Women’s basketball saves sporting world from boring summer
Zafir Nagji, Contributor
Women’s basketball is sweeping through the sporting world this summer, and while many sports fans are complaining about the dead-feeling offseasons of the NBA, NHL and NFL, or searching for a new post-FIFA high, the Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) is providing plenty of entertainment and competition.
From the introduction of two new expansion teams to a rookie quickly becoming one of the best players in the league, and every politically controversial piece of drama in between, the WNBA is giving sports fans of all kinds plenty of reasons to watch women’s basketball.
Welcome to the WNB-eh!
The WNBA expanded by adding two new teams into the fold — the Portland Fire and the Toronto Tempo, the latter of which represents the WNBA’s first international expansion and Canada’s first-ever WNBA team. After making hallmark selections in the preseason expansion draft like Marina Mabrey and Canadian legend Kia Nurse, the Tempo have quickly become one of the most popular teams in the league.
Nurse is a legend in Canadian women’s basketball, playing a veteran role on this roster, while Mabrey became a WNBA All-Star for the first time this season. She is averaging a career-high 21 points per game and even recorded a 53-point outburst against the Los Angeles Sparks.
Behind former New York Liberty and WNBA championship-winning coach Sandy Brondello, the Tempo have struggled like most expansion teams in their inaugural season, winning just 11 of 37 games this season.
The Tempo have put the league on notice when it comes to Canadian basketball fandom and the country’s support for women’s sports, as exemplified when Toronto took on the Dallas Wings on July 10, 2026 and set a new WNBA single-game attendance record of 20,996 fans. The WNBA also beat its male counterpart in All-Star Game attendance.
Off-court politics
As nice as it would be to just talk about women’s basketball in the WNBA, the 2026 season has been filled with plenty of controversies off the court. Indiana Fever player Sophie Cunningham spoke to the validity of transgender athletes competing in women’s sports, saying that it’s “common sense” to keep trans athletes out of women’s sports and that she wants to “protect young girls in a locker room, or young girls in sport who shouldn’t have to go against biological men.”
Former NBA players Enes Freedom and Royce White also declared themselves WNBA prospects, taking steps such as attending WNBA games and getting into feuds with players over the validity of their declarations. The league has responded by stating that Freedom and White are ineligible for the WNBA, and both are mulling over appropriate consequences for their actions.
Both controversies led to a series of additional responses by the league, including the NY Liberty putting welcoming messages for transgender fans on their jumbotrons and the league’s team presidents to discuss eligibility for transgender athletes and define eligibility better within the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
A rookie MVP?
Minnesota Lynx guard Olivia Miles has been nothing short of a basketball phenom in her rookie season, flooding fans’ social media with highlights of her ankle-breaking dribble moves, tenacious defence and unstoppable scoring touch. Averaging nearly 20 points per game, Miles is quickly becoming a household name in the WNBA.
Miles was also the only rookie selected to this year’s WNBA All-Star Game — only 37 rookies in league history can lay claim to that honour. With the Lynx sitting at a league-best 31-8, Miles also has a chance to become just the second rookie in WNBA history to win MVP, with the first being the legendary Candace Parker.
Way-too-early playoff predictions
This year’s playoffs are set to be a warzone, with multiple teams having legitimate shots at taking home the WNBA Championship Trophy. The Lynx will likely lock up the league’s top seed, but that does not mean they will cruise to a WNBA championship.
The Golden State Valkyries produced one of the best inaugural seasons in WNBA history in 2025 and turned it into an astounding sophomore season in 2026, currently holding the second seed. Behind them are two absolute powerhouses—reigning MVP and Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson’s Las Vegas Aces sit in third place, while the new-look Atlanta Dream sit in fourth, thanks in no small part to the contributions of the league-leader in rebounds, Angel Reese.
Caitlin Clark’s Indiana Fever sit just outside of that top four with the highest-scoring offence in the league, and behind them are the New York Liberty, who won the WNBA title two years ago and still feature their championship core of Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones.
The Washington Mystics sit in seventh with the second-best defence in the league and are a leading candidate for a first-round upset in this year’s playoffs. The eighth seed has yet to be decided, with less than 10 games to go. However, the Dallas Wings, who have a legitimate argument for the best young backcourt in the league with Paige Bueckers and Azzi Fudd, are the favourites to secure the final spot.
The WNBA will take a 17-day pause for players to fulfil their international commitments at the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Berlin, Germany, from Aug. 31 to Sept. 16, with the tournament taking place from Sept. 3-13. After that, the WNBA will return with a short stretch of regular season games before transitioning into playoffs, which are set to be some of the most competitive, high-octane basketball games ever seen.
