points in 2008.

Three rookies started every single game they played this season: Bueckers and the Washington Mystics’ Sonia Citron and Kiki Iriafen. 

This season saw a number of rookies with previous professional playing experience, including Monique Akoa Makani and Lexi Held of the Phoenix Mercury, who made it all the way to the WNBA finals.

The Las Vegas Aces are the 2025 champions

The Las Vegas Aces, led by the WNBA’s only four-time MVP A’ja Wilson, won their third championship in four years, cementing themselves as a dynasty in WNBA history. 

The Aces big three of Wilson, Chelsea Gray, and Jackie Young led the team from round one against the Seattle Storm, eliminated the Indiana Fever in the semifinals, and a clean sweep against the Phoenix Mercury in the finals. 

Las Vegas had a .500 rating halfway through the season, and suffered a crushing 58-point loss at the hands of the Minnesota Lynx on Aug. 2. 

Wilson texted her teammates after the loss: “If you weren’t embarrassed from yesterday, then don’t come into this gym. You’re not needed or wanted here. We need the mindset to shift, because that was embarrassing.”

That moment was a catalyst for the Aces’ season. Las Vegas closed out the regular season on a 16-game winning streak — the longest win streak in franchise history.

An incredible season for an incredible team.

(Lack of) league leadership

Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier called out WNBA Commissioner Cathy Engelbert in her season exit interview for her terrible leadership. 

“We have the best players in the world. We have the best fans in the world, but right now we have the worst leadership in the world,” Collier said. “Year after year, the only thing that remains consistent is the lack of accountability from our leaders.”

Collier, with New York Liberty star and two-time MVP Breanna Stewart, are co-founders of Unrivaled, a three-on-three professional women’s basketball league for WNBA players in the off-season. Collier’s husband, Alex Bazzell, is the president of Unrivaled.

“I have the privilege of watching my husband run a league where he has to balance a hundred different things at once,” Collier said. “I won’t pretend the job is easy, but even with all of that on his plate, he always takes the time to reach out to players when he sees an injury, whether it’s Unrivaled or even during the WNBA season.”

“Do you know who I haven’t heard from? Cathy. Not one call, not one text. Instead, the only outreach has come from her No. 2 telling my agent that she doesn’t believe physical play is contributing to injuries. That is infuriating, and it’s the perfect example of the tone deaf, dismissive approach that our leaders always seem to take.”

From poor officiating to a lack of trust between players and the commissioner’s office, players feel undervalued.

A lack of inconsistent officiating has resulted in many player injuries. As of the end of the season, 30 players were listed as injured, not including all of the players who were injured and recovered during the season.

The Indiana Fever were hit the hardest by the injury bug, with six players injured. The Fever still made it to the semifinals and managed to force a Game 5 against the Aces. 

League leadership needs to improve or be booted out, because the current lack of leadership hurts players, fans, and the growth of the WNBA.