The 2023 WNBA Finals is billed as a Battle of the Superteams between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty. Just don’t tell them that.

Throughout the season, WNBA fans have followed these All-Star-packed rosters, which already have gone toe-to-toe five times. The defending champion Aces are betting favorites, but the Liberty hold a 3-2 advantage in their 2023 meetings.

Yet the teams themselves have raised their eyebrows over the excitement, preferring to focus their attentions on the court. Here’s a selection of what Las Vegas and New York have said about the “superteam” label.

A’ja Wilson, Las Vegas Aces

May 31: “I don’t believe in superteams. I just feel like we’re all coming together with an equal goal and we’re just trying to reach that goal. That doesn’t make us a superteam because we got a couple of accolades. … It’s like, I don’t believe in ring chasing. … We’re talented, we’re skilled? Yes. But when it comes to a superteam? Nah.”

Aug. 6: “I don’t feel that we’re a superteam. I don’t feel that we’ve won enough to claim that. … When we win nine, then label me as a superteam. Put it there, yes. I’m a superteam if we win nine — in a row.”

Breanna Stewart, New York Liberty

Feb. 9: “I want to be surrounded by greatness, and when you look at these people up here and the many people that are a part of the Liberty organization, everybody wants to be better. Everybody wants to continue to raise the standard and move the needle, and we want to do that from on the court, off the court, whatever the case may be, to help this organization and the league be better.”

May 19: “Everybody knows with the roster we have, we automatically have a target on our back, even though we haven’t done anything. We won’t be perfect, especially now. Especially as we work through the kinks.”

Kelsey Plum, Las Vegas Aces

April 18: “Personally, I think that if that works and that gets people’s attention, great. But to me it’s not anything different than I just think tremendous players in the league. And it makes for really fun entertainment, which is what it’s about.”

Aug. 6: “I wouldn’t lean into it. But I would just say there’s an accountability. And I think that there’s no exceptions. you know, I think that we all come out and are consistent in the way we compete offensively and defensively. I think that’s, if you want to look at a superpower, I think we have a really good culture.”

Sabrina Ionescu, New York Liberty

Sept. 15: “I think it’s something that has gotten put on us. I don’t think we’re a superteam until we’ve won many championships in a row.”

Becky Hammon, Las Vegas Aces coach

June 29: “I think we play a fun style for the [players] and the fans, as does New York. Getting up and down — people like to play that way, shooting a lot of 3s. When the ball gets popping and everybody is happy with their teammate’s success, I think that is contagious.”

Sandy Brondello, New York Liberty coach

June 4: “You guys say it’s the great team and the superteam. We ain’t so super. There’s nothing great about our team right now; we’re going through the mud. But sometimes these things need to happen.”

Sept. 15: “I suppose that’s for the media. I focus on the process, not about what people are talking about us.”

Oct. 1: “That’s the narrative everyone wanted at the start. I didn’t like the superteam thing, but these players, they’ve played great. I think it’ll be a great series, and it’s good promotion for the WNBA.”

The makings of the New York Liberty’s first WNBA Finals run since 2002 started in the offseason, when the team assembled what many have called a superteam.

Just few days after the 2022 season ended, general manager Jonathan Kolb already was making plans, and in his mind were three players to chase in the offseason: Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot.

One by one, the dominoes fell. First came Jones, as the 2021 WNBA MVP was acquired via trade from the Connecticut Sun in January.

The signing of Stewart came afterward, but the seeds of the deal dated back to the previous offseason. Stewart met with the Liberty ahead of the 2022 season, but she did not want to leave retiring star Sue Bird in her final season with the Seattle Storm. One year later, though, all bets were off.

Kolb flew with other Liberty executives to Istanbul, where Stewart was playing in the offseason, to make their case. From that point on, there wasn’t anywhere else for the league MVP. On Jan. 31, she informed the Liberty of her plans to sign with them, and she did so the following day, the first day that free agents could sign contracts.

One day after that, Courtney Vandersloot joined the party. While she came close to signing with the Minnesota Lynx, another phone conversation with Kolb and Brondello the day before her signing changed her mind.

“When we put this team together, obviously the goal was to bring in the talent and let’s make a run for this,” head coach Sandy Brondello said Sunday. “And we certainly did that. Jonathan did a great job, and these players believed in the vision that we laid out to them to try and convince them to come to New York.”

