Sheryl Swoopes Gets 'Petty' in Addressing WNBA Finals TV Ratings

Originally posted on Women's Fastbreak on SI
By Grant Young | Last updated Oct 14, 2025 3:55 PM ET

While the 2025 WNBA Finals wasn't that competitive a series (as the Las Vegas Aces swept the Phoenix Mercury in four games), that doesn't mean the women's basketball community (and the sports world at large) was uninterested in watching these two teams compete for the league championship.

And this was proven by the TV ratings for the first three 2025 WNBA Finals games, all of which have been made public over the past week. The ratings for Game 1 were released on October 7 (two days after the game took place) and produced impressive numbers, as the contest (which was broadcast on ESPN) averaged 1.9 million viewers and peaked at 2.5 million.

While Games 2 and 3 didn't quite live up to those numbers, they still reached 1.2 million and 1.3 million viewers, respectively, which is nothing to scoff at.

Game 1's ratings were the most for a WNBA Finals game since 1997, which was the first year in the league's history. However, the 1997 WNBA Finals weren't a series. It was a one-game winner-take-all contest between the Houston Comets and the New York Liberty.

The Comets won by a score of 65-51, largely because WNBA Finals MVP Cynthia Cooper scored 28 points. What's most impressive of all is that this game amassed 2.8 million viewers on NBC, according to an article from Front Office Sports.

Sheryl Swoopes Addresses 2025 WNBA Finals Ratings

While WNBA legend Sheryl Swoopes was on the 1997 Houston Comets team that won the league championship and was half of that ratings record, she only played five minutes and scored 0 points in the championship game that season.

But that didn't keep her from cracking a joke about the 2025 WNBA Finals ratings on an October 14 episode of The Women's Hoops Show.

When her co-host, Jordan Robinson, noted that the Game 1 2025 WNBA Finals ratings was the second-most viewed WNBA Finals after after her 1997 contest, Swoopes said, "Did you say 1997? So people did watch back then?"

The two then began laughing before Swoopes added, "You know I had to be petty, come on!"

Swoopes then added, "There's no doubt, no question, the league is growing. There are more eyes on it; the talent is there. I'm not surprised, but I would say the fact that we probably had two teams... that no one expected to be in the Finals, that the views were second-highest behind our game in 1997, it just goes to show people what's going on, and how good these women are.

"And everybody is watching," Swooped concluded with emphasis.

So while Swoopes did ultimately praise the 2025 WNBA Finals ratings, it only came after making a "petty" joke about the 1997 game's ratings superiority.

This article first appeared on Women's Fastbreak on SI and was syndicated with permission.

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