A Look Back at the 2026 WNBA Season

Free Agency

The WNBA Players’ Association and the league made history way back at the beginning of the season. After 12 days and nights of negotiations, they signed the collective bargaining agreement that raised salaries, introduced revenue sharing, and even rewarded the past players who helped build the league. The agreement created a rock-solid foundation for this historic season. 

Not to mention, almost every single WNBA player was in free agency. This resulted in some season-altering moves: Angel to the Dream, KP to Phoenix, and Jess Shepard to Dallas. These undoubtedly shaped the season. 

Plus: a draft class chalk-full of players that will be household names for decades to come. 

All-Star Weekend

If free agency and the start of the season was all business, All-Star was all play. 

Natisha Heideman and Courtney Williams reprised their insane, 72-hour All-Star weekend stream, giving us moments like this: 

Meanwhile, players graced the Orange Carpet, only proving that the W is the place to be for athlete fashion. 

Angel Reese announced a barbie, A’ja announced a shoe. Pop-ups sprung up all over the city of Chicago to celebrate. Obama was there! 

All-Star weekend was a pure celebration of excellence in women’s basketball.

End-of-Season Awards

This year’s end-of-season awards were really something. From Cheryl Reeve receiving Coach of the year before going out in the first round and A’ja winning a historic 5th MVP and not making the finals to DPOY Angel Reese turnings heads with her finals defense and 6POY Janelle Salaun dropping 13 off the bench in Finals game 4… this year’s awards just proved there’s more talent in the league than ever. 

And, not to brag… but our awards predictions were spot on. (Sure, we hedged by splitting the MIP award, but still…)

Historic Finals

This year’s finals were the cherry on top of a thrilling season. They pit two teams that had never won before—the Atlanta Dream and the Golden State Valkyries—against each other. Either result would have been historic. 

After some drama about start times and locations… people showed out, from the stadium to the bars. The Dream won their first finals game in franchise history. 

The league saw its first Game 7, a neck-and-neck barn-burner that ended up with the Valks winning it all at home. It was the most-watched playoff game in league history, and the second-most watched game since the league had its opening weekend in 1997—despite being scheduled for Halloween night. Raise your hand if you had it on at your party. 🙋‍♀️

The Valks celebrated with their championship parade through SF on Wednesday. It looked like a blast.

Onward…

Looking ahead to the offseason… 

There are some exciting free agencies to still be hashed out: Phee, Kelsey Mitchell, and Jackie Young could be headed anywhere. The Connecticut Sun are headed to Houston. The league will have a new commissioner, and a couple teams will have new coaching staffs or leadership. We’ll have another draft chalk full of young talent. 

But first, Unrivaled tips off January 8th! And there’s college hoops and women’s hockey to watch. 

See you next tipoff!

— Jules Yaeger

Subscribe to the newsletter to stay tapped into all of pop culture—including Pop Base’s coverage of women’s sports.