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The Las Vegas Aces haven’t just been good or dominant in the 2020s. They have been inevitable.
The WNBA is considered one of the toughest, most balanced leagues in all of basketball, and the Aces have crushed that feeling by winning three titles in the last four years.
Their most recent title, a 4-0 sweep of the Phoenix Mercury, was a dominant display. They stayed in control during the entire series and A’ja Wilson put an exclamation point on her MVP season by being far and away the best player on the court.
With three championships in four years, it’s time to start looking at Las Vegas from a historical perspective. They are no longer just competing against current teams like the New York Liberty, Minnesota Lynx or Indiana Fever; they are competing with basketball heritage and making a case for the greatest WNBA dynasty ever.
So, how do the current Aces stack up against the legendary teams from WNBA history?
The WNBA’s first champion was also the league’s first dynasty.
The Houston Comets won four-straight titles from 1997 to 2000, and that’s still tied for the most championships any franchise has won. The Lynx and Seattle Storm also have four titles, but they are spread over multiple years, while Houston achieved them all at once.
Now, they did it in an era that was very different. When the WNBA started, it was an eight-team league. So, one can argue that hurts their case as the greatest dynasty ever. However, they did it while the league also expanded all the way to 16 teams. With so much chaos and instability, the Comets remained constant as the best team year in and year out for nearly half a decade.
When you add up their titles and the fact that they won them all consecutively, it’s hard to argue against the Comets.
The Lynx dynasty was an impressive one.
From 2011 to 2017 they won four titles, led by Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles, both of whom can be considered the best at their positions not just in their generation, but of all-time.
They not only won four times during their run, but they also made the Finals in 2012 and 2016. This means, even whey they didn’t win it all, they were deep in the running. To put it simply, winning a WNBA title during the 2010s meant you had to go through Minnesota.
Similar to the Comets, the Lynx have a case above the Aces due to the number of titles. But given that there was space between their championships, as they never went back-to-back, Las Vegas fans can flaunt that only one team has disrupted their current run, last year’s Liberty, while Indiana, the Phoenix Mercury and Los Angeles Sparks all made it to the top during Minnesota’s reign.
The Detroit Shock also deserve a mention in this dynasty conversation. From 2003 to 2008, they won three WNBA championships.
The Shock never won consecutive titles, but they reached the Finals in 2006, 2007 and 2008, and won two of them. They moved away from Detroit, becoming the Tulsa Shock before ending up as the Dallas Wings, but their impact on and legacy within the W remains huge. With Bill Laimbeer as the head coach, they Shock established Detroit basketball, the same tough style of play he was known for during his playing days with the NBA’s Pistons.
With three titles, they are even with the Aces, but Las Vegas has done more in a shorter time.
In terms of hard numbers, it is clear that the Aces have easily had one of the four best runs any team has ever had.
They’ve won three titles in four years and two were back-to-back. Only two other teams, the Comets and the Sparks have won in consecutive years. The Comets and Lynx might still be considered ahead of the Aces in terms of dynasty talk, but remember, Las Vegas’ run is written in pencil not ink. They can still win more titles, and with Wilson at the top and head coach Becky Hammon in charge, betting against them isn’t a good idea.
As the Aces proved this season, they are always a threat. If they can capture two more titles before the end of the 2020s, there will be no more conversations to be had. The Aces will be the undisputed greatest WNBA dynasty of all time and the only case against them will be an emotional one.
It’ll be fun seeing them try to achieve this goal, as well as to see what other teams will try to do to stop them and begin a run of their own.
