Dear Dallas, Thank You for Giving Us Something to Believe In
Dear Dallas,
I know tonight hurts.
There probably isn't a perfect thing to say after a season ends like this. Not after getting this close. Not after everything it took to get back to Golden State for one more game with a chance to keep playing.
So I'm not going to try to make tonight hurt less. I just don't want tonight to make us forget everything that happened before it.
Because before that final buzzer, there was an entire season. Forty four regular season games. Twenty seven wins. A playoff appearance for the first time since 2023. A team that didn't simply improve from the year before, but produced the largest single season turnaround in WNBA history. Dallas finished 27–17 after winning 10 games a year ago.
The Wings also set franchise records for wins, winning percentage, points per game, assists per game, assist to turnover ratio, field goal percentage and total three pointers. Dallas led the entire league in assists at 22.3 per game and took care of the basketball at a historically efficient rate.
Somewhere along the way, this stopped feeling like a team trying to figure out what it could become.
It started feeling like one that knew.
Two nights ago, I sat inside College Park Center with NOW IT'S US stretched across thousands of chests. I watched Jess get her flowers. I watched Golden State make every Paige touch a fight. I watched Alysha give Dallas exactly what it needed. I watched Arike score 45 points and hit a three with 4.1 seconds left that made an entire building lose its mind.
I woke up without much of a voice.
Worth it.
Tonight doesn't erase that night. And it certainly doesn't erase the months that came before it.
Even tonight had moments worth remembering. Dallas went into Chase Center with its season on the line and built a 16 point lead. Golden State came back, and this time there wasn't another 4.1 second miracle waiting at the end. That's what hurts.
But losing the last game doesn't mean we have to forget everything it took to get there.
So before everybody goes home, heads overseas, starts training again or begins whatever comes next, I want to give this team its flowers.
All of you.
Paige, You Somehow Got Better
I don't know how else to say it. After everything Paige Bueckers did as a rookie, Year Two could've easily become about maintaining that standard.
Instead, she raised it.
Paige averaged 20.9 points, 5.9 assists and 4.1 rebounds, finishing fifth in the league in scoring and eighth in assists. She also set the WNBA record for points through a player's first two seasons with 1,570 and earned AP Second Team All WNBA honors for the second consecutive year.
But there was something else I noticed by the time the playoffs arrived. Teams weren't simply defending Paige anymore. They were game planning around preventing her from getting comfortable at all. Golden State picked her up full court, crowded her and spent possessions trying to make even receiving the basketball difficult.
That's what happens when you've become somebody teams don't want to let play her game.
Paige, you came into this season with expectations that would've been overwhelming for most players and somehow gave everybody more reasons to raise them.
Thank you for making Year Two feel like we're still only seeing the beginning.
Arike, Dallas Still Knows What Time It Is
There have been a lot of versions of Dallas basketball with Arike Ogunbowale at the center of them. This season asked her to navigate another one.
Paige's role grew. Azzi arrived. Jess emerged. Dallas became a team with more places to find offense, and Arike's regular season scoring dipped as the basketball around her changed.
But there are certain things numbers don't make disappear, and apparently elimination-game Arike is one of them.
With Dallas' season on the line in Game 2, she scored 45 points, setting a WNBA playoff record. She hit the three with 4.1 seconds remaining that gave Dallas another five minutes of basketball, then scored 11 more in overtime as the Wings forced Game 3.
I was there, and I heard what that shot did to College Park Center. Actually, my voice the next morning suggests I did more than hear it.
Arike, you've given Dallas years of those moments. Impossible shots. Heat checks. Games where everybody in the building knows what you want to do and somehow can't stop you from doing it anyway.
This season proved Dallas can become something bigger than any individual player.
Game 2 reminded everybody that No. 24 can still set the whole building on fire.
Thank you for another one.
Jess, What a Year
Jessica Shepard arrived in Dallas after averaging 8.0 points, 7.3 rebounds and 2.6 assists in Minnesota. She finished her first Wings season averaging 14.5 points, 11.1 rebounds and 5.3 assists.
And now she's the 2026 Kia WNBA Most Improved Player.
But even that award doesn't capture how ridiculous some of this season became.
Jess finished second in the WNBA in rebounding, fifth in field-goal percentage and 11th in assists. She recorded 25 double-doubles, the fourth-most in the league, and a league-leading six triple-doubles after entering the season with just one career triple-double. Her 467 rebounds were the second-most ever recorded in a WNBA season.
Then there was May 28. Twenty two points, 20 rebounds and 10 assists, making her only the second player in league history with a 20 point, 20 rebound, 10 assist game. She also became just the second player after Candace Parker to average a points and rebounds double double while averaging at least five assists.