While Kolb and Brondello brought the pieces together, the players themselves needed to find their rhythm. They started the season out of sync at times, but they found their groove, and they are sailing into the WNBA Finals against the Las Vegas Aces.

“I only spoke about championships [on] day one, and then it was over. Because you have to do a lot of hard work,” Brondello said. “It was a journey. I think early on people think you just snap your fingers and it’s gonna work. But it takes time. We got five new players trying to learn to play with each other. … We faced some adversity still but we had built up so much connection and commitment that we could overcome those.”

The New York Liberty have advanced to their first WNBA Finals since 2002, where they will go up against their superteam rival in the Las Vegas Aces.

With the 87-84 win over the Connecticut Sun in Game 4 of the WNBA semifinals, the Liberty clinched a 3-1 series victory. Three of their starters scored 20 points or more to lead New York: Breanna Stewart (27), Jonquel Jones (25) and Betnijah Laney (21).

While the Liberty have four previous WNBA Finals appearances, the last one came in 2002. New York is one of the WNBA’s eight founding franchises, but it has never won a championship.

From the start of the 2023 season, though, the Liberty and the defending champion Aces were the betting favorites to compete in the Finals. Heading into the postseason, FanDuel set -210 odds for a battle of the superteams, followed by +500 for an Aces-Sun meeting.

New York transformed into a contender with a blockbuster offseason, headlined by the signing of the premier free agent in Stewart and the trade for 2021 MVP Jones. Jones finished Sunday’s win with a double-double, posting 15 rebounds in addition to her 25 points. She also had four blocks, including an emphatic stop of Connecticut’s DeWanna Bonner in the final seconds of the first half.

Yet while the Liberty won the day (and the series), Sun forward Alyssa Thomas turned in the most memorable performance.

The 31-year-old star collided with Jones in the fourth quarter, and then she remained on the ground, grimacing in pain. But after spending several minutes in the locker room, she returned to complete the 11th triple-double of her career.

Thomas finished with a team-high 17 points, 15 rebounds and 11 assists. She leads the WNBA in career triple-doubles; no other player has more than three. She also has a record three postseason triple-doubles, after recording two in the 2022 WNBA Finals. All other players in league history have combined for two.

The New York Liberty and Las Vegas Aces will start the WNBA Finals next Sunday, Oct. 8, with Game 1 set for a 3 p.m. ET tip-off on ABC.

Las Vegas Aces star A’ja Wilson came in third in WNBA MVP voting. For head coach Becky Hammon, that’s a sure sign that the voters “didn’t do their homework.”

On Tuesday, the WNBA announced New York Liberty forward Breanna Stewart as the 2023 MVP, and Connecticut Sun forward Alyssa Thomas as the runner-up. Wilson finished in third in one of the closest races in league history. Just 13 points separated Stewart and Wilson in the final tally.

“A’ja was the most dominant player in the league this year, on the most dominant team, on the most dominant offense the league has ever seen with the No. 1 defense,” Hammon said. “I don’t know what else the girl has to do.

“Other than the East Coast media probably needs to wake up and watch our games.”

The fans at Las Vegas’ Michelob Ultra Arena made their thoughts clear, serenading Wilson with “MVP!” chants during Tuesday’s Game 2 of the WNBA semifinals against the Dallas Wings. Wilson led her team with 30 points and 11 rebounds in the 91-84 win, which put the Aces up 2-0 in the series.

The MVP award would have been the cherry on top of her season, Wilson acknowledged after the victory. But she is keeping her focus on the main course: a second consecutive WNBA championship.

“The sundae is still good without the cherry,” she said. “This team still has so much more to do.”

Still, Hammon took some responsibility upon herself for Wilson’s narrow defeat in the MVP vote. Wilson averaged fewer minutes (30.7) than Thomas (36.2) and Stewart (34.1), which could have deflated her per-game statistics.

Wilson averaged 22.8 points on 55.7% shooting from the field, and she also had 9.5 rebounds, all career highs.

“She put together the greatest individual performance this league has ever seen, when you’re talking efficiency, field-goal percentage, rebounding, defense, the whole thing,” Hammon said. “And it’s just a real shame, because we’re talking about the MVP of the league.”

Wilson’s college coach, South Carolina’s Dawn Staley, also called out WNBA awards voters for not giving enough respect to Wilson.

