The 2024 semifinals brought together a collection of talented players, coaches, and executives who have seen their paths cross multiple times throughout the history of the WNBA.
The top-seeded New York Liberty defeated the two-time defending champion Las Vegas Aces. The Minnesota Lynx finished off the Connecticut Sun in an ultra-competitive five-game series.
All four head coaches from the semifinals have been involved in the WNBA since its infancy. The connections between the four of them and their staffs run deep.
In the Beginning
The Liberty are one of three active franchises (Connecticut and Atlanta being the others) never to win a championship. This will be their sixth Finals appearance. The first four came during the WNBA’s formative years.
Last season, head coach Sandy Brondello led the Liberty to the Finals for the first time since 2002. The 2002 Liberty brought a young sharpshooter named Becky Hammon, who led the team in effective field goal percentage off the bench.
Brondello’s Liberty squad was upended in the 2023 Finals by the Aces, coached by Hammon.
Hammon was undrafted after a stellar collegiate career at Colorado State. She signed with the Liberty in 1999 and appeared in 30 games as a rookie. The Liberty made it to the Finals in 1999 after defeating the now-defunct Charlotte Sting.
The Sting also had a rookie, Stephanie White, come off the bench and appear in 30 games. White is currently the head coach for the Sun. After her one year in Charlotte, White was drafted on December 15, 1999, by the now-defunct Miami Sol in the WNBA expansion draft. She was traded to the Indiana Fever that same day.
With the Fever, White teamed up with four-time All-Star center Natalie Williams. Williams is with Hammon in Las Vegas as the Aces’ general manager. Williams’ playing career started with the Las Vegas franchise (then known as the Utah Starzz). With the Starzz, Williams shared the court with former Olympian and point guard Jennifer Azzi. Azzi is now the chief business development officer for the Aces.
Azzi played her rookie season for the Detroit Shock (now the Dallas Wings) in 1999. Her backcourt mate was a veteran from Australia who was in her second year in the WNBA. The Australian was Sandy Brondello.
The Indiana Fever selected Brondello in the 1999 WNBA expansion draft. That same day, December 15, the Fever traded her to the Miami Sol…for Stephanie White.
Bill Laimbeer’s Influence
The Aces had been in the Finals in three of the previous four seasons, but they could not find their rhythm this season. Their regular-season winning percentage this season was the Aces’ lowest since 2019. The 2019 team, coached by Bill Laimbeer, also saw their season end in the semifinals.
Laimbeer was a four-time All-Star and two-time NBA champion for the Detroit Pistons. After a dismal 0-10 start in 2002, the Detroit Shock turned to Laimbeer to take over the franchise. The Shock went 9-13 the rest of the way.
One key acquisition for the Shock in the middle of the 2002 season was a trade for guard Elaine Powell. She became a mainstay in the starting lineup for Laimbeer throughout the rest of her career in Detroit.
Incredibly, the Shock went 25-9 in 2003 and won the WNBA championship.
The Shock hovered around .500 for the next two seasons. They would lose in the first round of the playoffs both years. During the 2005 season, they made a blockbuster deal for All-Star guard Katie Smith of the Lynx.
Laimbeer added Cheryl Reeve, the current head coach for the Lynx, to his staff before the 2006 season. After a 23-11 regular season, the Shock upset the top-ranked Connecticut Sun in the semifinals and defeated the defending champion (and now-defunct) Sacramento Monarchs in the Finals to win their second championship in four years.
The group added another championship in 2008 after a Finals appearance in 2007. By 2010, everyone had gone their own way – including the franchise which relocated to Tulsa before the 2010 season.
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Powell retired after the 2008 season. Smith signed with the Washington Mystics in free agency after the 2009 season. Laimbeer pursued an assistant coaching opportunity for the NBA’s Minnesota Timberwolves. The Lynx named Cheryl Reeve as head coach. The Lynx had only won one playoff game in their 11-year franchise history.
The Lynx added forward Rebekkah Brunson to the roster before Reeve’s first season as head coach. Brunson was a reserve for the Sacramento Monarchs when they won the 2005 WNBA championship and lost to Reeve and the Shock for the 2006 title.
Like Laimbeer, Reeve won a championship in her second season as head coach. Their only loss in the playoffs came in the first round against the San Antonio Silver Stars (now the Las Vegas Aces) and their All-Star guard Becky Hammon.
Roneeka Hodges played with Hammon in 28 games for the 2011 Silver Stars. Hodges and Hammon played for the Silver Stars the previous season under first-year head coach Sandy Brondello.
Brondello’s husband, Olaf Lange, was her assistant for the Silver Stars in 2010. He has been on her staff in New York for the past three seasons. Hodges is looking to win her first WNBA championship as she is also on Brondello’s staff.
The Lynx made it to the Finals in 2012 but failed to repeat. The Indiana Fever upset the Lynx to win their only WNBA championship in franchise history. Third-year guard Briann January made her first of seven All-Defensive teams. Stephanie White was in her second year as a Fever assistant. Hodges was also on the 2012 Fever. She was traded to the Shock mid-season.
In 2015, White took over as head coach of the Fever. With the defensive-minded January by her side, they eliminated the Chicago Sky in the first round. The Sky’s All-WNBA point guard that year, Courtney Vandersloot, is looking to win her second WNBA championship of her career (2021 Chicago) with Brondello and the Liberty this season.
In the second round, the Fever defeated the Liberty in three games. The Liberty’s rookie center, Kiah Stokes, was named first-team All-Rookie and second-team All-Defense in 2015. She would be traded to the Aces in 2021 and play for head coach Bill Laimbeer who had been with Las Vegas since 2018.
Laimbeer retired after the 2021 season, and Stokes helped Hammon and the Aces win back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023. The Aces defeated Brondello, Lange, Hodges, Vandersloot, and the Liberty in the 2023 Finals.
The Fever would face Reeve, Brunson, and the Lynx in the 2015 WNBA Finals. They went toe-to-toe in an epic five-game series, but the Lynx prevailed.
White would last only one more season in Indiana before leaving to take the Vanderbilt head coaching job. The Fever went the next seven seasons without making the playoffs. She would eventually take the head coaching job for the Sun in 2023, and hire January to be her assistant.
Reeve and Brunson won four championships together in Minnesota, and they are looking to win their fifth this season. Brunson is on Reeve’s coaching staff alongside assistants, and former Shock teammates, Katie Smith and Elaine Powell.
Smith was the Liberty head coach from 2018-19. Before that, she was an assistant for the Liberty from 2014-2017. And she was on the 2015 Liberty staff who lost in the semifinals to White’s Fever team.
The head coach for the Liberty in 2015?
Bill Laimbeer.
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