LAS VEGAS \u2014 You are what you accept. Or so says legendary college basketball coach Geno Auriemma, who chimed in on the hottest topic of the 2025 WNBA playoffs \u2014 whether referees allow too much physical play.<\/p>\n
Auriemma doesn\u2019t pin it on any one zebra.<\/p>\n
\u201cI don\u2019t think it\u2019s the people who are actually officiating the games,\u201d he said this week. \u201cIt\u2019s what\u2019s in the rule book or what\u2019s accepted as the style of play they want. Because if they didn\u2019t want that style of play, they wouldn\u2019t have it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve shared something similar after losing her best player to a collision in the semifinals. She was fined $15,000 for, among other transgressions, charging the official who didn\u2019t blow the whistle.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is the look that our league wants, for some reason,\u201d she said during the postgame news conference.<\/p>\n
That line flew under the radar amid her F-bombs and call-outs of specific officials, but it\u2019s quite the assertion.<\/p>\n
Why would the league want a rough-and-tumble product when everyone knows audiences prefer fluid basketball? The league did not respond to a request for comment, but instead pointed to the officiating points of emphasis this season, which include \u201cfreedom of movement\u201d for players.<\/p>\n
In other words: The rule book is not supposed to allow a slugfest.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s first try to answer the question: How physical are today\u2019s WNBA games, really?<\/p>\n
Aces coach Becky Hammon, who got her start coaching in the NBA, said that the physicality in her team\u2019s semifinal series never would have flown in her former league. Auriemma has heard the same.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve had a lot of NBA people and former WNBA players tell me that what goes on in a WNBA game is way more physical than what happens in an NBA game,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s not unreasonable to expect differences: NBA referees work full-time for the league, while the WNBA still employs part-time officials who often work college games, too.<\/p>\n
Still, that alone doesn\u2019t settle it.<\/p>\n
So let\u2019s ask in a different way: Is the WNBA becoming more physical over time?<\/p>\n