Sky Coach James Wade Takes Issue With New WNBA Playoffs Format

The WNBA playoffs will feature a new format for the opening round, and James Wade isn’t a fan.

The Chicago Sky general manager and head coach will prepare to take on the New York Liberty on Wednesday. The first round of the WNBA playoffs will be a best-of-three series with the first two games played at the higher seed’s homecourt, and the final game played at the lower seed’s homecourt.

Wade, like many fans, pointed out a key flaw in this format.

“We worked all year to have home-court advantage,” Wade told reporters Tuesday, per ESPN’s Jamal Collier. “If you have a bad game, then home-court advantage goes to the lower seed.”

The Sky earned the No. 2 seed in the standings, but the defending WNBA champions could be in for an early exit if Sabrina Ionescu and the Liberty are able to steal homecourt.

The No. 3 Connecticut Sun will deal with this issue, as well, when they take on the No. 6 Dallas Wings on Thursday at Mohegan Sun Arena.

Since 2016, the top two seeds of the league received two byes, and the first two rounds were single-elimination games. The new format was agreed upon before the 2022 season. The semifinals and finals remain a best-of-five series.

“You always want the deciding game, if there’s a Game 3, to be at the higher seed’s home,” Wade said. “I’m not a fan of it at all; I don’t think any coaches are.”

Sun general manager and head coach Curt Miller had a more positive reaction when the format was made official.

“It’s exciting news for our league,” Miller said in November, per Collier. “The coaches and GMs believed strongly that our professional league deserves to play each round in a series format.”

This could be a mute point, as the Las Vegas Aces, Sky, Sun and Seattle Storm earned the top four seeds for good reason, but there is a lot more talent in the WNBA in 2022 than in years past and it’s possible the worst-case scenario could happen for one of the top seeds.