In particular, Staley called out one voter who put Aces guard Chelsea Gray in third place on the ballot over Wilson. Every other ballot included Stewart, Thomas and Wilson in the top three slots.

“To the fourth place voter, your hate is real and on display,” Staley wrote on X.

The announcement of the 2023 WNBA MVP award, won by New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart, elicited a flood of reactions on social media.

Stewart won the award with 446 points, but received fewer first-place votes than runner-up Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun. Las Vegas Aces forward A’ja Wilson finished in third place.

Dawn Staley, who coached Wilson at South Carolina, congratulated Stewart on her victory and Thomas on her historic season. But she had harsh words for one voter, who put Aces guard Chelsea Gray in third place on the ballot over Wilson.

“To the fourth place voter, your hate is real and on display,” Staley wrote on X.

U.S. women’s national team and San Diego Wave star Alex Morgan also complimented Stewart.

Several WNBA players and members of the media called out the voting process. Each voter on a national panel of 60 sportswriters and broadcasters listed their top five candidates, with the No. 1 player on each ballot receiving 10 points. Each subsequent spot on the ballot received fewer points, from seven for a second-place vote down to one for a fifth-place vote.

 

Washington Mystics guard Natasha Cloud wanted to see members of the voting panel stand behind their choices. Voters can reveal their ballots, but they are not required to do so.

Cloud already had slammed the WNBA awards voting process after being shut out for the All-Defensive Team selections, writing in a since-deleted post: “Voting for this league is a joke.”

Meanwhile, Indiana Fever rookie Aliyah Boston joked about her own MVP prospects. The former South Carolina star appeared on one MVP ballot, receiving a single point for a fifth-place vote, but she remains the frontrunner for the Rookie of the Year award.

“I’m almost there don’t play,” she wrote on X.

Breanna Stewart won the 2023 WNBA MVP award despite receiving fewer first-place votes than Alyssa Thomas.

How did that happen? The New York Liberty star benefitted from the ranked voting process, which allowed Stewart to accumulate more points than Thomas.

Thomas, who posted a WNBA record six triple-doubles during her historic season for the Connecticut Sun, received 23 first-place votes, compared to 20 for Stewart and 17 for A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces. But Stewart finished with 446 points, compared to 439 for Thomas and 433 for Wilson.

Each voter on a national panel of 60 sportswriters and broadcasters listed their top five candidates, with the No. 1 player on each ballot receiving 10 points. For a second-place vote, a player received seven points, while a third-place vote equaled five points, a fourth-place vote three points and a fifth-place vote one point.

Together, Stewart, Thomas and Wilson received all the first-place and second-place votes. The trio received 59 of the third-place votes, and Las Vegas Aces guard Chelsea Gray received one. Wilson also received one fourth-place vote.

In total, Stewart received 20 first-place votes, 23 second-place votes and 17 third-place votes. In contrast, Thomas received 23 first-place votes, 12 second-place votes and 25 third-place votes; her larger number of third-place votes sunk her in the overall tally.

This marks the second time in WNBA history that the MVP runner-up finished with more first-place votes than the winner. The first time was in 2005, when Lauren Jackson received more votes for the top spot but Sheryl Swoopes won the award.

2023 WNBA MVP: Voting results

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Connecticut Sun star Alyssa Thomas lost the 2023 WNBA MVP race, a long-expected outcome in a season defined by the battle of the superteams in New York and Las Vegas.

Yet while MVP winner Breanna Stewart and 2022 MVP A’ja Wilson headlined the clash of titans, Thomas put up numbers never seen before. The 31-year-old forward has posted six triple-doubles so far in 2023. No other WNBA player has had more than two in a single season.

Indeed, Thomas received more first-place votes (23) than Stewart (20) and Wilson (12). But each voter lists their top five candidates, and Stewart received more total points, edging Thomas 446-439. Wilson came in third at 433.

In the 2023 regular season, Thomas averaged 15.5 points, 9.9 rebounds and 7.9 assists per game, all career highs. She has continued that dominance in the postseason, averaging 19.3 points, 6.0 rebounds and 9.5 assists through Game 1 of the semifinals.

Teammate DiJonai Carrington summed up Thomas’ performance well after her third triple-double of the season: “I don’t want any of y’all to get used to and normalize what she’s doing out there, for real. Like, that’s not normal.”

