This is going to be an awkward season for the Connecticut Sun. Full lame-duck seasons like the one coming up here are rare; and for good reason.
Franchise removal more typically comes like ripping off a bandage. The Braves reported to spring training in 1953 expecting to play in Boston, but were issued new hats with “M” for Milwaukee on March 18. Same thing happened to the Seattle Pilots even closer to Opening Day. Topps didn’t even have time to change its baseball cards for the 1970 Brewers.
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It was only late in the 1997 NHL season that we learned all hope was lost and there was no saving the Whale in Hartford.
But this is 2026, this is the WNBA, and if there is one thing this league does, it’s “awkward,” especially when they get their long-stated desire for more coverage by traditional media. Even at a time to bask in its hard-won labor peace, The W keeps shooting itself in the foot like Yosemite Sam in a Saturday morning cartoon.
Why Brittney Griner signed with Connecticut Sun for final season in CT: ‘Basketball is rich here’
So the Sun are here and now and will try to make the most of this “sunset” season. (cringe).
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“I would say to the fans, support the Connecticut Sun this season,” commissioner Cathy Engelbert said before the draft. “And it’s a great basketball state, obviously, for women’s basketball. Some would call it the center of women’s basketball with how successful UConn’s been over so many years. I would say stick with us. Stick with the WNBA. We know that fandom won’t go away.”
Well, thanks for that, Commish. Engelbert reiterated the line that neither Boston nor Hartford could buy the franchise in their backyard because they did not put in for an expansion bid, even though there was an existing franchise in their backyard and obviously soon to be for sale.
Meanwhile, the Sun are left to operate on a one-year plan. In the wake of the end of the labor strife, they dipped into free agency and signed 10-time all-star Brittney Griner to a one-year, seven-figure contract. She originally posted of being excited to be “going home,” as a Houstonian who grew up and fell in love with the sport going to Comets games.
But she read the room and crushed all the right notes when introduced in Connecticut on Friday.
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“It’s definitely going to be an emotional season,” Griner said. “You did build something sustainable. Something was built here that was rich and done the right way, and fans don’t want to see it go. And I can respect that.”
The question that lingers for me is, just how is this is supposed to work? Technically, the agreement with Houston has not yet been delivered to the league for review and approval. When it is, the transition process should be spelled out. Will Houston assemble a front office and have input in decisions during the season? Will it order the Sun to shed payroll and tank in preparation for next year’s draft?
As training camp opens on Sunday, the Mohegan Tribe is still in charge and GM Morgan Tuck says it is business as usual.
“We’re trying to make this year really special,” Tuck said. “We’re trying to do our due diligence, to not look to far ahead and live in the future, but stay in the present. When we looked at how we want to approach the season, it was how do we make it the best possible, how to we do our due diligence give our fans, our players the best experience.
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“And with Houston, being able to share resources and give us access to things we haven’t had, they’ve been very supportive in what we want to do and stick to our vision.”
The Sun is run by solid basketball people, and Tribe can afford to splurge on players. They bought the then-failing franchise from Orlando for $10 million in 2003, and with the chance to sell for $300 million now, they took the path of least resistance rather than fight the NBA and WNBA to get a little more from Hartford or Boston.
In the end, keeping the team in New England was not their fight, and any litigation, legislation or investigation is likely going to go nowhere.
“The seller in this instance would or could potentially have the best potential claim, but given they were willing participants in this sale it’s kind of hard to simultaneously bring a lawsuit to undo it,” said Michael Rueda, partner and head of U.S. sports and entertainment with the international law firm, Withers. “As a Connecticut person and a UConn (2006) alum, it’s sad to see us lose the WNBA franchise. Obviously there is a market for women’s basketball in Connecticut.
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“Having done some team deals myself, I understand the league’s perspective, especially the commissioner’s words around how the league controls the movement of franchises into new territories vs. changing owners within the same territory. The Connecticut perspective, we have lawmakers questioning the validity of the restrictions, but ultimately the league’s going to control how and when new franchises get put into new places.”
The WNBA’s vision, “the fandom won’t go away,” is a gamble that “absence makes the heart grow fonder” will prevail over “out of sight, out of mind” in New England. The hope is that an expansion process in 2032 at the earliest will be an even greater windfall, like $500 million for a team in Boston and the Celtics owners will pay it … assuming this WNBA growth spurt isn’t just a Caitlin Clark-driven bubble.
“If we take the comments of the league at face value, there is an intention to revisit Boston,” Rueda said. “The sale price demonstrates there’s real interest. They’re going to move into these big markets and they are following some order or priority they have established internally, with people who have demonstrated interest. … Ownership of sports franchises is more of a proper asset than they used to be. The bet they’re making (Houston vs. New England), it seems like a reasonable one.”
