The last (and only) time the Aces franchise was in the WNBA Finals, they were the San Antonio Silver Stars.

In 2008, they went 24-10, tops in the league. The Detroit Shock were 1st in the East (22-12), coached by Bill Laimbeer. Seattle's Dan Hughes was coach in San Antonio then.

San Antonio was mostly healthy, though they were without Shanna Zolman, coming off the best season of her career, who suffered a torn ACL in the preseason.

San Antonio swept Detroit in the regular season, led by their big interior (Sophia Young-Malcolm, Ann Wauters) and Becky Hammon in the first one, and Detroit was dealing with the aftermath of multiple player suspensions (a result of the Shock/Sparks brawl) in the 2nd matchup.

The Shock lost Cheryl Ford after that LA game due to an ACL tear. They struggled without some of their best players able to play but ultimately traded for Taj McWilliams-Franklin and got the rest of their players (except Ford) back to make a postseason run.

Laimbeer even called a player up out of retirement (novel!) to help fill in the gaps during that suspension time frame -- Nancy Lieberman.

The Shock may have been the top seed if not for that brawl, but it didn't end up mattering....

Both teams had to play a pair of 3-game series up through their conferences in the Playoffs, and the Finals ended up being a 3-game series too.

The Silver Stars were new to the Finals; the Shock were back for the 3rd consecutive year, 2 years removed from their 2006 title.

The Finals were relatively close games, but the Silver Stars couldn't stop Katie Smith, and Taj proved to be major, esp. in Game 1. The Shock swept the Silver Stars to win the 2008 title. Smith was Finals MVP and the Shock were 2nd only the Comets in total championships (3).

12 years later: Laimbeer is with the Silver Stars franchise (now the Aces), again the top seed. Hughes is out this year but his team is on the other side as the 2nd-seed. The Aces swept the Storm in the regular season; the Storm have been without key players during the season.

Once again, Laimbeer found a way to call a player up from retirement (Carolyn Swords), but we'll have to see if any other parallels play out in the Finals.

Personally, I'm hoping for more than three games, but we'll see.

Okay, take care and stay dry out there!!!