The NY Liberty are off to a franchise-best 22-6 start and have officially qualified for the 2023 WNBA playoffs, which start on Sept. 13.
But, before the chase for the post-season championship begins, the NY Liberty will play the Las Vegas Aces in the game for the third annual Commissioner’s Cup, the WNBA’s in-season tournament.
The game will be played on Tuesday, Aug. 15, at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, and will stream live on Amazon Prime Video on at 9:00pm.
Here’s what to know before tuning in:
The Commissioner’s Cup is an in-season tournament that has nothing to do with the playoffs, and it’s held for entertainment and charitable purposes. The tournament has been a component of the WNBA season since 2021 when the Seattle Storm won the inaugural Commissioner’s Cup. The Las Vegas Aces, currently the top-performing team in the league, won the Commissioner’s Cup in 2022.
The WNBA kicked off the annual Commissioner's Cup challenge in mid-May 2023. The league designates a slate of 10 games per team during the first half of the WNBA season as Cup play, which ended on July 12.
At the end of the Commissioner’s Cup tournament, the team with the highest winning percentage in each conference competes in a championship game.
The in-season tournament has a charitable twist: The WNBA has donated $2,000 to the chosen organization of each cup game's winning team and an additional $500 to the losing team’s organization after each game so far. Whichever team wins the championship as a whole gets $10,000 from the league for the team's chosen organization and $5,000 to the runner-up’s organization.
In total, the WNBA will donate $165,000 to various organizations throughout this year's series.
The league and teams collaborate to select organizations focused on women’s health and advocacy in LGBTQ+ communities and communities of color.
For the Commissioner’s Cup championship game, the Aces will be playing for NAMI Southern Nevada, a group that increases awareness and reduces stigma around mental health conditions, while the Liberty will be playing for Callen Lorde Health Center, which provides health care to New York’s LGBTQ+ community.
“Through a series of activations all season, the WNBA, WNBPA, teams and players are bringing awareness to some of the most critical health matters facing women, and particularly women of color,” said Bethany Donaphin, Head of WNBA League Operations, in an official statement. “We are committed to being champions for health equity and believe our focus on key pillars can help improve care access and health outcomes in communities that are most under-resourced.”
The charities aren’t the only ones to financially benefit from the Commissioner’s Cup — The winning team also gets $30,000 per player from the WNBA.
The players on the team in second place will win $10,000 each, and all participating players will receive $5,000 in cryptocurrency from Coinbase, a public cryptocurrency exchange platform that is presenting the tournament. The players can spend the money however they want.
The WNBA will also present a live pregame show across its digital and social channels before the 2023 Championship Game, previewing the match-up between the Las Vegas Aces and the New York Liberty.
Visit the official site of the WNBA for more information about the Commissioner’s Cup.
