Game 6 of the WNBA Finals between the Valkyries and Dream tipped off at 9:30 a.m. PT Thursday.
The playoff game was hardly accessible to watch for fans on either coast, but especially those rooting for Golden State. Warriors star Draymond Green weighed in on the unusual start time for Game 6 and explained why State Farm Arena wasn’t willing to move the matchup to a later time.
“What you all should know is the Hawks arena is owned by the Atlanta Hawks owners, the Hawks owners do not own the Atlanta Dream, when you look at this from a business standpoint, if you’re the Atlanta Hawks, are you using this to say, ‘Hey, sell us this team, we should have this team. We have all the resources for this team to be run the way it should be run,” Green said on his podcast.
“If the Atlanta Hawks owners owned the Dream, I’m sure they’d make the Hawks play at 12:30 p.m. ET and have the Dream play later. But why would they do that? Why would they compromise their money for a team that they don’t own?”
The Valkyries lost Game 6, but had they won, Golden State’s championship celebration would have been moved to a practice court because the arena needed to change the court for the Hawks’ game.
The Dream attempted to find alternative venues to host the playoff game, but State Farm Arena was the only solution, and that choice came with its own set of problems.
Green’s comments bring a new perspective to light on the WNBA’s scheduling decisions, but the egregious start time was evident no playoff team should have to endure.
Game 7 is scheduled to tip off at 5 p.m. PT Saturday at Chase Center.