UConn star Azzi Fudd ‘couldn’t be happier’ to join Dallas Wings as No. 1 WNBA Draft pick
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In the mainstream
The newspapers, TV and radio stations in Connecticut were covering women’s basketball, including the WNBA franchise, as a mainstream, big-league sport before the internet itself existed, let alone social media, or W-specific websites. Elsewhere, press conferences are usually filled by in-house content producers or “influencers,” and they have a job to do, too. But when traditional reporters show up odd things; awkward things happen.
Engelbert was asked about her future on the job and gave a snarky answer, punctuated with, “I wonder whether you would ask that of a man, by the way. But I realize as women we get asked different questions than men do.”
The reporter, Madeline Kenney, an experienced, highly competent writer covering women’s sports for a New York paper, immediately said, “I would,” and this points up that the league wants mainstream media coverage … until they get it.
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In Dallas, where UConn’s Azzi Fudd was introduced as the No.1 overall pick, longtime local columnist, Kevin Sherrington of the Dallas Morning News, asked about her relationship with past and future teammate Paige Bueckers, and a media relations staffer immediately stepped in to say, “I understand why you have to ask that question, but we’re going to respectfully decline from commentary on our players’ personal lives.”
Those who cover the WNBA on a regular basis are aware that these situations are fairly common in the league, but isn’t it a goal to draw more fans and media who are not as familiar? The question was not out of bounds, but Fudd and the Wings were certainly within their rights to decline to answer.
However, coaches or athletes who wish to keep their personal lives private can make sure of it themselves. Neither Bueckers nor Fudd have ever really acknowledged their relationship in a serious way, but Bueckers alluded to it at last year’s All-Star game in an lighthearted interview with WAG Talk (that stands for wives and girlfriends of athletes), and they’ve dropped just enough hints on social media to make the question inevitable once the Wings invested back-to-back No.1 overall picks to reunite them as teammates.
You have to believe Fudd, 23, with a MBA from UConn, her own podcast and a world-wide brand is well-equipped to handle herself, and speak for herself in any situation.
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The intrusion of experienced mainstream reporters there figures to be a short-lived. In a few weeks, one can fully expect Bueckers and Fudd to be lighting it up on the court as the local media flocks back to Cowboys training camp to cover the competition for third-string tight end. The ex-Huskies will get more coverage when they return to PeoplesBank Arena on July 2, as the league bids its awkward farewell to a market that really cares about the sport.
More for your Sunday Read:
Sunday short takes
*Felix Unger Sorum, 20-year-old hockey prospect from Sweden, was asked to remove himself from his place of residence in the AHL. That request came from the team formerly known as the Whalers, and Unger Sorum debuted with an assist in Carolina’s last regular-season game. Don’t know what kind of NHL player he will become, but if life imitates art, he will have the neatest locker in the league.
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*Two UConn players also took their rookie laps in the NHL this week, Ryan Tverberg for the Maple Leafs and Viking Gustaffson Nyberg with the Wild.
*Luke Murray is assembling his staff at Boston College with former Huskies staffers Mat Johnson, a UConn grad who played a key role in scouting and video before leaving for Princeton in 2025. He will be an assistant coach. Eric Youncofski, who was with UConn during the early Dan Hurley years, will be director of basketball operations.
*Former Norwich Free Academy guard RJ Evans, who finished his college career at UConn in 2012-13 and has been coaching ever since, is the new head men’s basketball coach at American International in Springfield.
*Southern Connecticut State University will host an evening with trailblazers in women’s sports on June 18 at Aria in Prospect at 5 p.m. NBC’s Maria Taylor will host the discussion that includes SCSU grad Donna Lopiano, who played a major role in securing Title IX, former CEO of the Women’s Sports Foundation. Also Donna de Varona, Olympic gold medalist, broadcaster and co-founder of the Women’s Sports Foundation; SCSU alum Dawn Stanton, former track and field All-American; and Elana Meyers Taylor, six-time Olympic medalist and U.S. bobsledder. Go to alumni-friends.southernct.edu for information.
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*Ex-UConn ace Anthony Kay, back in MLB with the White Sox after a stint in Japan, threw 5 1/3 scoreless innings against the Royals to notch his first win on Tuesday. Still as feisty as UConn baseball fans might remember him, the original AK touched 98 MPH and had a stare-down with Jac Caglianone after a hit by pitch. Then Kay served notice that the White Sox, after losing the record 121 games in 2024, are through playing patsies. “Those guys like to chirp a little bit, it seems like,” Kay told reporters in KC. “I don’t think we’re going to take that anymore, we’re going to go right at them.”
*UConn’s Kevin Ollie has long been linked to the Pelicans’ search for a head coach, which will be shifting into gear now that the season is over. New Orleans GM Troy Weaver considered K.O. when he was running the Pistons in 2023; they have a long-standing friendship.
Last word
Gabby Lucivero, first woman to be named Connecticut Sportscaster of the Year, is leaving NBC CT after eight years to join ESPN radio as a fill-in host. Like her colleagues at the state’s TV stations, she’s always gone the extra mile to find and tell great sports stories, and did some of her best work covering locals at Olympic games in Paris, Beijing and Milan. Her last day is May 22.
