{"id":22625,"date":"2025-07-25T08:25:16","date_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:25:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22625\/"},"modified":"2025-07-25T08:25:16","modified_gmt":"2025-07-25T08:25:16","slug":"wnba-truths-and-fictions-the-real-state-of-the-league-in-2025-wnba","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/22625\/","title":{"rendered":"WNBA truths and fictions: the real state of the league in 2025 | WNBA"},"content":{"rendered":"

The WNBA is one of those leagues that is perpetually at the crossroads. In the 1990s, the league saw off the challenge of the American Basketball<\/a> League (ABL), which paid higher salaries but lacked the NBA\u2019s marketing muscle, but perhaps that victory gave the NBA and WNBA a dose of complacency. Attendance steadily dropped for several years, and went through revolving doors from city to city \u2013 or into permanent hiatus.<\/p>\n

Now, with women\u2019s sports in the middle of a growth spurt and the dazzling skills of Caitlin Clark<\/a> on display, the WNBA has an age-old issue: More money, more problems \u2013 or, at least, more critics conjuring up more questions.<\/p>\n

In All-Star voting, WNBA players ranked Caitlin Clark ninth. Is that absurd?<\/p>\n

We live in a media landscape in which the fretting over \u201cgenerational talents\u201d is so robust that NBA fans started panicking about Cooper Flagg<\/a> when he had a poor shooting performance in his first Summer League game<\/a>. As anyone knows from following her college career, she doesn\u2019t just have extraordinary shooting range. She can dominate a game with her passing even if her shots aren\u2019t falling.<\/p>\n

To be sure, Clark certainly has a lot of work to do before she turns the corner from being the league\u2019s most exciting player to becoming the league\u2019s best player. In her rookie year, Basketball Reference calculated<\/a> her PER, a measure of overall effectiveness, at 18.8, nowhere near the top four of A\u2019ja Wilson (34.9), Breanna Stewart (26.4), Brittney Griner (26.0) and Napheesa Collier (25.1).<\/p>\n

But PER tends to favor forwards and centers \u2013 such Clark\u2019s Indiana teammate, 2023 top overall draft pick Aliyah Boston, who was also ahead of Clark. Among guards, she was third. She also led the league in assists per game with 8.4, with only Alyssa Thomas (7.9) anywhere close. On the other hand, she also led the league in turnovers with a staggering mark of 5.6 per game \u2013 Thomas again was second at 3.6.<\/p>\n

This year, Clark is struggling with injuries, and most of her scoring and shooting numbers have dropped significantly. Given the ridiculously short window of a WNBA<\/a> season, she may not have time to pull her season averages up to where they were last year.<\/p>\n

The WNBA actually has a trio of young \u201cgenerational talent\u201d guards who have come into the league in the 2020s. The first was Sabrina Ionescu, a record-smashing triple-double machine from Oregon who had a slow, injury-riddled start to her pro career but has since made the All-WNBA second team three straight years \u2013 and surely had a case to make the first team ahead of Clark last year. The next is Paige Bueckers, who is putting together a rookie season almost on par with Clark\u2019s season last year. In a year or two, depending on when she declares for the draft, the WNBA will add USC\u2019s JuJu Watkins.<\/p>\n

In the media and player All-Star voting, the leader was Bueckers\u2019 teammate in Dallas, Allisha Gray. Funny how they don\u2019t seem to be held responsible for the Wings being in last place, and yet critics harp on Clark because Indiana isn\u2019t dominating.<\/p>\n

So the fans got it wrong in ranking Clark first and Ionescu fifth. But the players\u2019 votes were harsh on stars (Clark) and Olympians (Jackie Young was 12th; Kelsey Plum a bewildering 16th). For once, the media may have gotten it right, ranking her third.<\/p>\n

Truth or fiction: Truth<\/p>\n

Is the league too dependent on Clark?<\/p>\n

In a recent anonymous survey of WNBA by the Athletic, a majority of respondents said Clark will be the face of the WNBA in five years. But it was a slim majority of 53.8%. Watkins was second, Bueckers was third. Next was the first non-guard, Clark nemesis Angel Reese, and A\u2019ja Wilson, who was merely the MVP of the WNBA (for the third time) and the Olympics in 2024.<\/p>\n

And yet the WNBA is headed toward its highest average attendance ever (see below), propelled somewhat by Clark but also by the fervor behind the expansion Golden State Valkyries. While ratings certainly drop<\/a> when she\u2019s out injured, they don\u2019t fall through the floor.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the fact that Clark has not immediately established herself as the best player in the league has made people realize that veterans like Wilson, Stewart, Griner, Collier and Ionescu know how to play some ball, too.<\/p>\n