Thomas led the league in rebounds in the regular season. She finished in second place on the assists leaderboard, behind only Liberty guard Courtney Vandersloot (8.1), but played more games than Vandersloot, which allowed her to break the single-season assists record (316). She also ranked 20th in points, and she led her team in all three categories.

In contrast, Stewart averaged 23.0 (2nd), 9.3 rebounds (3rd) and 3.8 assists (17th), and Wilson averaged 22.8 points (3rd), 9.5 rebounds (2nd) and 1.6 assists (64th).

While Thomas isn’t one to toot her own horn, her teammate and fiancée DeWanna Bonner is pushing her to recognize her accomplishments, and Thomas did so in an interview with the Washington Post’s Kareem Copeland.

“I think the biggest thing is I’m putting up something that has never been seen before,” Thomas said. “We live in an era now where it’s so much focused on scoring that I think we lose sight of the all-around game and how impressive it is.”

And Bonner has no problem giving Thomas her flowers.

“She puts people in the right position. She finds people on the court and makes it easy for everyone out there,” Bonner told the Associated Press. “I feel like she’s elevating everybody’s game on our team. That’s the definition of an MVP, and I think she’s done it night in and night out.”

New York Liberty star Breanna Stewart won the 2023 WNBA MVP award, beating out Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun and A’ja Wilson of the Las Vegas Aces.

The 2023 season has been defined by the battle of the superteams in New York and Las Vegas, and dominant performances from Stewart and Wilson exemplified the rivalry. Thomas, meanwhile, has been the engine behind the Sun’s run to the semifinals this season, reaching unprecedented heights from the forward position.

Stewart got the edge in MVP voting, claiming the league’s top individual honor for the second time in her career with 446 total points to Thomas’ 439 and Wilson’s 433. Thomas finished with the most first-place votes (23), but Stewart beat her out with 23 second-place votes (worth seven points) to Thomas’ 12. Wilson received 17 first-place votes and 25 second-place votes, as well as as a fourth-place vote. Her Aces teammate Chelsea Gray earned one third-place vote.

Stewart also won the MVP award in 2018 with the Seattle Storm. Wilson was named MVP in 2020 and 2022. This is the second time in WNBA history that the MVP runner-up finished with more first-place votes than the winner; the first was in 2005, when Lauren Jackson received more top votes but Sheryl Swoopes won the award.

A free agency frenzy surrounded Stewart ahead of the 2023 season, and she fed the beast with cryptic emoji-filled tweets. In the end, she chose New York as her destination, joining 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot among the Liberty’s prized offseason acquisitions.

Stewart lived up to the sky-high expectations, averaging 23.0 points per game, second in the WNBA only to Storm guard Jewell Loyd (24.7). The 29-year-old forward also ranked third in rebounds (9.3) and 17th in assists (3.8).

Thomas shattered the WNBA triple-double record this year, with six in 2023 alone and 10 total for her career. She averaged 15.5 points (20th), 9.9 rebounds (1st) and 7.9 assists (2nd) per game in 2023, all career highs.

Wilson averaged 22.8 points (3rd), 9.5 rebounds (2nd) and 1.6 assists (64th) for the No. 1 Aces.

“We’re at a special place in women’s basketball when there are so many great players doing so many great things every single night,” Stewart told the Associated Press earlier this month. She also won the Associated Press Player of the Year award, edging Wilson by one vote.

Stewart and the Liberty are facing off against Thomas and the Sun in the WNBA semifinals. Connecticut won the opening game of the series, 78-63, but New York will look to even the score in Game 2, which tips off at 8 p.m. ET Tuesday.

Natasha Cloud is taking exception to WNBA awards voting after being shut out for the WNBA Defensive Player of the Year award and the all-defensive team selections.

A’ja Wilson won the award as the top defensive player for the second year in a row, and Alyssa Thomas, Brittney Sykes and Betnijah Laney all received votes. Sykes and Thomas were named to the all-defensive first team alongside Wilson, as were Jordin Canada and Breanna Stewart.

Laney, Napheesa Collier, Ezi Magbegor, Nneka Ogwumike and Elizabeth Williams were named to the all-defensive second team.

