Las Vegas Aces

No franchise in women's basketball has undergone a more dramatic reinvention than the Las Vegas Aces. Born as the Utah Starzz in 1997, rebranded as the San Antonio Stars in 2003, and finally relocated to the desert in 2018, this was a team that spent two decades searching for an identity before discovering it had been building toward something all along. In Las Vegas, inside the Michelob ULTRA Arena, the Aces found what had eluded them across three cities and three names: a home worthy of a dynasty.

The architect of that dynasty is Becky Hammon, the former player who made history as the first woman to serve as a full-time NBA assistant coach with the San Antonio Spurs before taking the Aces job. Hammon inherited a roster anchored by A'ja Wilson and turned it into the most dominant force the WNBA has seen in the modern era. The Aces captured back-to-back championships in 2022 and 2023, then added a third title in 2025—three championships in four years. Wilson, the franchise cornerstone and two-time regular season MVP, was simply transcendent in the 2025 campaign, averaging 23.4 points per game during the regular season and earning both regular season MVP and Finals MVP honors.

The 2025 run was a masterclass in championship construction. The Aces added Jewell Loyd via trade from Seattle, finished 30-14 as the number-two seed, and navigated a gauntlet of a postseason—dispatching the Seattle Storm in the first round, surviving a five-game semifinal war against the Indiana Fever that went to overtime in the decisive Game 5 (107-98), and then sweeping the Phoenix Mercury in four games in the Finals. What separates the Aces from every other franchise in the league is the clarity of their formula: Wilson's generational dominance, Hammon's tactical brilliance, and a roster that believes it is supposed to win. In a city built on long odds, the Aces have become the surest bet in women's sports.