Rumors

ESPN’s broadcast of Tuesday night’s WNBA matchup between the Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty drew a big viewing audience. Madeline Kenney of the New York Post shared the numbers on X (formerly Twitter) on Tuesday. “The numbers from last night’s nationally televised Aces-Liberty game are in: The Liberty win averaged 701K viewers, peaking at 813K on ESPN,” Kenney said. “It was the most-watched non-Indiana WNBA game on ESPN (E1) since 1999.”

Awful Announcing

Caitlin Clark Effect Back in Full As Fever-Liberty Draws 2.2 Million Viewers Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images When Caitlin Clark is on national TV, the ratings go boom. Saturday’s game between the Fever and Liberty averaged 2.2 million viewers on ABC. ESPN announced that viewership peaked at 2.8 million and was the third-most-watched WNBA game ever on ABC. The matchup drew 76% more viewers than the average regular-season WNBA game on ABC last year. Clark had missed five games with a quad injury, during which time WNBA ratings sagged—although Indiana games even without Clark still did pretty well, all things considered, as Front Office Sports’s Colin Salao documented.

Front Office Sports

Burke is in the Basketball Hall of Fame, rightfully so. She was handed nothing, coming from obscurity, first working New York Liberty games on MSG Network before her rise through the ESPN ranks. She was sharp and informative. But in the three-person booth the last two years, she hasn’t seemed to mesh as well with Breen. He doesn’t outright ignore what she says, but they rarely build on each other’s comments. ESPN has failed to create a deep game analyst bench, even resorting to college basketball expert Bilas on playoff games this season. Some top decision-makers like Legler a lot, and he could become a Finals option, according to sources briefed on the network decision-makers’ thinking.

New York Times

Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark will be out at least two weeks with a left quad strain, the team announced Monday. Further updates will be provided following reevaluation, the team said. Fever coach Stephanie White said that she wasn't sure when the injury happened but that Clark reported some pain in her leg after the team's loss to the New York Liberty on Saturday. Clark subsequently underwent an MRI and was diagnosed with the strain, although White said she did not know its grade.

ESPN

The New York Liberty have raised capital from a group of investors at a record valuation for a professional women’s sports franchise of $450 million, sources with knowledge of the agreement told The Athletic. The total size of the shares sold in the team’s capital raise is a percentage in the “mid-teens,” according to one of the sources. It is unclear how many investors are part of the capital raise, and the deal is still subject to league approval.

New York Times

The earlier game Saturday between the defending champion Las Vegas Aces and New York Liberty averaged 1.3 million viewers on ABC, so add another one million-plus game to the WNBA ledger.

New York Times

New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu is becoming an investor for the NWSL club Bay FC, the club announced Monday.New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu is becoming an investor for the NWSL club Bay FC, the club announced Monday. The 2024 WNBA champion is also joining the club as an "official commercial advisor," a position that will help the organization with commercial and marketing strategies. "I whole-heartedly understand how important investment really is and obviously you can talk about it and be about it, but you really have to want to be committed to it and invest to be able to see what you believe in come to light," Ionescu told ESPN.

ESPN

Executives of the Brooklyn Nets and its parent company, BSE Global, will privately tell you that they believe rising tensions between the U.S. and China are unlikely to effect things with the NBA or WNBA teams owned by Joe and Clara Wu Tsai ... even with President Donald Trump preparing to impose tariffs on Chinese exports once he’s inaugurated Monday. Neither Tsai is a citizen of China, they note. Joe Tsai, who was born in Taiwan, is a citizen of Canada having moved there as a child before attending high school, college and law school in the United States. Clara Wu Tsai, co-owner of the Nets, co-governor of the New York Liberty, is an American citizen born in Kansas. That said, Tsai is the executive chairman of Alibaba, the giant Chinese e-commerce company, and he and his wife have a vast array of connections — through business, sports, culture and philanthropy — that span the countries’ relations and he often comments on relations between the two countries. (Tsai’s sports entities are held separately from Alibaba, being part of his family investment office.)

NetsDaily

Doncic's foundation is getting guidance from a Youth Sports Leadership Council, a group that includes his agent Bill Duffy, Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry. New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, former Slovenia national team coach and current Atlanta Hawks assistant Igor Kokoskov, and Hall of Famers Pau Gasol, Steve Nash, Tracy McGrady and Dirk Nowitzki.

ESPN

Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry, the face of the host 2025 All-Star city in the Bay Area, has joined several All-Stars with input in this year's event, sources said. Curry and WNBA star Sabrina Ionescu of the New York Liberty participated in the first NBA versus WNBA 3-point challenge at All-Star Saturday last February in Indianapolis. Curry and Ionescu are in strong conversations to return in a variation of the shootout, which could include other NBA and WNBA players such as Klay Thompson of the Dallas Mavericks and Caitlin Clark of the Indiana Fever, sources said.

ESPN

The franchise that won the first game in WNBA history finally has won the last game of the season. More than 27 years after playing for league's inaugural championship and following several near misses, the New York Liberty became WNBA champions with a 67-62 overtime victory Sunday over the Minnesota Lynx. Breanna Stewart sealed the win with two free throws with 10.1 seconds left in the extra period. After Leonie Fiebich stole a pass, the Liberty dribbled out the clock on a victory that was as hard-fought and dramatic as any in a Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

ESPN

Julius Randle and his wife Kendra hit the town in Minneapolis for a date night at the WNBA finals. Julius, 29, and Kendra, 26, sat courtside at Target Center to cheer on the Minnesota Lynx on Friday, Oct. 18, as the Minnesota women's basketball team took on the New York Liberty.

People

While the WNBA is getting sellout crowds for the finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, the league’s owners will not be making a return on their investment for the foreseeable future, sources close to the situation said.

New York Post

It was only three months ago that members of the Koch family purchased a 15% stake in BSG Global, the parent company of the Brooklyn Nets, New York Liberty and Barclays Center, from Joe and Clara Wu Tsai. The price tag? Around $700 million. Julia Koch, widow of mega rich and controversial American industrialist David Koch Sr., and her three children, David Jr., Mary Julia Koch and John Koch, purchased the BSE shares as private investors, drawing on their $74 billion net worth. rather than Koch Industries. (Julia Koch in fact is the third richest woman in the world according to Forbes.) The Kochs have been described more or less as passive owners but it was also reported that David Jr. has a very specific interest in pro basketball. He eventually wants to own and run his own team in the NBA (not the Nets) per sources. In fact, the family had been looking to buy into the NBA for the last several years before making the deal with the Tsais.

NetsDaily