1999 WNBA Finals

Result

Finals MVP: Cynthia Cooper

Games

Finals context

Houston and New York met for the second time in three Finals, with the Comets carrying a 26-6 record and top seed into a series that would ultimately be remembered for one of the most famous shots in WNBA history — a shot that came in a game Houston still won, in the series it still swept 2-1. Houston took Game 1 in New York on September 2, 73-60, behind 29 points from Cynthia Cooper, who made all 10 of her free-throw attempts, and an 18-point spark off the bench from Sophia Witherspoon. Game 2 belonged entirely to Teresa Weatherspoon: with Houston leading 67-65 and 2.4 seconds on the clock, Weatherspoon caught the inbound pass, took two dribbles, and heaved a shot from roughly 50 feet that banked off the backboard and through the net, giving New York an improbable 68-67 win and sending the Liberty faithful into delirium as she fell to the floor mobbed by teammates. It remains one of the signature moments of the league's first decade, still replayed whenever WNBA history highlight reels are assembled, and it forced a decisive Game 3. Houston did not blink. Back home on September 5, the Comets throttled New York's offense in a defensive slog, winning 59-47 and holding the Liberty to their lowest scoring output of the series to close out a third consecutive championship. Cooper was again named Finals MVP, extending a run of dominance that, combined with her regular-season MVP honors, made her the unquestioned face of the league through its first three years. Houston's veteran trio of Cooper, Sheryl Swoopes, and Tina Thompson — all future Hall of Famers — gave the Comets a level of two-way talent no other franchise could match in the league's earliest seasons, and their poise after the Weatherspoon shot, a moment that might have derailed a less experienced group, said as much about the team's championship pedigree as anything in the box score. For New York, Weatherspoon's shot became bittersweet: a signature moment of franchise history attached to a series the Liberty still lost, extending New York's growing reputation as the WNBA's premier Finals runner-up. The Liberty, led on the floor by Becky Hammon, Rebecca Lobo, and Weatherspoon, had now fallen to Houston in the Finals twice (1997 and 1999) with a third loss (2000) still to come, a run of frustration that would not be broken until 2024. Houston's third straight title also raised the question of whether any team could dethrone the Comets; the answer would not arrive until the following season, when Houston completed an unprecedented four-peat before the roster began to age and disperse in the early 2000s.

Sources

• Wikipedia — 1999 WNBA Championship
• Basketball-Reference.com — Houston Comets at New York Liberty, Sept. 2, 1999 box score