The return of the Houston Comets—the franchise that won the first four WNBA championships—marks the end of another key piece of the league’s history. When the buzzer sounded on the league’s 30th regular season, so did that of the Connecticut Sun.
Last week, for one last time in Mohegan Sun Arena, Connecticut sent their fans home happy with a 95–81 victory. Former UConn standout Aaliyah Edwards, who was traded to the Sun last year, dropped 16 points in the franchise’s final game—an emotional win.
“My heart is beating fast, my heart is just so happy,” she said after the victory. “I’m happy that we were able to get one final win for the fans because they deserve it.”
As the clock ran out and the final buzzer sounded, the players joined at center court in a group hug in what was only the start of a celebration of a memorable quarter century. The team stayed on the court to sign autographs and take pictures for the fan base. A final page that no one wanted to turn. Team president, former player and UConn alum Jennifer Rizzotti addressed the crowd to make sure the fan base knew that they “proved that Connecticut deserves a WNBA team.”
“This is the basketball capital of the world, baby! Don’t ever forget it,” Edwards said as the WNBA closed its chapter in Connecticut.
The Sun were a fixture in the league since 2003 after they took over for the relocating Orlando Miracle, which folded after four seasons. The Mohegan Tribe purchased the franchise for $10 million as it became the first Native American tribe to own a professional sports team. From there, the franchise whose name and logo were inspired by the tribe played its home games at Mohegan Sun in Uncasville, Conn.
Just ahead of this season, it all came to a close. ESPN reported that the WNBA and NBA board of governors unanimously approved the sale of the Sun to Rockets owner Tilman Fertitta for a record $300 million, with a planned move to Houston in 2027.
As soon as the Sun stepped into the WNBA, they were Connecticut’s team. In the not-so-cosmopolitan location of Uncasville, the team steadily grew in attendance over its first five seasons. Then, in the Jonquel Jones, Alyssa Thomas and DeWanna Bonner days, the Sun jumped into the top five in average attendance for five straight years, behind only bigger markets and bigger stadiums like Seattle, Phoenix and Los Angeles. Over the franchise’s final three years of existence, it filled Mohegan Sun Arena more than it ever had with record attendance in the sunset season.
From the start, the only major pro sports franchise in the state rostered some legends from Geno Auriemma’s UConn program, trading for Hartford native Rebecca Lobo ahead of the team’s first season. Lobo joined Nykesha Sales, her teammate on the national champion 1995 Huskies team that went undefeated.
The Sun’s arrival marked a new era for the league, one that connected Auriemma’s budding dynasty at the college level with the professional stage.
“I was thrilled when they had the announcement that there was going to be a WNBA franchise in Connecticut,” Lobo said to the Hartford Courant about her trade back home in 2003. “I was excited about coming here once or twice a season, but now that I’m a member of the Connecticut Sun, I can’t tell you how happy I am.”
With the hire of longtime NBA assistant Mike Thibault, who later became the WNBA’s winningest head coach until Minnesota’s Cheryl Reeve recently surpassed him, the Sun were off and running. And success followed.
The Sun made the playoffs in six straight years once the team arrived in Connecticut and posted the league’s best record in 2005 and ’06. In just their second season in town, they fell one win shy of a championship—a lead squandered to the Lauren Jackson–led Storm with Sue Bird in her third WNBA season.
A foot on the doorstep of the league’s biggest prize was a trend throughout the Sun’s 24 seasons. From the early days with Sales, Taj McWilliams-Franklin, Katie Douglas and Lindsay Whalen to Tina Charles’s MVP season and the team’s more recent success in the era of Thomas, Jonquel Jones, Bonner and Brionna Jones—the Sun were always right there.
Sixteen playoff appearances in 24 years, four trips to the finals and two MVP seasons (one apiece from Charles and Jonquel Jones), but no titles. That doesn’t change the massive footprint Connecticut’s team leaves on the league, though.
Curt Miller’s arrival in 2016 in a dual role of head coach and general manager lifted the Sun back toward the top of the league after a few down years following Thibault’s exit. Miller was named the WNBA’s Coach and Basketball Executive of the Year in his second season leading the team, which started a streak of eight straight postseason appearances. He overhauled the team and orchestrated immensely impactful trades that landed Jonquel Jones and Brionna Jones, plus Courtney Williams in his early years running the team. He also drafted Morgan Tuck, who eventually took over as the team’s GM in 2024 and will continue in the role with the team in Houston.
Miller left for the Sparks in 2022 as Darius Taylor succeeded as GM while Stephanie White was brought on as the head coach. The Sun remained a top team in the WNBA for the next two years before another regime change. Taylor made a splash at the 2024 trade deadline to add Marina Mabrey as Connecticut eyed the franchise’s first title. Mabrey brought a fiery presence and much-needed three-point shooting, a no-brainer trade to enhance the defensive-minded roster.
She bolstered the roster around Thomas, Bonner and DiJonai Carrington, but Connecticut fell one game shy of the WNBA finals in a crushing Game 5 loss to the Lynx. Over the offseason, White left for the Fever and the core was broken up, with no move bigger than Thomas’s trade to the Mercury.
The final two seasons in Uncasville were forgettable as the franchise pivoted into a rebuild with the departures of Thomas, Bonner and Brionna Jones, plus Jonquel Jones’s trade to the Liberty two years earlier. The offseason ahead of the 2025 campaign signaled what would be the final shift for the Sun—one toward a full rebuild and, later, the franchise’s sale and relocation.
There were pushes to keep the Sun in New England with a relocation to Boston or even staying in the state in Hartford, but the league preferred the team be sold to an ownership group tied to a city that made an unsuccessful bid for expansion in the recent and ongoing wave. Despite the Sun’s success, the lack of a dedicated team facility and an unattractive free-agent destination brought the tribe to cash in on soaring team valuations amid the WNBA’s massive growth period. With the deal done, a final “sunset” season was set up for New England’s team.
Amid the ongoing rebuild, there was no guarantee the Sun would get back to contender status quickly, especially as more intriguing destinations like Golden State and Toronto entered the league. Connecticut finished their 24th and final season with an 11–33 record for the second straight year. Perhaps the most fitting item of the Sun’s WNBA exit came in the franchise’s final game.
Thanks to two straight down seasons, the Sun (and thus, the Comets) were in position to secure the top lottery odds with a loss in the final game of the season against the expansion Tempo. But there was no way one of the WNBA’s most notable franchises was going to go out like that in favor of a few more ping pong balls. The Tempo got a tie for the best odds in the draft lottery, but Connecticut added one final win to put a neat bow on two-plus decades as one of the league’s better teams.
While the Sun has officially set on this chapter, there’s no question that the franchise left its mark on the league. It was at the top of the standings more often than not and Connecticut was a hotbed for some of the league’s brightest stars. One considerable part of WNBA history brings the revival of another in the Comets’ return. But the franchise that started in Orlando really found its footing in Connecticut and now hopes to return to the main stage in a new location, with new uniforms.
Should the Comets find quick success, the years of foundation set in Uncasville are a part of that. It wasn’t the most glamorous location, but the impact the franchise left on the league was immense. And that will still be felt for years to come, even if you have to look a little bit closer after the sunset.
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