by Matt Rosenthal ’22

The Washington Mystics have won the 2019 WNBA Championship, their first. They had a historic season in which the team set the franchise wins record with 26. Star forward Elena Delle Donne won her second MVP, while also becoming the first WNBA player to join the 50-40-90 club by shooting 50 percent from the field, 40 from the 3-point line, and 90 from the free-throw line, doing all of this in a single season.

Washington won the finals in a back-and-forth 5-game series thriller against the Connecticut Sun. Forward Emma Meesseman came off the bench and scored 22 points in game 5, winning the Finals MVP.

If the Mystics are putting up historic numbers, why do they receive such little attention? It is a simple answer, it is women’s basketball. For the 2019 season, Washington moved into the new, much smaller Entertainment and Sports Arena. Their former home, the Capital One Arena, has a capacity of just over 20,000. The Entertainment and Sports Arena has a capacity of 4,200. This move to a smaller stadium shows that the WNBA is a secondary sport compared to the NBA. However, the Mystics players prefer the smaller arena because the seats are filled up on a regular basis by fans who create a more lively environment.

For those who are Washington Wizards fans and are ashamed of their current disaster, the Washington Mystics are a much, much better team to root for and to watch.