The Connecticut Sun shouldn’t have wanted to win on Thursday night.
Long eliminated from the playoff race, winning lottery balls, not games, is supposed to be the goal.
But, a team also isn’t supposed to be taken away from a community that has supported them from 24 seasons.
And the Connecticut faithful that filled Mohegan Sun Arena one final time deserved the win that the young
Sun earned on Thursday night, allowing them to fully celebrate the franchise that they’ve loved, from back when it wasn’t fashionable to do so through repeated trips to playoffs led by MVPs through a final season filled with losses.
Jen Rizzotti, the team president who will remain with the organization (as will general manager Morgan Tuck), honored that enduring embrace after the game,tearfully insisting:
You’ve never disappointed.
You’ve proved that Connecticut deserves a WNBA team. And I just want you all to know that no matter what happens from here, this team, as they move onto the next chapter of their careers, the success that all of them have in their future, you will always be a part of that. Always.
Five members of the Sun, all of them in the first, second of third season in the WNBA, scored in double figures as Connecticut defeated Toronto Tempo, 95-81, officially ending the WNBA’s era in Uncasville. Some of those players—Aaliyah Edwards, Raegan Beers, Hailey Van Lith, Gianna Kneepkens and Ashlon Jackson—will become Houston Comets.
But, for one last time, they shone for the Sun. As Jackson said after the game:
Coach spoke about us playing for our pride—pride for our fans, pride for our name, pride for the organization itself. I think we did just that.
Edwards, likewise, spoke to how the young team, even after a season of struggle, took pride in being part of the Sun legacy, saying:
But ultimately, we’re holding our heads up high because we were part of a legacy. We were part of the impact, and everyone today and before today made history by just pouring into a franchise when no one else would.
Before Thursday’s final Sunset, Zack Ward wrote about the uniqueness of the Sun, a sustained small market that produced superstar talents, near-title runs and a women’s basketball culture that will never be replicated—nor erased.
As Rizzotti also asserted:
I don’t think you talk about the WNBA without the Connecticut Sun and what it’s meant on the court and the players that have played here and the sustained success that it had for such a long time.
So, let’s make sure the Sun never, fully sets.
These 24 seasons in Connecticut must always be a shining part of WNBA history.
