The year 2024 has been the year that talk of a “growing” WNBA. And while that growth has seen both positive and negative side effects, there has been one element of that growth that appears to be lacking this week.
And that is how the WNBA acknowledges milestone accomplishments from its players and coaches.
Milestone accomplishments such as those in the WNBA deserves to be treated as that – historic marker points. And as the W continues to accrue more years, those historic achievements will only gain more significance.
Look at the W’s peer sports. Could one imagine Aaron Judge chasing a home run record and it not being all over MLB Network? Could one imagine LeBron James chasing a scoring record and it not being all over NBA TV? Could one imagine Patrick Mahomes chasing a passing record and it not being all over NFL Network?
Case in point to earlier this week. The Las Vegas Aces were on the road at the Indiana Fever. Both the Fever and Aces had already qualified for the playoffs so the game, in terms of the teams, was more about jockeying for postseason position.
But the real story was A’ja Wilson. Going into that game, Wilson needed only 11 points to set a new single-season WNBA scoring record. Said record was set last season by Jewell Loyd.
Being the historical bucket that she is, Wilson can get 11 points in a quarter. The Aces won the game by a final score of 86-75. And Wilson did plenty of Wilson things to the tune of 27 points, 12 rebounds and three blocks.
What caught the attention of many who were watching was how the feat went relatively unacknowledged by the broadcasters at the game. For a while, the home team’s broadcasters have been the only broadcasters heard on many a WNBA contest.
The New York Liberty in recent seasons have experimented with its broadcasters calling Liberty road games when they were primarily seen on the YES Network. YES even produced a handful of Liberty road games.
One can only imagine the reaction from the broadcasters if that were an Aces telecast – or even a national telecast from a channel such as ESPN/ABC or CBS which has waded into the national televising game in the W realm.
But…Wilson is also chasing another historic milestone. As of this writing, the Aces have played 36 games and have a record of 23-13. Las Vegas has four more contests to go and Wilson is only 44 points shy of becoming the first player in WNBA history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for a season.
Forty-four points? A’ja Wilson? That 1,000-point milestone is as good as hers. And one would think being on the precipice of even more history would be hyped up to the nth degree by the W itself.
Speaking of milestone accomplishments, such was also the case with the Dallas Wings and its franchise player – Arike Ogunbowale.
To say that the Wings have had a disappointing season is an understatement. Plagued by injury, Dallas – who were WNBA semifinalists from last season – have already been mathematically eliminated from playoff contention.
Going into Dallas’ recent home contest with the league-leading Liberty, Ogunbowale was only 11 points shy of setting a new all-time scoring record for the franchise – including its prior iterations as the Detroit (and Tulsa) Shock.
Deanna Nolan was the previous record holder with 3,971 points. Ogunbowale is only in her sixth season and in the prime of her career with many more great years to go. In the same season that Ogunbowale claimed All-Star Game MVP with a 34-point performance in Phoenix, she etched herself further into the history books.
And while it did occur in a blowout defeat to the Lib, Ogunbowale’s 2024 conjures memories of Loyd from last season – a banner year in terms of individual achievements.
The above is what should have happened with the Fever game, but we digress.
One great thing is that Wilson and Ogunbowale are in the primes of their careers – so they will have a lot more time to receive even more flowers than those they have already earned.
But as the W continues to grow in terms of popularity and press coverage, acknowledging its history will be of greater importance – and that means acknowledging those who have already done so – and are still doing so to this day.
