TLDR:
Their championship was yesterday or something? Who knew and who cares. Anyway, a call at the end decided the game.
Even Lebron tweeted out disgust for the call.Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said the call “decided the game,” adding the game – and WNBA championship – was “stolen from us.”
So here's your conspiracy theory:
Like the actual NBA, the WNBA needed NY to win. Small market Minnesota doesn't move the needle like big market NY. Seriously, this is right out of David Stern's playbook. (Stern being the man who made the NBA what it is today.) Stern had contempt for his small market teams and famously stated his dream Finals matchup would be the LA Lakers vs the LA Lakers. Stern has also long been accused of rigging games. Ex-players talk openly these days about knowing if the league wanted them to lose because a special crew of officials would be brought in to officiate a game. There are gamblers who made good money by betting one way or the other when they saw these guys were officiating. Not only do players discuss this stuff, but so did Tim Dona-whatever, the ref that was caught rigging games, that the NBA pretended acted alone. (Hint: According to ex-players, another ref, and actual mobsters, he didn't.)
Based on everything I now know about the NBA and their scandal, plus with BBall being the easiest sport for an official to manipulate, I'd say I'm 50/50 on this one.
As we've discussed, it's pretty obvious someone is desperate to make the WNBA a thing. Getting a large market a win and generating controversy so people are talking about it is not something I'd put past anyone these days.