MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The WNBA finals start tonight. The Minnesota Lynx will challenge the league's Goliath, the New York Liberty. And these finals put the finishing touches on a season of unprecedented growth and attention for the league. Jesse Washington with ESPN's Andscape is with us now to tell us more. Good morning.
JESSE WASHINGTON: Good morning.
MARTIN: So first, for people who may not have followed the season, can you just start by giving us a rundown of these two teams?
WASHINGTON: For sure. So the Liberty - like you said, the juggernaut, the big dog in the house - they have Breanna Stewart playing the best basketball of the season. They got Sabrina Ionescu raining threes from all over the place, big Jonquel Jones in the middle. They've been the best team in the league all year. But the Lynx are right behind them - and not only that, the Lynx have beaten them three times this year. The Lynx are 3-1 against the Liberty behind Napheesa Collier, who's averaging 27-10 in the playoffs. It's going to be a real battle.
MARTIN: And also, the Lynx are fun to watch. I mean, they seem to be having a lot of fun as a team. I just want to play a little clip from the Lynx star Napheesa Collier. This is from a story on Minnesota Public Radio.
(SOUNDBITE OF ARCHIVED NPR BROADCAST)
NAPHEESA COLLIER: Achieving your goals obviously always feels good, but, you know, when you're not clicking as a team - you don't like each other - it takes away from it a little bit. So the fact that we have worked so hard and we genuinely just like each other so much, it just makes it all the sweeter.
MARTIN: All right, Jesse, you know I have to ask, do they have a chance?
WASHINGTON: They do. They have a great chance. You know, they're the best 3-point-shooting team in the league. They've been shooting almost 40% in the games when they beat the Liberty so far. They got five people who can rain it in. Napheesa's killing it on the inside, outside, in-between side. So I think this series is going to go five games.
MARTIN: And tell us a little bit more - some of the players on the Liberty side that you're going to watch.
WASHINGTON: Man, Sabrina Ionescu is that woman, you know? And when she's going, they are really hard to beat. The only game that they lost in the semifinals against the defending-champion Aces, she only had four points. In all the rest, she's averaging 22, 23. And so if Sabrina goes off, then I think the Liberty are going to take it.
MARTIN: All right. So let me just say this. I know a lot of longtime fans are going to be gritting their teeth at this next question, but you know I have to ask - bigger crowds, sellouts, a lot more attention for the W this season, WNBA rookie of the year, "60 Minutes" profile - she's not in the finals, but is this the Caitlin Clark effect?
WASHINGTON: You know, partly. It's also the Angel Reese effect. It's also the South Carolina Gamecocks and Dawn Staley effect. There's been so many rivalry storylines at the college line and great players, yes, like Caitlin Clark, who can hoop. And so when they get to the W, attention follows. It's great for the game. It's great for everybody. And so it's partly that effect but also just a testament to the work and the style and the skill and just the all-around talent that is in the W these days.
MARTIN: OK, I heard that sigh.
(LAUGHTER)
MARTIN: I did hear that deep sigh at the beginning of the - of your answer, but I - yeah, I take your point. It's a collective. It's a team sport. And it's a team, and a lot of people are fun to watch. OK, before we let you go, do we have a sense of what the WNBA might look like in five or 10 years? We've already seen, as we've said, like, some bigger venues - in some places, lots more crowds. Any sense of where this is going?
WASHINGTON: Yes. I think that the game that's played on the court by these women is going to new heights. You see all these women at the college level and the high-school level. They're dunking. They're playing at a much more athletic level, and I think that the game that we see is going to be more and more exciting. I think the W is going to a place that is going to get bigger ratings, better game, and just - we'll be back next year to talk.
MARTIN: All right, that is Jesse Washington of ESPN's Andscape. Jesse, thank you.
WASHINGTON: Thank you.
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