The 1999 WNBA Championship was the championship
series
Series may refer to:
People with the name
* Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series
* George Series (1920–1995), English physicist
Arts, entertainment, and media
Music
* Series, the ordered sets used in ...
of the
1999 WNBA season, and the conclusion of
the season's playoffs. The
Houston Comets, top-seeded champions of the
Western Conference, defeated the
New York Liberty, top-seeded champions of the
Eastern Conference, two games to one in a best-of-three series. This was Houston's third title.
The Comets made their third appearance in the Finals in franchise history. The Liberty made their second Finals appearance.
Going into the series, no other team except the Houston Comets had ever won a WNBA championship (
1997
File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; '' Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of ...
and
1998
1998 was designated as the ''International Year of the Ocean''.
Events January
* January 6 – The ''Lunar Prospector'' spacecraft is launched into orbit around the Moon, and later finds evidence for frozen water, in soil in permanently s ...
).
The Comets had a 26–6 record (.813), good enough to receive home-court advantage over the Liberty (18–14).
Road to the finals
Regular season series
The Comets and the Liberty split the regular season series:
Game summaries
All times listed below are
Eastern Daylight Time
The Eastern Time Zone (ET) is a time zone encompassing part or all of 23 states in the eastern part of the United States, parts of eastern Canada, the state of Quintana Roo in Mexico, Panama, Colombia, mainland Ecuador, Peru, and a small p ...
.
Game 1
Game 2
With Houston leading 67–65 over New York and the Liberty out of timeouts with only 2.4 seconds remaining on the clock after Tina Thompson's jumper, New York would have to go the length of the court if they had any hope of winning. Kym Hampton inbounded the ball to
Teresa Weatherspoon
Teresa Gaye Weatherspoon (born December 8, 1965) is an American professional basketball coach and former player who serves as assistant coach for the New Orleans Pelicans of the National Basketball Association (NBA). She played for the New York L ...
who took a couple dribbles and let the ball fly 50 feet away from the basket. To the awe and ire of the Houston fans, the ball smacked off the backboard and banked into the basket and the Liberty won the game 68–67. The lasting image of this moment is Weatherspoon falling over on the ground smiling as her teammates mob her from the bench.
Game 3
Awards
*1999 WNBA Champion:
Houston Comets
*
Finals MVP:
Cynthia Cooper
Rosters
{, class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%;"
, -
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #B22222; color: #D3D3D3; text-align: center;" , 1999 Houston Comets Finals roster
, - style="background-color: #D3D3D3;color: #FFFFFF; text-align: center;"
! Players !! Coaches
, -
, valign="top" ,
{, class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;"
! Pos. !! # !! Nat. !! Name !! Height !! Weight !!class="unsortable", !! From
, -
{, class="toccolours" style="font-size: 95%; width: 100%;"
, -
! colspan="2" style="background-color: #0047AB; color: #FFFFFF; text-align: center;" , 1999 New York Liberty Finals roster
, - style="background-color: #66CDAA;color: #FF4500; text-align: center;"
! Players !! Coaches
, -
, valign="top" ,
{, class="sortable" style="background:transparent; margin:0px; width:100%;"
! Pos. !! # !! Nat. !! Name !! Height !! Weight !!class="unsortable", !! From
, -
External links
{{WNBA on ESPN
Finals
Final, Finals or The Final may refer to:
*Final (competition), the last or championship round of a sporting competition, match, game, or other contest which decides a winner for an event
** Another term for playoffs, describing a sequence of cont ...
Houston Comets
New York Liberty
WNBA Championship
WNBA Championship
Women's National Basketball Association Finals
WNBA Championship
WNBA Championship
Sports competitions in Houston
Sports competitions in New York City
1990s in Manhattan
Madison Square Garden