The 1998 Houston Comets. The 2001 Los Angeles Sparks. The 2010 Seattle Storm. The 2014 Phoenix Mercury and the 2023 Las Vegas Aces.

There’s a fair argument that those are the best five teams in WNBA history in terms of regular season record and the championship that followed. There are several more contenders to stake a claim for best starting five in league history.

Throw them all out.

The 2025 New York Liberty might have the best starting five ever assembled in the WNBA now that Emma Meesseman, the 2019 Finals MVP and multitime Euroleague MVP, has signed with the team.

Let’s dive in…

Subscribe now

First of all, let’s look at the aforementioned starters on the best teams in history.

1998 Houston Comets (27-3, WNBA Champions)

2001 Los Angeles Sparks (28-4, WNBA Champions)

2010 Seattle Storm (28-6, WNBA Champions)

2014 Phoenix Mercury (29-5, WNBA Champions)

2016 Los Angeles Sparks (26-8, WNBA Champions)

2023 Las Vegas Aces (34-6, WNBA Champions)

Let’s now take a look at the 2016 Minnesota Lynx, arguably the best team to not win a championship…

2016 Minnesota Lynx (28-6, lost WNBA Finals to L.A.)

So what does that ultimately net us? If you were to add it up by All-WNBA selections across a career, the Lynx check in with the best starting five in league history. In the case of the Liberty, it’s a little bit harder to assess Meesseman because one could argue she’s played her best basketball in the last five years, away from the United States. Her time with the Washington Mystics netted her a title, two all-star nods and a Finals MVP, but not what we expect out of her now. Even still, let’s take a look…

2025 New York Liberty

Personally, I’m assessing Meesseman as a player with an All-WNBA ceiling at this point in her career. The numbers probably will not show it by the end of the year but the talent she’s shown in Europe and on the international stage is pretty obvious. Add that into two league MVP’s and a guard that’s likely to be on her fourth straight All-WNBA team and you have something between the 2016 L.A. Sparks and the 2016 Lynx. That’s undeniably frightening.

If Meesseman plays at the same level she’s played at abroad the last couple of years, then we’re talking about the possibility of 3 MVP caliber players, a multi-time All-WNBA guard, a multi-time WNBA All-Defense selection and Leonie Fiebich/Nyara Sabally. That’s preposterous. It’s a somewhat contrived take but there really is no excuse for the Liberty. They absolutely have to win the league this year with the roster they have.

Share No Cap Space WBB

The signing of Meesseman certainly keeps the Liberty afloat until Jonquel Jones comes back. Even after JJ returns, I don’t foresee too much trouble with how the Belgian superstar fits into this lineup. She’s already got great familiarity with Sandy Brondello and Olaf Lange as well as the general respect of the basketball community. This isn’t signing a young phenom who may not understand their place in the pecking order. Meesseman is so good that Stewie and JJ could be deferential to *her*. That means something. From a roster construction standpoint, there’s simply no weakness on this Liberty team. It’s reminiscent of Dawn Staley’s best South Carolina teams where you have to play your best *and* they have to play their worst for you to win.

It may take a few weeks to iron out the creases and work out the kinks. But if this thing gets flowing in the way New York wants, they are going to be extremely hard to beat once, let alone multiple times to win a WNBA championship.

With this one signing, the Minnesota Lynx once again have some competition and the two horse race we saw at the beginning of the season is reignited again. We thought Cheryl Reeve had a masterstroke in bringing back Jessica Shepard, addressing the Lynx’s frontcourt depth and then the Liberty turn around and bring on a direct counter to that.

Every other team? Best of luck. Atlanta has a frontcourt that can compete with New York but Brittney Griner’s lack of defensive pressure is going to be exposed with yet another scoring big on the Liberty roster. Indiana will be undersized when they step into the next matchup, as will Phoenix. Vegas has no wing to counter the number of players Brondello can throw out. Truly it feels as though the Lynx are the only thing standing between New York and a title is Minnesota. It has a very 2017 Lebron vs. the KD/Steph Warriors feel to it. Hopefully there’s no Game 1 JR Smith to spoil things.

Leave a comment

Maybe it’s a zag take but this move, while tilting the competitive balance of the league at least for this year, gives the owners a reason to address the salary cap. As one of our resident Ball-Knowers, Saskia, noted in our chat, this is only possible because low salaries artificially restrict options for top players. In a normal league with more variance in the salary structure, maybe New York doesn’t win the race because their cash is invariably tied up in two current MVP’s and a multi-time All-WNBA guard who is, in some ways, the face of the franchise. Maybe the concept of taking a paycut and enjoying what the Liberty offer as an organization is eclipsed by another team that can come in and offer double the money up front.

As it stands, the small things within organizations matter when the money stops being important. New York was voted by players in The Athletic’s anonymous survey the best market in terms of off-court options (marketability) and the franchise itself treated its players the best. If you can’t pay your way out of that equation, you’re going to be coming in second to the Liberty every single time. It’s precisely why there’s profit sharing within sports leagues, so the top markets don’t just hog all the money and the stars.

In a lot of ways, this could be an alarm bell to other WNBA owners that they need to introduce a little more money in the equation to balance the field a bit more. The general message Meesseman is sending is a good one: if you take care of your players, top players will want to play for you. She wanted a winner, yes. She also wanted an organization that has its shit together. There’s a reason Phoenix and Minnesota were also in the mix. But it also may give owners pause in how they approach these labor negotiations.

Ultimately, the thing that powered the 1983 labor agreement (including the 53% revenue share) in the NBA — mentioned in Five Out earlier today — is the fact that salaries at the top end of the spectrum were spinning out of control. There needed to be some kind of guardrail on the market for top players as well as a chance for all teams to have a shot to compete for them. This, in some ways, feels like a mutation of that. Instead of throwing a bag of money indiscriminately the way NBA teams of the late 70’s/early 80’s did, WNBA franchises are throwing their weight at all the other accoutrements to entice players without paying them. Sounds like something that can be solved with higher salaries!

Share