For the Washington Mystics in 2023, Cloud averaged 1.1 steals and 0.3 blocks per game, while also pulling down 3.7 rebounds per game, including a career-high 3.5 defensive rebounds. All of those metrics ranked outside of the top 20 in the league. Her defensive rating (104) also put her outside the top 20.

“Voting for this league is a joke,” Cloud wrote on social media in a now-deleted post, before alluding to awards voting boiling down to politics in another post. She called it “one hell of a thing.”

“Cause y’all really f–ing playing with me,” she finished.

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In a now-deleted tweet, Natasha Cloud called out WNBA awards voting.

While Cloud did make the all-defensive first team in 2022, she called out WNBA awards voting in 2021, when she also was left off the all-defensive teams. In 2022, she averaged 3.1 defensive rebounds, 1.0 steals and 0.3 blocks, and in 2021, she averaged 3.2 defensive rebounds, a career-high 1.4 steals and 0.1 blocks.

Mystics head coach Eric Thibault also weighed in on the 2023 WNBA awards on social media, congratulating Sykes for her “well-deserved” selection to the all-defensive first team but questioning Cloud’s absence, which he called “hard to understand.”

“Removing positions for the All-Defense teams is mostly to blame,” he wrote. “Stats are how people largely vote on/explain these awards, and that means steals, blocks, and rebounds. Two of those three immediately skew towards bigs.

“I don’t think we’re going to see many guards on All-D teams going forward unless they are at the top in steals, like (Sykes) and Canada. … All that to say, there aren’t 10 players better at the craft of playing defense than (Cloud).”

When Breanna Stewart signed with the New York Liberty during the 2023 offseason, she instantly rocketed the franchise into contention.

After 26 years of existence, one of the WNBA’s founding teams has yet to win a title. But when Stewart joined Jonquel Jones and Courtney Vandersloot as key additions in New York this season, suddenly that first championship seemed not just possible, but likely.

To New York, Stewart brought her immense talent and a winning culture, having won two WNBA championships and two Finals MVP awards with the Seattle Storm. The Liberty needed both, and Stewart has been even better than advertised.

Early in the season, as Jones nursed an injury and the Liberty learned to play together, Stewart kept them afloat, coming out of the gate with 45 points in her home debut. Now, Stewart is one of three leading candidates for the WNBA MVP award — to be announced on Sept. 26 — and New York is poised for a championship run.

Stewart is averaging 23 points per game, a mark that is both second in the WNBA this season and a career-high for the 29-year-old during her seven-year career. She’s also averaging 9.3 rebounds, 3.8 assists, 1.6 blocks and 1.5 steals per game, doing a little bit of everything for the Liberty. The forward finished second to Jewell Loyd for the 2023 scoring title and all-time single-season record, recording 919 total points this season. On Tuesday, she was named AP Player of the Year, beating out A’ja Wilson by one vote.

Stewart also makes her teammates better, something that drew Vandersloot, a 2021 WNBA champion and five-time All-Star, to sign with New York and add another piece to the “superteam” puzzle.

“I think she is one of the best players in the world,” Vanderlsoot said of Stewart, after a Liberty win over the Sun in June. “She makes my job easy. She elevates my game, holds me to a high standard. That was a huge part of my decision to come here. I wanted to play with someone who would do that. She does that on a nightly basis. She is just special. She just performs every single night.”

The No. 1 overall pick of the Storm in 2016, Stewart helped the team win titles in 2018 and 2020 while also being named WNBA MVP in 2018 after averaging 21.8 points, 8.4 rebounds, 2.5 assists, 1.4 blocks and 1.4 steals that season. This year, Stewart is better in every category than she was in 2018.

This historic season in New York only adds to Stewart’s legacy and that of the Liberty, which was the goal from the day she signed. Winning another MVP award — especially over the likes of Wilson, the Las Vegas star and reigning MVP, and triple-double leader Alyssa Thomas — would make her move to the city that much sweeter.

“I decided to go to New York because I want to continue to be great,” she told ESPN at the time of her signing. “And I want to go to the place where I can continue to help this league become better, to continue to raise the standard. And I feel like why not go to the biggest market in all of sports. And I’m really excited to go after their first championship.”

The quest for a championship starts Friday, as the No. 2 seed Liberty take on the Washington Mystics in the first round. New York finished the regular season with a 32-8 record.

Eden Laase is a Staff Writer at Just Women’s Sports. Follow her on Twitter @eden_laase.