Last Sunday, after a game 5 win or go home overtime thriller the New York Liberty took home the 2024 WNBA championship trophy for the first time in franchise history. The Liberty entered the WNBA when it first emerged in 1997 and never saw such success until now. Jonquel Jones, starting forward for the Liberty was awarded with the Finals MVP, beating out star teammates Sabrina Ionescu and Brianna Stewart. 

The championship game came down to a very controversial shooting foul call, which sent Brianna Stewart to the free throw line to tie the game and sent it to overtime. NBA superstar LeBron James tweeted, “I’m sorry but that wasn’t a foul! Let the damn players dictate the outcome of a close battled tested game.” Adding insult to injury was the second pair of free throws Stewart shot late game, missing two moments before. The Minnesota Lynx head coach Cheryl Reave commented, ““This s— was stolen from us,” to reporters post-game.  

Despite the controversy tagged along with it this was a historical season for the WNBA in overall viewership, game 5 being the cherry on top. Sunday’s game had roughly 3.3 million viewers, the most watched WNBA Finals game in 25 years. The finals as a whole had an 115% increase of viewership from the 2023 finals.