In the wise words of one Sophia Petrillo, the 2025 WNBA season was the best of times, and it was the worst of times.
The Las Vegas Aces claimed their third championship in the last four seasons after a dominating 4-0 sweep of the Phoenix Mercury in the first-ever seven-game series in WNBA Finals history. According to ESPN, the 2025 season in full view was the most-watched ever on its networks. We saw graphic after graphic throughout the season about the league’s growth over the last several years. However, the usual pomp and circumstance over it took on a new meaning since the first whistle sounded in mid-May.
From the onset of the season to All-Star weekend in Indianapolis with ‘Pay Us What You Owe Us’ shirts amid CBA negotiations, players across the league let their frustrations out with the current conditions of facing a league-record 44-game season.
“I think this is a conversation that could also be important for the next CBA,” the Mercury’s Satou Sabally said in early June. “Cathy (Englebert) added a lot of games, and for us as players, recovery is so important. We put our bodies on the line every single time. We had nine games in 18 days. It’s not really responsible for a commissioner to do so. Other teams have like three back-to-backs. Hence, there are many things that we could clean up in terms of scheduling, but we persevered, and we have shown that we can do so. It’s just something that, obviously, along the way throughout a long season, that’s really hard to do.”
WNBPA vice president and Liberty star Breanna Stewart stamped Satou Sabally’s sentiment in early June.
“We want to play the games, especially if that’s what is wanted for TV and having these sellout arenas,” said Stewart. “I think the hardest part is no matter what, when I was playing 36 games or 32 games, it was in the same amount of time as 44 games. I know on both ends, between April and October, there’s things happening,” she added. “But I think that’s one of the biggest talking points in the next CBA is like, alright, how can we make it so teams aren’t playing four [games] in six [days] three times in a season and continuing to have the rest and recovery so we are at our best. It’s tough, it’s a tough thing.”
The WNBA is facing a multitude of issues at the moment, from players’ open distrust of Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to a CBA deadline (Oct. 31) that currently feels like a foregone conclusion, suggesting that a new deal between the league and the WNBPA isn’t on the way anytime soon.
Not to mention that there are two expansion teams, the Toronto Tempo and Portland Fire, who require an expansion draft to truly kick off the construction of their franchises on a personnel basis. But if there was one primary issue that seemed to have fallen by the wayside a bit, it was the exhausting nature of a 44-game schedule and the rapid additions to an already condensed season.
In 2021, the league had a 32-game schedule. The campaign increased to 36 games in 2022, 40 in 2023 before arriving at 44 this season. According to ESPN researcher Garret Gastfield, the average number of days between games has decreased exponentially.
From 2021 to 2025, players lost an average of 1.33 days between games. We cannot forget that charter flights for teams were only just initiated last season. The lack of rest and rehabilitation directly correlates to the rapid increase in injuries we’ve seen over the past few years. According to The Next’s WNBA injury tracker, the league suffered a record-high 252 injuries during the regular season alone. There were only 203 in 2024 and 175 in 2023. That’s a 16% increase injuries in only two years.
Several factors are at play, as Stewart alluded to earlier. The NBA season starts in late October and wraps up in mid-April. Six teams, which represent nearly half the league, share arenas with NBA teams. The Washington Mystics share CareFirst Arena with the Washington Wizards’ G-League team, the Wings and Sky utilize collegiate arenas, and the Storm share Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle with the NHL’s Kraken and PWHL Seattle.
These are just a few of the roadblocks in the way of elongating the season, but no one ever said it would be easy. For the long-term health and viability of the WNBA, adding more time for rest and recovery should be the top concern, excluding pay structure.
—
Born and raised in Chicago, Christan Braswell is a women’s sports journalist with a focus on the WNBA and women’s college basketball. He’s an avid fan of elevator screens and stuffed-crust pizza. Outside of sports, he’s an avid cook and lover of the great outdoors.
Well dear readers, this past weekend was one that gave an opportunity to all eight teams in the Top 8 to clinch a playoff spot or playoff position. Many opted […]
