“The WNBA Gave It to Them”: U.S. Congresswoman Accuses League of Rigging Championship on House Floor

In an unprecedented move that sent shockwaves through the sports and political worlds, a sitting member of the United States Congress has formally accused a major professional sports league of rigging its own championship. From the floor of the House of Representatives, Minnesota Congresswoman Angie Craig delivered a fiery speech condemning the WNBA for what she described as the blatant manipulation of the 2024 Finals, alleging the league handed the title to the New York Liberty over her home-state team, the Minnesota Lynx. The accusations, stemming from a year-old controversy, have ripped the scab off a wound many fans felt had never truly healed.

The drama centers on Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals, a nail-biting, winner-take-all contest that ended in heartbreak for Minnesota and triumph for New York. Representative Craig had made a friendly wager with a New York colleague on the series’ outcome. Typically, the loser would honor the bet with a congratulatory speech. But Craig refused.

“I would have, but I won’t,” she stated before her colleagues in Washington. “Because the truth is that Minnesota didn’t lose game five. I was there in New York. The Liberty didn’t win. The WNBA gave it to them.”

Craig’s speech painted a picture of a league that prioritized narrative over neutrality. She laid out her case with passion, arguing that the WNBA’s leadership had a vested interest in a New York victory. “Let me just say it out loud,” Craig declared. “The WNBA wanted the Liberty to win. Big market team, superstar faces, a tidy storyline for the league office and league commissioner who literally wore the New York City skyline on her dress that night.”

For Minnesota, she argued, they were simply “the wrong script. Too gritty, too real, too inconvenient.”

The congresswoman’s outrage focused on a single moment: a “phantom foul” called against Lynx forward Alana Smith, who was defending Liberty superstar Breanna Stewart in the game’s final five seconds. The call sent Stewart to the free-throw line, where she secured the victory for New York. Craig, who was at the game, called the contact “embellished, marginal at worst.”

“The whistle blew and the game and the title was handed to New York on a silver platter,” she lamented. “And when the Lynx challenged the call, the officials reviewed themselves. The same people who made the call decided to stand by it. That’s not accountability. That’s the system protecting itself. That’s the fix being called in.”

To bolster her claim, Craig highlighted another startling statistic from the game: Napheesa Collier, the Lynx’s dominant star and a force in the paint, did not attempt a single free throw throughout the entire championship-deciding game. “How does a player so dominant in the lane never draw contact?” Craig asked. “Because she was erased from the whistle.”

This wasn’t just sour grapes from a disappointed fan; it was a formal accusation of corruption from a federal lawmaker. The timing of the speech was no accident. It came just days before the Lynx and Liberty were scheduled to face each other for the first time in the 2025 season, ensuring the controversy would be front and center for the highly anticipated rematch in Minneapolis.

For those who watched the game live in 2024, Craig’s words were a powerful echo of their own frustrations. Analysis from the time of the incident supports her view. A closer look at the infamous play reveals that just before the foul was called, Breanna Stewart appeared to take at least four or five steps after gathering the ball—a clear traveling violation that went uncalled by the officials.

Ignoring the travel, the officials then whistled Alana Smith for a defensive foul. Replays showed Smith in a perfect defensive stance, moving vertically with her hand appearing to make contact with the ball, not Stewart’s arm. In basketball, a defender’s hand on the ball is considered part of the ball and is not a foul. Despite a coach’s challenge and a lengthy review, the officials inexplicably upheld their call, citing that Smith was “out of position,” a justification that left commentators and fans baffled.

The fallout was immediate. Fans coined terms like “rigification” to describe what they felt was a choreographed outcome designed to benefit the league’s marketing goals. The incident has seemingly lit a fire under the Lynx, particularly Napheesa Collier, who has played with a relentless intensity ever since, as if on a mission to avenge the loss.

Now, with a U.S. Representative putting the WNBA on blast, the league finds itself in a difficult position. While it has enjoyed a surge in popularity, this kind of attention is far from what it would want. The accusations strike at the very heart of professional sports: the integrity of the competition. Craig’s speech didn’t just rehash an old complaint; it elevated it to a national issue.

As she concluded her remarks on the House floor, Craig made her stance unequivocally clear. “Minnesota didn’t lose game five. The WNBA took it from them,” she said, her voice filled with conviction. “And I’ll be damned if I ever put on a New York Liberty jersey.”

With the Lynx and Liberty preparing to share the court once again, the game is no longer just another regular-season matchup. It’s a referendum on a year-old decision that refuses to die, a battle between a team that feels robbed and a team defending a tainted title, all under the watchful eye of a public that has just been told the entire system might be fixed.