Minnesota Lynx win 2024 WNBA Commissioner's Cup. Here's how much money the team gets.
The Minnesota Lynx used their hot shooting and slowed down one of the best offenses in the league to beat the New York Liberty, 92-89, and win the 2024 WNBA Commissioner's Cup.
In the first half, it looked like the first-place Liberty were going to cruise toward victory thanks to a hot start from Sabrina Ionescu, but the second half was a different story. New York couldn't stop turning the ball over and Minnesota capitalized on a majority of the opportunities, turning 22 Liberty turnovers into 27 points. Breanna Stewart engineered her own run to cut the deficit to one point in the fourth quarter, but Minnesota held off all late rallies from New York to secure the victory.
The Lynx showed why they lead the WNBA in 3-point shooting percentage with a whopping 14-for-29 (48.3%) performance from beyond the arc. Minnesota got big-time performances from Bridget Carleton and Napheesa Collier, who combined for 44 points and made nine of the 3-point shots for the team. Collier was named the MVP of the final.
The win is just another mark in what has been a remarkable turnaround in Minnesota. A team that finished the 2023 season 19-21, Minnesota has now won seven-straight games, even though Tuesday's game won't count toward the regular season standings or stats. Of those victories, only the win on Tuesday and a win over Los Angeles on June 14 were single-digit wins. At 13-3, Minnesota is tied with the Connecticut Sun for second place in the WNBA and one game back of New York in first place.
Commissioner’s Cup prize
Not only do the Lynx get to claim the Commissioner's Cup trophy, they'll also go home with a solid pay day.
The winners of the Commissioner's Cup are awarded $500,000, about one-third of the WNBA salary cap. With 12 players on a WNBA roster, each player will get around $41,000, and the MVP of the game — Collier — gets an additional $5,000. Coinbase, the sponsor of the Commissioner's Cup, added $120,000 in cryptocurrency to the prize pool so every player on each team will get $5,000, so there's some prize for the Liberty.
Every team partnered with a non-profit organization decided by players for the competition and those organizations also get donations for their teams making and winning the final. The Lynx partnered with Gender Justice and the organization will receive $10,000, and Women Creating Change will get $5,00 from its partnership with the Liberty.
Commissioner's Cup history
The Lynx denied New York a chance to be the first back-to-back Commissioner's Cup winners in the in-season competition's young history. The Liberty won last year's edition by defeating the eventual WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces. Here are all the winners of the Commissioner's Cup:
- 2024: Minnesota Lynx (defeated New York Liberty)
- 2023: New York Liberty (defeated Las Vegas Aces)
- 2022: Las Vegas Aces (defeated Chicago Sky)
- 2021: Seattle Storm (defeated Connecticut Sun)