Jess didn't just have a good year. She had the kind of season that changed what people understand her ceiling to be.
And one of my favorite moments from this entire season will still be watching her receive those MIP flowers in front of College Park Center before Game 2.
Jess, Dallas gave you more room.
You showed everybody what you could do with it.
Azzi, Welcome to the W
This one means a little something extra to me because I've already written the letter.
Azzi Fudd's rookie season wasn't perfect. It didn't need to be.
She played 30 games, started 24 and averaged 13.1 points, but the part of her rookie season that might surprise people who only associate Azzi with shooting was how much she contributed defensively.
She also won the WNBA Three-Point Contest, becoming the first Wings player to win the event. Her 30 points in the final round were the second-highest score in a Three-Point Contest final in league history. By the end of the season, she'd earned AP All-Rookie honors too. But even with all of that, what I loved most was getting to watch Azzi have a rookie season that could finally just be about basketball.
Azzi, I meant what I wrote before.
You don't have to prove you can come back anymore.
Your rookie WNBA season isn't another comeback story.
It's the first chapter of whatever comes next.
Awak, You Built a No Fly Zone
I knew Awak Kuier's defense mattered. I'm not sure I realized quite how historic it had become until I looked at the full season.
Awak finished with 72 blocks, setting Wings single season records for total blocks and blocks per game. She also became the franchise's career blocks leader with 137.
She led the WNBA in games with at least three blocks, five blocks, six blocks and seven blocks. That seven block performance became a Wings single game record, and she finished third in the league at 1.8 blocks per game.
And she wasn't simply standing around the rim. Awak also gave Dallas a 6 foot 6 defender who could protect the paint on one end and stretch the floor on the other.
That's not just potential anymore.
That's production.
Awak, thank you for making the paint feel considerably less welcoming.
Maddy, The Little Things Added Up Again
I've spent a lot of time writing about Maddy Siegrist this year. The cuts, the positioning, the rebounding and the willingness to keep moving when the basketball isn't guaranteed to find her.
But her season deserves numbers too.
Maddy played 41 games and averaged 6.5 points in a changing role while shooting efficiently from both the floor and three.
For somebody whose professional career has required learning how to impact games without the volume she had at Villanova, that efficiency matters.
Maddy's season wasn't about becoming the player Dallas' offense revolved around. It was about continuing to prove she could help one without needing it to.
And I still don't think we've seen everything that's there.
Maddy, keep going. I meant that too.
Aziaha, Staying Ready Became the Job
Aziaha James' role wasn't always predictable. Sometimes Dallas needed scoring. Sometimes it needed defensive pressure. Sometimes it needed energy.
Then the Wings reached Game 2 with their season on the line. Paige was being hounded all over the floor, and Dallas needed offense to come from somewhere else.
Aziaha gave them 13 points off the bench.
That's why stay ready can sound like a cliché until somebody actually has to do it.
Aziaha did.
Thank you for answering when your number was called.
Alysha, The Pro's Pro
There are things Alysha Clark understands about winning basketball that don't require her to score.
That's why I wrote about her earlier this year.
Her regular season numbers were modest, but reducing a three time champion with more than a decade in this league to those numbers would miss almost everything Dallas brought her here to provide.
And then Game 2 happened.
With Dallas facing elimination, Alysha scored 21 points, matching her playoff career high.
Because of course she did.
There are players who understand what the game needs before anybody has to explain it.
Alysha, thank you for showing a young roster what that looks like.
Alanna, Versatility Matters
Alanna Smith's season didn't follow a perfectly straight line either. She appeared in 32 games, starting 18, while giving Dallas size, experience and defensive versatility in the frontcourt.
But Alanna's value has never been limited to one box score category. She can defend different actions, play inside or away from the basket and give a coaching staff options.
Every good team needs options.
Thank you for being one.
Li, Presence Still Counts
I've written an entire story around this word.
Presence.
After a full season, I'm sticking with it.
Li Yueru's numbers aren't ones that demand a headline. That's also the point.
Her size changed matchups. Her screens created space. Her rebounding presence made opponents account for another body around the basket. And after watching what she's capable of doing internationally, I know there's more to her game than what a limited WNBA role can always show.
Some players change the speed of a possession.
Li changes its geometry.
Thank you for giving Dallas something different.
Odyssey, Welcome Back
Odyssey Sims returned to Dallas late in the season, bringing more than a decade of WNBA experience with her.
There's something fitting about a veteran with that much history finding her way back into a Dallas uniform for a team headed toward the postseason.
That experience matters in ways we don't always get to see. The conversations, practices, film sessions and moments where somebody who's been here before can tell someone experiencing it for the first time that she'll be okay.
