New York wins WNBA title, nearly nabs World Series

What happened

The New York Liberty, one of the original WNBA franchises, won their first championship title Sunday, beating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime of a hard-fought Game 5. It was New York's first pro basketball title since the Knicks won the NBA championship in 1973. New York City lost a guaranteed World Series victory, however, when the Mets fell to the Los Angeles Dodgers Sunday, a 10-5 defeat in the deciding Game 6 of the National League championships. The New York Yankees, though, punched their ticket to the World Series on Saturday night in a 5-2 Game 5 win over the Cleveland Guardians.

Who said what

The Liberty's win capped "27 seasons of disappointment," including five previous trips to the finals since the team's debut in the "WNBA's inaugural season of 1997," The Washington Post said. It was "far from New York's most aesthetically pleasing game," The Athletic said, but "the only number that matters is the final margin." As star Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu said, Sunday's most important stat was "one more [point] than the other team."

There is less novelty in the 12th World Series matchup between the Dodgers and the Yankees, though the players have changed many times since the Dodgers won their last face-off in 1981. Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani will lead his injury-hobbled, deep-benched team against Yankees slugger Juan Soto and a trio of veterans in their 30s — Aaron Judge, Giancarlo Stanton and Gerrit Cole — who covet a "championship as validation as much as accomplishment," The Associated Press said.

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What next?

The Yankees and Dodgers play Game 1 this Friday night in Los Angeles. The Liberty will be celebrated with a ticker-tape parade in Manhattan; the date is expected to be announced Monday.