LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — The Las Vegas Aces became back-to-back champions Wednesday night after defeating the New York Liberty in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.
The team accomplished what the Los Angeles Sparks did two decades ago. Aces' majority owner, Mark Davis, says he's still in shock.
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Davis tells KTNV he praises the Aces' for their work as a team and what they're doing for the Vegas community.
Read the full interview between our sports reporter Tina Nguyen and Las Vegas Aces' owner Mark Davis:
TINA NGUYEN: Well, Mark, a second WNBA championship is coming home to Las Vegas. How does that sound?
MARK DAVIS: It feels fantastic. It's really hard to win a championship in any sport and to repeat and win another championship on top of that is hard to do. I'm so proud of these women and the adversity they've gone through this season. Everybody was counting them out tonight because of injuries. But to see the bench rise, to see Kayla and Sidney make big contributions to this game, is just so amazing.
NGUYEN: This team you mentioned has fought through so much adversity. What was it like from your shoes to see them make history tonight?
DAVIS: I'm still kind of in shock. I'm so excited about everything. They pulled it off. I mean, Becky's game plan was unbelievable. The defense, which carried us all year, was just phenomenal tonight. And when it came down to it, we got the scores we needed to have one more point than them.
NGUYEN: You have long supported women's sports — women's basketball. Why?
DAVIS: I've always loved women's sports, number one. But my father was a big fan of women's basketball. And so I learned that from him a long, long time ago. We never had a WNBA team when we were in L.A. The Raiders were in L.A. The WNBA team came the year we left. So we didn't have a team there. We moved back to the Bay Area and the closest was Sacramento with the Monarchs. And so I followed them. But when when the Raiders moved to Las Vegas and the Aces moved as well, I wanted to be a part of it. And so I got season tickets, and I kept telling Bill Hornbuckle, who is the president at the time of MGM, who owned the team, I kept telling me, You got to pay these women more money. You got to pay these women more money. And finally he looked at me. He said, If you want to be paid more money, you pay them by the team. And it happened. And I'm just so grateful and happy and everything else.
NGUYEN: What has it been like to see this group grow women's basketball, especially in Las Vegas?
DAVIS: It's unbelievable. We've been selling out the building. We had an average of about 95, 90, and 600 fans all season, which led to the WNBA. They can work in the community, and they do, which means so much because they're role models for women and young men for what they do and show that anything can be done, and they can do it. So, I'm just so proud to be associated with them.
NGUYEN: What are you most proud of when you talk about this group?
DAVIS: How they stuck together and just how they are a team. As everybody has been talking about, there's no "I" team. The bench mob is what I guess they're calling them all — they've supported the team all year. If you watch the bench, they're cheering all game long, and it's just great. As I said last year, when we won, it was great to see your vision become reality, and now it's time to do it.
NGUYEN: What has it been like to help grow Las Vegas as a sports town?
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DAVIS: It's a unique opportunity. It is coming from the two places where the Raiders were prior: Oakland, San Francisco Bay Area, and then going to L.A. There are a lot of teams and a lot of competition coming to Las Vegas. When we came, there were the Golden Knights, who were brand new, and the Aces, who were brand new, and of course, college UNLV. He has always been great with Jerry Tarkanian and their basketball, but to come down and help build a sports culture and connectivity with that community means a lot.
