🏆 BACK ON TOP OF THE MOUNTAIN

THE LAS VEGAS ACES RETURN TO FAMILIAR TERRITORY

On October 10, the Las Vegas Aces won the WNBA championship, completing a four-game sweep against a gritty Phoenix Mercury squad. This is the Aces’ third championship in four years, and they’re now in rarified air — they join the Houston Comets as the only WNBA teams to win three championships in four years.

The last professional sports team in the United States to win three titles in four years was the NFL’s New England Patriots, who were led by Tom Brady, a minority owner and Pro Football Hall of Famer.

Even amidst the great team success, the Aces’ title took on even more meaning for some of their stars.vJewell Loyd joined this franchise after two frustrating, disappointing, and concerning final seasons with the Seattle Storm. She struggled as a starter in Vegas, but found her footing as the Sixth Woman and made critical contributions to the team throughout the playoffs and Finals.

After the ring was secured, Jewell got to flexing a little bit:

Dana Evans proved that she can be a big-time contributor on a contending team. After a frustrating 2024 season with Dallas, Evans showed in Vegas that she could be counted on in pressure moments and has earned more respect across the league in the process. She also did it on a bad knee that may require surgery at some point.

For Nalyssa Smith, she found her footing in the pros after some frustrating times with the Indiana Fever and a disappointing run with the Dallas Wings in 2025. When the Aces announced they traded a future unprotected first-round draft pick for her, there were plenty of questions as to what the Aces were thinking. However, flags fly forever, and Smith’s contributions to this team will never be forgotten.

Chelsea Gray’s return to the top of the mountain is the cherry on top of what’s been a fantastic 2025 for her. It began in Unrivaled when she helped Rose capture the championship, and ended in the WNBA Finals, where she consistently made the right plays, set her teammates up on possession after possession, and kept the Aces organized enough to withstand various Mercury comeback attempts. Gray is heading to the Hall of Fame when her career concludes, and this year is one for the history books.

And for A’ja Wilson, she bounced back from a disappointing end to 2024 and joined an air occupied by the very BEST ever to play this beautiful sport.

Now THAT’S how you cement your status as an all-time great!

Wilson’s excellence is undisputed, and she is running her own race, as Danny Webster of the Las Vegas Review-Journal noted:

“Wilson has written her own book in Las Vegas. The four-time MVP is the greatest professional athlete to ever play in the city, never mind the franchise.”

Las Vegas wins series 4-0
Game 4 recap by Jack Maloney, CBS Sports

For the Phoenix Mercury, it was a disappointing end to what has been a magical season. After the retirement of Diana Taurasi and Brittney Griner’s departure to Atlanta, the mighty Mercury retooled this winter, bringing in Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally as big-ticket pickups. Paired with the returning Kahleah Copper, expectations rose in 2025, but so did the excitement levels in the desert.

The Merc dealt with some injuries and bumps in the road throughout the regular season, but put it all together as they eliminated the reigning champion New York Liberty and 2024 Finals runner-up Minnesota Lynx on the way to the Finals. Despite the Finals sweep, Phoenix fans should feel incredibly excited about their future.

Outside of the Big Three, Phoenix saw contributions from new players such as Monique Akoa Makani and Kat Westbeld — and with Nate Tibbetts establishing himself as one of the better coaches in the WNBA, the sky is the limit for the Mercury as they head into 2026 and beyond.

 CHLOE KITTS OUT FOR THE SEASON

THE GAMECOCKS WILL HAVE TO GO WITHOUT THEIR ALL-AMERICAN

In a shocker, early in the morning on Oct. 13, South Carolina star Chloe Kitts announced that she will miss the 2025-2026 season due to an ACL tear.

“We hate this first for Chloe,” SC coach Dawn Staley said in a statement, “who has worked incredibly hard to become the best version of herself on the court this season. Her teammates are capable of stepping up, and I know that her competitive fire and tenacity will be felt from the sidelines as she pours what she can into them to ensure our team’s success.”

This will be the second major absence the SEC champions will have to navigate this season, after Ashlyn Watkins announced back in July that she would not play either. The college basketball season will begin on Monday, Nov. 3.

All the best to Kitts as she recovers.

 📰 WHAT WE’RE READING

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in the women’s basketball community.

Here’s what we’re reading:

• A’ja Wilson is the WNBA’s — and her parents’ — dream come true by William C. Rhoden, Andscape

• How A'ja Wilson led the Aces to a dynasty -- and reached GOAT status by Alexa Philippou, ESPN

• A new generation is embracing the WNBA, including young boys by Ben Pickman, The Athletic

• How a Las Vegas Casino Mogul Helped Bring N.B.A. Games Back to China by Tania Ganguli and Mara Hvistendahl, New York Times

• There’s Now a Casino in Everyone’s Pocket. For Some Young Men, It’s a Near-Fatal Gamble by Paul Solotaroff and Eli Senor, Rolling Stone

• Why Won’t More Rappers Stand For Something? by Andre Gee, More Fire

• I will miss Sister Jean, a March Madness icon by Nicole Auerbuch, Happy Auer

💰 MONEY MOVES

TIME TO PLAY THE GAME

Cathy Engelbert’s final appearance of the 2025 season ended with her getting booed out of the arena in Phoenix:

It’s been a rough month for the commissioner, as she has become the avatar for the league not paying the players what they’re worth. She has a chance to fix that and redeem her reputation with the fans, but it won’t be easy.

All of our attention will go to the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The CBA is due to expire on Oct. 31, and if a new agreement isn’t reached, the chances of a lockout increase exponentially. Engelbert is on record saying she wants to avoid that possibility and has floated the idea of offering extensions on the CBA so a deal can be done.

She did something similar in October 2019 when the CBA expired and a new agreement was reached in January 2020. Throughout the year, players have mentioned that the league office has been dragging their feet on offering specifics — and FINALLY, it looks like the league is ready to get down to business.

On Oct. 10, Annie Costabile of Front Office Sports reported that the league is offering a veteran’s minimum of $300,000 and a maximum salary of around $850,000. Satou Sabally noted that the $300k figure needs to increase, particularly considering the extended regular season and postseason schedules.

Along with that, there’s concern that the league will force out veteran players in favor of rookies on cheaper contracts.

"We saw a lot of people be out of the league who have been there a long time,” Sydney Colson told Yahoo Sports’ Cassandra Negley in July. “But it was like it made more sense, business-wise, for people to keep rookies and pay them a few thousand dollars less than keeping a veteran.”

In the current CBA cycle, we’ve seen how the agreement has squeezed the WNBA’s middle class and left veterans who would typically be on teams out in the cold. On the men’s side, we’ve seen how the CBA can squeeze the middle tier of players, and it’s something the WNBA should do its very best to avoid duplicating.

This CBA will shape the future of women’s basketball in the United States. If the league and players reach an agreement that ensures players receive the compensation they deserve, it will establish the WNBA as the top league in terms of both pay quality and overall quality of play. If things don’t go well, we’ll be staring down a lockout that could cause generational damage and slow the momentum players have built throughout the league’s history.

The heat is on, and the clock is ticking.

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