From Surf Wiki (app.surf) — the open knowledge base

1997 WNBA Championship

First championship of the WNBA

Field	Value
league	WNBA
name	1997 WNBA Championship
year	1997
image	1997 WNBA Finals logo.png
champion	Houston Comets
champion_coach	Van Chancellor
champion_games	1
runnerup	New York Liberty
runnerup_coach	Nancy Darsch
runnerup_games	0
dates	August 30
MVP	Cynthia Cooper (Houston Comets)
HOFers	Comets:
Cynthia Cooper (2010)
Sheryl Swoopes (2016)
Tina Thompson (2018)
Liberty:
Rebecca Lobo (2017)
Teresa Weatherspoon (2019)
Coaches:
Van Chancellor (2007)
ECF result	New York defeated Phoenix 59-41
WCF result	Houston defeated Charlotte 70-54

Cynthia Cooper (2010) Sheryl Swoopes (2016) Tina Thompson (2018) Liberty: Rebecca Lobo (2017) Teresa Weatherspoon (2019) Coaches: Van Chancellor (2007)

The 1997 WNBA Championship was the championship game of the 1997 WNBA season, and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The Houston Comets, top-seeded team of the league, defeated the New York Liberty, second-seeded team, 65-51 to win the league's inaugural championship.

The Comets' 18–10 record gave them home court advantage over New York (17–11).

For the playoffs, the top four teams overall in the league were seeded one to four. Top seed Houston played the four seed Charlotte and the two seed New York played number three Phoenix.

Road to the final

Houston Comets	New York Liberty	[Regular season](1997-wnba-season)	WNBA Semifinals
18–10 (.643)
1st East, 1st overall	17–11 (.607)
2nd East, 2nd overall
Defeated the (4) Charlotte Sting, 70-54	Defeated the (3) Phoenix Mercury, 59-41

Regular season series

The Liberty won 3 of the 4 games in the regular season series:

Game summary

Time listed below is Eastern Daylight Time.

Bell
Courteau
Palmer

The Houston Comets became the first WNBA champions, riding the unstoppable Cynthia Cooper and a suffocating defense to a 65–51 victory over the New York Liberty.

Cooper, the fledgling league's leading scorer who was named Most Valuable Player earlier in the week, scored 14 of her 25 points in the pivotal second half, when the Comets had a 10–0 burst and held the Liberty scoreless for nearly 6½ minutes. Tina Thompson added 18 points for the Comets, who turned Houston into "Clutch City" again. The city adopted that nickname during the two-year championship reign of the NBA's Houston Rockets.

Cooper also was named Finals MVP as the sellout crowd of 16,285 saw the Comets come up with their best defensive effort of the season.

Kym Hampton had 13 points and 13 rebounds and Vickie Johnson added 12 points for the Liberty, who picked a bad time for one of their worst offensive displays. A meaningless basket with three seconds remaining by Rebecca Lobo—who was limited to nine points—allowed New York to avoid its lowest point total of the season.

Houston, which edged New York for the Eastern Conference title and knocked off Charlotte in the semifinals, finished the regular season 18–10. The Liberty, who advanced with a semifinal win at Phoenix, were 17–11.

Awards

1997 WNBA champion: Houston Comets
Finals MVP: Cynthia Cooper

Rosters

References

Info: Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

1997-wnba-season houston-comets new-york-liberty 1997-in-sports-in-new-york-(state) 1997-in-sports-in-texas wnba-finals august-1997-sports-events-in-the-united-states basketball-competitions-in-houston 1997-in-houston basketball-competitions-in-new-york-city

Want to explore this topic further?

Ask Mako anything about 1997 WNBA Championship — get instant answers, deeper analysis, and related topics.

Research with Mako

Free with your Surf account

Content sourced from Wikipedia, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.

This content may have been generated or modified by AI. CloudSurf Software LLC is not responsible for the accuracy, completeness, or reliability of AI-generated content. Always verify important information from primary sources.

Report