Major WNBA Change Gets Blunt Assessment From Aces' Becky Hammon

With the WNBA continuing to expand to new cities and offering bigger payouts to players, the league recently announced it will expand the regular-season schedule to 50 games.

This begins with the 2027 WNBA season and is a six-game increase from the number of games that teams currently play each season.

Las Vegas Aces head coach Becky Hammon was asked for her reaction to the major change coming to the league, and pointed out the good and the bad aspects of it in her blunt response.

“I mean, it is what it is. It's the growth of the league. When you look at it in that lens, it's good. We'll have to see if they allow even more roster spots and stuff like that, because that's a lot of wear and tear on a group, especially when you start mixing in World Cup and all this other stuff. But more money, more games. That's the way it works,” she said at a postgame media session.

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Hammon’s opinion carries a lot of weight, as she’s a championship-winning head coach and also a former player. She spent 16 years in the league, playing for the New York Liberty and the team formerly known as the San Antonio Silver Stars, which became the Las Vegas Aces.

She never captured a championship as a player, but certainly understands the grueling nature of grinding through a regular season to reach the playoffs and contend. The Silver Stars reached the WNBA Finals in 2008, but lost 3-0 to the Detroit Shock.

Fast forward to now, she’s coaching an Aces team that is the reigning champs and features multi-time MVP, A’ja Wilson. Right now, the team is mostly healthy, except for Chennedy Carter’s lingering illness, which has made her a game-time decision.

The WNBA increased its number of games within the past five years, first moving up to 40 games in 2023 and 2024, then increasing the schedule to 44 games after adding the expansion Golden Valkyries last year.

The league added two more expansion teams, which started playing this year with the Portland Fire and Toronto Tempo. The WNBA is looking to add more locations and teams in the future.

Hammon makes a great point about the league potentially needing to make additional rules or policy updates to help coaches address any injuries that may affect their rosters. Still, overall, more games seem to bring a potential for more revenue and exposure for the league’s stars, but time and numbers will tell that story.

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This story was originally published June 18, 2026 at 11:36 AM.