Six Australians have made the WNBA playoffs with Leilani Mitchell and her Washington Mystics narrowly missing out.
Seven Australians are currently plying their trade in the Women's National Basketball Association in America. The 2021 season came to an end this past weekend, with four teams and their players seeing their season end.
Leilani Mitchell was one of those players. Currently in her thirteenth season in the WNBA, having first made her debut in 2008, her team the Washington Mystics narrowly missed a playoff berth finishing ninth in the regular season.
The other six Australians made the playoffs.
In the regular season, Liz Cambage's Las Vegas Aces finished second, Ezi Magbegor and Stephanie Talbot's Seattle Storm finished fourth, Alanna Smith's Phoenix Mercury finished fifth, and Rebecca Allen and Sami Whitcomb's New York Liberty finished in the last playoff spot of eight place.
The playoffs will begin later this week begin on September 23, 2021 in America. The short post season starts with the numbers five to eight seeds meeting in round one. The winners of the single elimination match then proceed to round two where they meet the third and fourth seed.
The winners of these matches proceed to the semi-finals where they meet the second and first seed. Those winners proceed to the WNBA finals.
The #WNBAPlayoffs bracket is set ✅
— WNBA (@WNBA) September 19, 2021
Single elimination games start this THURSDAY at 8pm/ET on ESPN2 😈 @Google pic.twitter.com/r73XQ99Sx4
The Seattle Storm are the current WNBA reigning champions, having won the final last year with Ezi Magbegor and Sami Whitcomb as part of the team.
Should any of the six players win this year's championship, they will join an illustrious list of Australians to have previously done so.
Penny Taylor won the WNBA Championship three times (2007, 2009 and 2014). Lauren Jackson (2004 and 2010), Erin Phillips (2012 and 2014) and Sami Whitcomb (2018 and 2020) won it twice. Alison Lacey (2010), Abby Bishop (2010), Rachel Jarry (2013) and Ezi Magbegor (2020).
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