The post Barack Obama congratulates Las Vegas Aces on WNBA Finals win over Mercury appeared first on ClutchPoints.
On August 2, the Las Vegas Aces lost 111-58 at home against the Minnesota Lynx – a 53-point defeat. They owned a .500 record, battling to keep themselves in the playoff picture. Now, exactly 10 weeks later, the Las Vegas Aces are WNBA champions for the third time in four years.
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A’ja Wilson was crowned WNBA Finals MVP for the second time, averaging 28.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and two blocks per game against the Phoenix Mercury in the first best-of-seven WNBA Finals series in league history.
Her highlight play came in Game 3 when she rattled home a midrange jumper to give the Aces a 3-0 series lead. With two Finals MVPs, Wilson is tied for second-most in league history, trailing only Cynthia Cooper, who has four.
Now that Las Vegas has completed the sweep, it’s drawing high praise from the 44th president of the United States. “Congratulations to the WNBA champs – @LVAces and MVP A’ja Wilson – on their third title,” Barack Obama posted on X, formerly known as Twitter.
Obama has long been a fan of the WNBA, annually congratulating teams after winning the title. It was a familiar franchise on the former president’s social media page after the Aces swept the Mercury. Led by head coach Becky Hammon, Las Vegas fostered an all-time run to secure the franchise’s third championship.
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How did the Aces win the WNBA Finals?
A 53-point blowout by the Lynx sparked a dramatic turnaround for the Aces. Over the final 40 days of the regular season, Las Vegas won 16 consecutive games to secure the No. 2 seed in the WNBA Playoffs.
While the winning streak came to a close, the stellar play did not. Las Vegas went 9-3 in the postseason, capping a run of 25 wins in their final 28 games.
For Wilson, it was a historic finish to an already storied season. She became the first WNBA or NBA player to win the scoring title, MVP, Defensive Player of the Year and Finals MVP in the same season.
With three championships in four seasons, two WNBA Finals MVPs, and a league record four WNBA MVPs, Wilson has cemented herself as one of the greatest in league history.
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