Truth or fiction: Fiction<\/p>\n

The lack of dunking holds back the league<\/p>\n

In the cartoon Futurama, a female computer is horrified to learn that the men who have landed on an all-women\u2019s planet made fun of women\u2019s basketball.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat??! Did you explain how the women\u2019s good fundamentals make up for their inability to dunk?\u201d roars the computer, voiced by Bea Arthur.<\/p>\n

The men scoffed at the concept. But WNBA players\u2019 fundamentals are indeed pretty good, most notably free throws \u2013 the NBA\u2019s highest overall percentage of the past 10 years (78.4%, 2023-24) trails behind the WNBA\u2019s lowest (78.5%, 2024, down from 80.0% the year before and 80.8% in 2021).<\/p>\n

The WNBA is also more of a passing league than the NBA, which sees its stars shine in one-on-one isolations. In 2024, 68.6% of field goals in WNBA play were the result of assists. In the NBA last season, the number was 63.6%.<\/p>\n

In the NBA, you may see Anthony Edwards explode past a defender for a dunk. In the WNBA, you may see Caitlin Clark whip a pass through a seam mere mortals wouldn\u2019t have anticipated. True basketball fans appreciate both, and the US has a lot of true basketball fans.<\/p>\n

Truth or fiction: Fiction<\/p>\n

Is the WNBA plagued by substandard refereeing?<\/p>\n

WNBA officials have had their share of detractors this year, among them standout players Angel Reese<\/a> (Chicago) and Kelsey Plum<\/a> (Los Angeles), coaches Natalie Nakase<\/a> (Golden State) and Stephanie White (Indiana).<\/p>\n

The latter\u2019s criticism followed a game against the Connecticut Sun in which Clark was poked in the eye in the third quarter, and Clark\u2019s assailant was fouled near the end of the game with the outcome not in doubt, prompting a scuffle that saw three people ejected.<\/p>\n

White\u2019s complaint was a familiar refrain: \u201cThe referees lost control of the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Did they?<\/p>\n

The eye poke on Clark drew a flagrant foul on Connecticut\u2019s Jacy Sheldon, while Clark and two Connecticut players got technical fouls for the ensuing fracas. In the last minute, Sheldon drove into Indiana\u2019s Sophie Cunningham, who pulled Sheldon down onto the floor.<\/p>\n

The Indiana Fever and their fans have embraced the notion that Sophie Cunningham, above, has filled the role of an NHL enforcer. Photograph: Matt Krohn\/Getty Images<\/p>\n

Cunningham could argue that Sheldon initiated the contact by lowering her shoulder and charging into her like a running back or rugby player, and that she accidentally pulled down Sheldon while stumbling backwards. But she and the Fever have embraced the notion that Cunningham filled the role<\/a> of an NHL enforcer, protecting their star player when the refs wouldn\u2019t. Cunningham\u2019s jersey sales went through the roof, and entrepreneurs are selling commemorative T-shirts<\/a> in her honor.<\/p>\n

Maybe the WNBA has found a new source of revenue?<\/p>\n

WNBA refs are paid far less than their NBA counterparts, so no one should be surprised if the men\u2019s league attracts more experienced referees. But the refs aren\u2019t the ones escalating things even after the flagrant and technical fouls have been called.<\/p>\n

And NBA refs aren\u2019t exactly above reproach. Even if we toss out the aberration of Tim Donaghy, the referee who spent time in prison after a gambling scandal, NBA referees have been the object of many fine-worthy infractions through the years. Anthony Edwards\u2019 fines in a single season could pay several WNBA players\u2019 salaries.<\/p>\n

Should WNBA refs do more to protect stars like Clark so that Cunningham won\u2019t feel compelled to do it herself? Maybe. But they\u2019d also do well to avoid the absurdity of the 1990s, when the mere act of trying to guard Michael Jordan could draw a whistle.<\/p>\n

Truth or fiction: Mixed<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not the easiest set of questions, and it\u2019s just part of the league\u2019s to-do list right now. The WNBA has to manage expansion carefully while also landing a fair collective bargaining agreement to prevent a work stoppage.<\/p>\n

But these are also happier questions to consider than \u201cWill the league survive the season?\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The WNBA is one of those leagues that is perpetually at the crossroads. In the 1990s, the league…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":22626,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[629],"tags":[49,48,82,630],"class_list":["post-22625","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-wnba","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-sports","tag-wnba"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22625","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22625"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22625\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22626"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22625"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22625"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22625"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}