It’s been a wild past year for the Las Vegas Aces, rife with the highest of highs, and to be fair, at least a couple of recent lows.
The local WNBA franchise went into last season amid much hype after team owner Mark Davis made Becky Hammon the league’s first $1 million-per-year coach. She went on to transform the team into an unstoppable offensive force that eventually won the franchise’s first-ever WNBA championship.
Aces 2023
The Aces shut down a portion of the Strip for a parade from Caesars Palace to a stage near the Bellagio. But seemingly as fast as the Champagne dried and cigars burned out, controversy struck as the team began preparing for this season.
It all started in January, when the Aces made a trade with the Los Angeles Sparks to ship out starting forward Dearica Hamby, who then alleged mistreatment by her former team. Hamby said the Aces offered her impermissible benefits to sign an extension last year and that they “bullied, manipulated and discriminated against” her after she got pregnant.
That led to a WNBA investigation, and an eventual ruling that the team violated rules on both counts. The Aces were stripped of their 2025 first-round pick (they had already traded away their 2024 selection) and saddled with a two-game suspension without pay for Hammon in relation to “comments made by Hammon to Hamby in connection with Hamby’s recent pregnancy,” according to a statement sent by league commissioner Cathy Engelbert.
Hammon has maintained her innocence, even suggesting text messages could have been doctored to obscure the truth.
The situation has brought something of a dark cloud over the Aces as they begin their title defense, though it’s expected to fade as the season gets into full swing. Winning typically solves everything in sports, and Las Vegas is expected to top last year’s all-time franchise-best 26-10 regular season record. The Aces have too much talent for expectations to be any lower.
Six players in the WNBA received first- or second-place MVP votes last year, and the Aces now have four of them on their roster:
A’ja Wilson (last season’s winner), Kelsey Plum, Chelsea Gray and superstar free-agent signee Candace Parker.
Davis also built the Aces a training facility that mirrors—if not tops—many NBA teams’ version, next to the Raiders’ headquarters in west Henderson. And the franchise brought on former NFL great Tom Brady as a minority owner.
Saturday, May 27, Las Vegas’ home opener against the Sparks, will be a night of celebration as the Aces receive their championship rings and hang a title banner inside Michelob Ultra Arena. And there’s no reason to doubt that they’ll have a chance to do it all again a year from now.
Chasing the Aces: Three teams primed to challenge for the 2023 crown
New York Liberty
After back-to-back first-round exits, New York looks ready to make its first run to the WNBA Finals since 2002. Sabrina Ionescu is arguably the best young player in the league, and she’ll have help from three newcomers: Breanna Stewart, whom some would argue remains the top player in the WNBA after leading the league in scoring last year; Jonquel Jones, a dominant post presence; and Courtney Vandersloot, one of the league’s best passers.
Phoenix Mercury
Last season was difficult on the Mercury, who barely scraped into the playoffs as the No. 8 seed and were swiftly eliminated by the Aces. They also spent 2022 worried about teammate Brittney Griner while she was detained in Russia for nearly 10 months. But the seven-time All-Star is back on the court, and she’ll team once again with Diana Taurasi, a three-time WNBA champion. The Mercury have never missed the playoffs with Taurasi and Griner together, but they’ve only secured one title (2014) during that time.
Washington Mystics
The Mystics will need 33-year-old Elena Delle Donne to reclaim the spot she once held among the best players on the planet. The two-time MVP has been dealing with back issues the past few seasons but says she’s now fully healthy for the first time in years. If so, Delle Donne, veteran point guard Kristi Toliver and lethal scorer Ariel Atkins could make the Mystics, who won the title in 2019, true contenders once again.
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