WNBA 2025 End of Regular Season Review: More Viewership Than Ever!
This was a season of major injuries and attempts at overcoming adversity.
September 15, 2025
Like vintage wine, every WNBA season has its own special blend. The 2025 season was the year of the all-star injury. It also marks the last year of the current CBA. In this article, we will look back at some of the responses to key injuries, discuss what is out there about the new CBA as to salary and team composition, the NBA proportion of the 11-year media rights money being allocated to the WNBA, WNBA expansion, and finally our Hoops Review take on several of the annual WNBA awards. As to the playoffs, Minnesota is the obvious favorite but Atlanta, a healthy New York plus surging Las Vegas cannot be counted out.
Injuries and more injuries
Every season has its share of injuries but 2025 may go down as the leader in injuries (season ending and significant time missed) to marque players. Here are some.
No team was struck harder than the Indiana Fever that has lost four to season ending injuries. Obviously, the loss of Caitlin Clark was the biggest in terms of both on-court play and media hoopla. Pick-up Ari McDonald was filling in in fine fashion and Sophie Cunningham was a supply of energy whether off bench or starting. Veteran Sydney Colson was a solid reserve. Credit to Indiana coaching staff and front office for patching and filling to make the playoffs particularly the addition of Odyssey Sims.
The early season loss of future Hall of Fame point guard Courtney Vandersloot is something from which the Chicago Sky never recovered. Starters Ariel Atkins and Angel Reese have also missed good chunks of time. Chicago did not come close to making the playoffs.
The Minnesota Lynx lost reserve Karlie Samuelson to a knee injury for the season early on playing in just 16 games. MVP candidate Napheesa Collier missed a stretch of games mostly due to injury in the latter half of the season. This may have opened the door for Las Vegas’s A’ja Wilson to snatch the MVP award down the home stretch.
The Los Angeles Sparks had players (Cameron Brink, Rae Burrell) out for chunks of the first half of the season and to a lesser degree Rickea Jackson. The Sparks late season playoff run came up short with LA guard situation most in need of upgrade to make playoffs next year.
For the New York Liberty, 2025 has had a lot of patching and filling. Prior to the season projected starter Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was lost. But that was only the beginning. Only projected reserve Marine Johannes has been available for all 44 games. Biggest in-season losses have been large chunks of time missed by starters Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones. Sabrina Ionescu missed 6 of 44 games, adding to the lack of continuity. Fortunately, roster depth kept the Liberty in the playoff hunt and the blessing in disguise could be having players better rested for the playoffs. The biggest downside is a lower seed in the playoff structure.
The Atlanta Dream played minus star Rhyne Howard for 12 games and point guard Jordin Canada for 17. The biggest plus is it looks like key players should be ready for the playoffs.
The Phoenix Mercury have been luckier than most with Kahleah Copper missing just under half the season with stars Alyssa Thomas and Satou Sabally missing five games each.
No Dallas Wings player participated in all its games this season. Most major loss has been all-star Arike Ogunbowale who has missed about a third of the season for a team. Double-digit scorer Maddie Siegrist played in just 26 games. Chemistry appeared to be lacking in Big D. Do not be surprised to see major changes here!
The Washington Mystics lost #6 pick Georgia Amoore to an ACL before the season. Perhaps she could have helped the mediocre DC PG situation. The August trade of Brittney Sykes helped ensure a trip to the draft lottery where the Mystics have is a lot of “draft capital” for 2026.
Perhaps no team did more with less than the Golden State Valkyries making the playoffs. For a significant portion of the season Tiffany Hayes and Celicia Zandalasini were out plus Kayla Thornton lost to a season ending injury around mid-season.
The CBA Situation and Unrivaled
Last year the WNBA players union opted out of the current CBA (collective bargaining agreement) with the CBA expiring October 31, 2025. Two significant outcomes from this will be potential major roster shuffling with the majority of players becoming free agents and higher seasonal player salaries (ownership has been reported to be willing to give $1,000,000 (up from $200,000+) to star veterans and base salaries of around $250,000 (up from around $70,000+). The players (particularly the stars) will ask for more.
The winter Unrivaled league is thriving with 40 (this year going to 58 with expansion) players receiving salaries last season reported as a minimum of a $100,000 and averaging $220,000 for play running from January into March. Players lived in Miami with no “road” games. No need for Europe for these lucky ones! This is another reason the top couple of tiers of players may not want to settle for initial WNBA ownership offer.
This negotiation is unusual in that the players have turned down a quadruple salary increase. A new CBA will be voted on by the league players, two-thirds of whom made less than $100,000 this past season. Will the remaining rank-and-file players turn down a huge salary bump to fight for more?
