The Las Vegas Aces celebrated their 2025 WNBA championship with a victory parade on October 17, which included passionate speeches and dancing from Becky Hammon and several members of the Aces roster, a franchise that has now won three league titles in the past four seasons.

The Aces’ dominance over the Phoenix Mercury in the WNBA Finals (which resulted in the Aces sweeping the Mercury) was surprising to many, if only because much of the women’s basketball community thought these two teams were pretty evenly matched headed into the best-of-seven series.

Of course, Las Vegas was fresh off a nail-biting best-of-five WNBA Semifinals series against the Indiana Fever, where the Aces were taken to the absolute brink of defeat before coming through in overtime during the winner-take-all Game 5.

Most expected the Aces to breeze past the Fever in this semifinal series, if only because Indiana’s roster had five players (including the inimitable Caitlin Clark) sidelined for the rest of the season with injuries. But the Fever’s resiliency and grit shone through, which Becky Hammon alluded to during her Aces exit interview earlier this week by saying, “Indiana played great,” Hammon said, per a YouTube video from The Ballers Magazine.

“They had great individual performances, I think they’re coached great… that was a very good team, a very resilient team that had just went through Atlanta. Like, I don’t think, instead of trying to not take away from our credit, why don’t we give them credit?” she continued.

Chelsea Gray Credits Fever When Speaking About WNBA Finals Dominance

Becky Hammon wasn’t the only member of the Aces who gave the Fever their flowers, as star point guard Chelsea Gray also gave the team credit when speaking with Sue Bird for an October 17 episode of Bird’s Eye View.

While Fever fans would have preferred their team to be in the WNBA Finals rather than having helped another team prepare for it, it’s some solace knowing that the Fever’s fingerprints were still on that championship series.