Odyssey, thank you for bringing that back to Dallas.
Kitija, Thank You for Saying Yes
Kitija Laksa arrived even later. She had only a handful of regular season games to become part of a team that had spent months building chemistry, but late season additions don't get the luxury of time.
You learn quickly. You prepare. You find where you fit.
Kitija, thank you for joining the ride when it was already moving.
Haley, Keep Finding the Space
Haley Jones only had a small regular season sample with Dallas, but her basketball story has always been built around versatility.
Guard. Forward. Ball handler. Connector.
Sometimes professional basketball isn't about immediately finding the perfect role. It's about continuing to prove you can help until somebody gives you enough room to show exactly how.
Haley, I hope there's more room ahead.
To Deja, Costanza and Christyn
Developmental players are part of this season too.
Deja Kelly, Costanza Verona and Christyn Williams practiced, competed, learned the system and helped prepare the players whose names appeared in the box score.
That work counts even when we don't get to see most of it.
Thank you for doing it anyway.
And to Everyone Else Who Wore Dallas Across Her Chest
A season isn't only the roster that happened to be there on the final night.
Players get traded. Waived. Injured. Signed elsewhere. Roles change. Basketball moves quickly.
But if you helped Dallas get from opening night to 27 wins, you're part of what happened here too.
Thank you.
Coach Fernandez, You Changed the Expectation
This might be the simplest way to explain José Fernandez's first WNBA season.
Dallas won 10 games in 2025.
Dallas won 27 in 2026.
That 17-win jump set the WNBA record for the largest single-season turnaround, while Fernandez set the league standard for the best turnaround by a first-year head coach.
But what changed wasn't simply the win column.
Dallas led the league in assists at 22.3 per game and posted a 2.01 assist to turnover ratio, the second best mark in league history.
That tells us something about the basketball too. The ball moved. People were involved. This team learned how to create for one another.
And when the playoffs came, Dallas didn't simply make an appearance. After losing Game 1, this team came home, faced elimination and scored 108 points to force one more game.
Coach, there will be things to learn from Game 3. That's what happens when you're building something that isn't finished.
But Year One changed what's expected of Year Two.
That's an accomplishment too.
To the Entire Staff
Coach Fernandez didn't do any of this alone.
Assistant coaches, player development, trainers, medical staff, video staff, strength and conditioning and everybody whose work happens before fans enter the building and after we've gone home all had a hand in this season.
We don't know everything that happens behind those doors. We see the result.
This year, the result was a team that looked dramatically different from the one that finished the previous season.
Thank you for your part in building it.
And to the Fans
I can't write this letter without including us.
I know what College Park Center sounded like Wednesday night. I know what it looked like with white shirts covering every seat before we even walked in.
NOW IT'S US.
By the time Arike's three fell with 4.1 seconds remaining, thousands of people were wearing those words across their chests. Then the building erupted.
That's going to be one of my favorite memories of this season. Not simply because Dallas won, but because for a few hours, you could feel how much everybody cared.
And I think that's one of the biggest things this team gave Dallas this year: a reason to care that much.
We cared enough to stand and yell. Some of us apparently cared enough to sacrifice our voices. And we cared enough for tonight to hurt.
That's part of this too.
Dear Dallas
Twenty seven wins. A WNBA record turnaround. Seven franchise regular season records. The league's Most Improved Player. A historic second season from Paige. An All Rookie season from Azzi. A record setting defensive year from Awak. A playoff scoring record from Arike.
And a Game 2 that gave us one more night of basketball when the season was 4.1 seconds from ending.
But there were also so many smaller moments that won't make the record book at all.
That's the season. Not just tonight.
I don't know exactly what this team will look like when next season begins. Professional basketball doesn't give us that guarantee.
But whoever is here will inherit something different.
Expectations.
Because this team changed them.
A year ago, improvement would've been enough. Now we've seen 27 wins. We've seen playoff basketball. We've heard what College Park Center sounds like when Dallas gives everybody a reason to believe the season isn't finished yet.
So next year, we're going to want more.
That's not pressure I'm putting on you tonight. That's the gift this team gave itself.
You made us believe there's more to ask for.
For tonight, though, rest. Be disappointed. Be proud. Be whatever you need to be after giving an entire season to this game.
We'll have months to talk about what comes next.
Tonight, I just want to say thank you.
Thank you for giving me stories to tell. Thank you for giving Dallas something to rally around. Thank you for making basketball fun and for all the chaos. Thank you for NOW IT'S US.
Thank you for making me lose my voice.
And thank you for giving us a season worth being sad to see end.
It was us.
And whenever the ball goes up again next season, we'll be right back here.
Love,
Asia 💗
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