One question the WNBA players’ union will ask is “are the players getting close to 50% of league revenue as the NBA players do?”
The NBA/WNBA media rights deal
The new 11-year media rights deal put together by the NBA has been reported to be worth about $76 billion over the life of the deal. Of that, it was reported that the WNBA would get somewhere in the order of $2.2 billion over that time span. That is under 3% if the $76 billion figure includes the $2.2 billion earmarked for the WNBA. NBA officials justify this low percentage as they claim the NBA has been subsidizing the WNBA for decades.
Respectfully, this writer would have doubled the WNBA amount to ensure the best players from around the world prioritize WNBA play over “winter ball” where players have made the bulk of their income for decades. Also to be considered with the league expanding to 18 teams by 2030, there are more franchises to split the “pie.” As the new franchises are WNBA-owned, it is in their best interest that the WNBA put forth a successful product and the doubling of the tentative rights money might help make that so!
The WNBA and expansion
The addition of the Golden State Valkyries has been a major success on the court with the team making the playoffs in its first season and playing in front of large, vocal crowds. Overall, the level of play (and fan interest) does not appear to have dropped with this addition team.
Can the league successfully absorb two (Portland and Toronto) more teams with close to similar success on the court and in the stands? Golden State combined a few free agents with team castoffs and foreign players to produce this season’s success. Toronto will be brand new. Portland will be in its second rendition while the original Fire failed after playing from 2000 through 2002. This new franchise is costing somewhere in the order of 10 times the original. Hopefully, it will be more successful!
Three more franchises (Cleveland, Detroit and Philadelphia) are to be added by 2030. Are there enough players out there to maintain a level of play supported by enough fans? The last time the league went to 16 franchises, it fell back to 12. The good news is that the style of play appears to be evolving into a more space/shoot game and maybe there are enough players who can pleasingly perform in a game based a bit less on athleticism.
Who’s minding the store? Answer: No one!
As someone who has been heavily involved in following youth basketball for decades, I can tell you there are a lot more people making a living from this sport. Sadly, there is really no national oversight of development of players in the USA. The NCAA is trying to keep its head above water contending with NIL and portal issues. USA Basketball has a very small staff and is largely concerned with the success of the senior national team. So far, it has largely been successful with “out-talenting” the rest of the world at the U17 and U19 levels. Many quality players never try out for these younger national teams and for the present, it does not seem to matter.
I have urged with zero success for the WNBA to take far greater interest in monitoring the development of young players in the USA. Its position is that they do not draft players until four years after a high school class graduates or a player turns 22 in a draft year. Thus, you find no official WNBA scouts at events below the college level with player development in their pre-college years often succeeding as much by accident as design.
Franchises on the move?
This is a great time to be a WNBA team owner if you bought the team before the cost of franchises skyrocketed. Originally selling for $10 million (and some probably took years to pay that off), they are now valued (according to Sportico) from $500 million for Golden State down to $165 million for Atlanta where the Dream plays in the league’s smallest arena (configured for 3500).
The Connecticut Sun appears to be up for sale with talk of groups out of Connecticut and Boston (and perhaps elsewhere) reported as suitors.
While no other franchise is rumored to be on the market, I continue to wonder whether Atlanta is just a place holder for the Dream (purchased for far less in 2021 than the above valuation). Sadly, those in the Georgia prep basketball community will tell you the football-crazed state has never fully embraced the Dream. When I attended the Indiana at Atlanta game at State Farm Arena downtown in 2024, there were significantly more Fever (Clark) supporters than Dream fans in a packed (close to 18,000) house. With franchise value accelerating, it appears this is a better time to be holding than selling. However, a now deceased childhood friend (worked in the business world) told me it is never a bad time to lock in major profits!
Below are our Hoops Review WNBA 2025 awards. To qualify a player must have played in 28 of the 44 (about 5/8) of regular season contests and there were quality players that just did not play that many. Note selections were made prior to the release of any WNBA awards by the league or other media outlets right at the end of the regular season.
And finally, all must remember that one major ability is availability, and this is figures into the selections below!
Hoops Review WNBA 2025 awards
Player of the Year (MVP)
A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces)
A’ja Wilson has won three previous WNBA MVP awards, and this regular season marked another outstanding performance. She averaged 23.4 ppg, 10.2 rpg, 3.1 apg, 2.3 blocks per game while shooting 50.5% from the field and 42.4% from behind the arc while playing 40 of 44 regular season games. Helping her team win its last 16 games could be viewed as the clincher!
First Team All-WNBA
Napheesa Collier (Minnesota Lynx)
Napheesa Collier was likely leading the MVP race until injury forced her to miss games between August 3 and August 23. She played in 33 of 44 regular season contests with seasonal averages of 22.9 ppg, 7.3 rpg and 3.2 apg shooting 53.1% from the field and 40.3% from behind the arc. She is the second 50/40/90 player in W history!! Remarkable.
Allisha Gray (Atlanta Dream)
Playing in 42 of 44 games, Gray had perhaps her best pro year averaging 18.4 ppg, 5.3 rpg and 3.5 apg shooting 45.1% from the field and 38.4% from behind the arc in helping the Dream to its best season in years.
Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana Fever)
Not missing a game when the Fever guard corps was decimated by injuries, Mitchell averaged 20.2 ppg on 45.6% from the field and 39.4% from behind the arc. She also posted 3.4 assists per game helping the Fever to its second straight playoff appearance.
Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix Mercury)
Alyssa Thomas is the #1 WNBA stat stuffer. In 39 games, she averaged 15.4 ppg on 53.2% from the field along with a league leading 9.2 apg and solid 8.8 rpg. That is almost a triple double per night!
A’ja Wilson (Las Vegas Aces)
Rookie of the Year
Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings)
The #1 pick in the draft did not disappoint. In 36 games, Bueckers averaged 19.2 ppg on 47.7% from the field and 33.1% from behind the arc. She also contributed 5.4 apg and 3.9 rpg. Unfortunately, Dallas struggled not finding its way into the playoffs.
PB is our Rookie of the Year! Photo Courtesy of Pass Tha Ball
First Team All-Rookie
Paige Bueckers (Dallas Wings)
Sonia Citron (Washington Mystics)
The #3 pick in the draft more than proved her worth posting 14.9 ppg on 47.0% from the field and 44.5% from behind the arc. In addition, she contributed 4.0 rpg and 2.4 apg playing in all 44 contests in 2025.
Kiki Iriafen (Washington Mystics)
Iriafen was drafted #4 and also had a quality rookie season. She averaged 13.3 ppg on 48.8% from the field plus 8.5 rpg. Together with Citron, the Mystics have two cornerstones to build around and add to with above mentioned “draft capital.”
Saniya Rivers (Connecticut Sun)
Drafted 8th, Rivers made this team based on greater all-around efficiency compared to a few other rookies who could easily have picked. She averaged 8.8 ppg on 40.7% from the field and 34.1% from behind the arc along with 2.7 apg. Already known as one of the better defenders in the league, she averaged 1.5 steals per game and 0.9 blocks per game.
Janelle Salaun (Golden State Valkyries)
Undrafted from France, Salaun was one of the reasons that Golden State made the playoffs in the franchise’s first year. She averaged 11.3 ppg on 40.6% from the field and 36.6% from behind the arc plus 5.1 rpg.
Most Improved Player
Veronica Burton (Golden State Valkyries)
A #7 pick in the 2022 draft, Burton played for Dallas in 2022 and 2023 and then with Connecticut in 2024 before joining Golden State via the 2025 expansion draft. While her minutes per game (29.4 in 2025 from prior high of 15.2 in 2022), scoring (11.9 ppg in 2025 from a previous high of 3.1 ppg in 2024), shooting percentage (38.7% from the field to previous best of 36.1% in 2024) and assists per game (6.0 in 2025 versus 2.2 in 2023) all increased, the intangible ability to lead a team to a winning season may to have been her biggest plus in 2025 (playing all 44 games) over prior seasons.
While people may know about Burton’s success on the court, her back story is at least as interesting. Veronica comes from a Boston-area based family with a rich athletic pedigree and Northwestern University legacy where she starred in basketball. Her father Steve was a Northwestern quarterback (more recently sports reporter in the Boston area), her mother Ginni Vath Burton an All-American swimmer and her grandfather Ron Burton was an All-American running back (and later NFL Boston Patriot). Three uncles also played football at Northwestern.
An interesting side note scholastically is that Veronica graduated from Newton South High School (public school) in 2018. The potential WNBA and for that matter most D1 talent more recently in Massachusetts (and most New England states) has now migrated to the NEPSAC (prep school league). My guess is there will not be another significant WNBA player who graduated from a public school in New England any time soon.
Coach of the Year
Natalie Nakase (Golden State Valkyries)
There were several outstanding coaching jobs in WNBA 2025. However, none topped that of the Golden State Valkyries Coach Natalie Nakase. Who would have thought after starting 2-5 that this first-year program would finish 8th making the playoffs with a 23-21 record. This team finished ahead of five established franchises with a mixture of free agents, rookies and castoffs. On top of this, the team had to overcome significant injuries as described above.