For the first time since 2019, the WNBA Finals will reach Game 5. That’s exactly what investing in women can do.

MINNEAPOLIS — Well, well, well, look what happens when owners spend a little money.

The 2024 WNBA Finals are headed to a deciding Game 5 on Sunday in New York City after the Minnesota Lynx pulled off a chaotic 82-80 victory with their backs against the wall at Target Center on Friday night. It is the first time since 2019 that the final will last the full five games.

It’s fitting that in a series in which three of four games were decided by a single possession – Game 2 was the only outlier, when the Liberty won by 14 – we get the full Finals experience this season.

Given the year in which the WNBA posted record ratings, attendance and merchandise sales, it also feels right that the top two teams would put on a show like this.

This is what happens when you invest in women.

The Liberty is a superteam created through free agency; A roster so stacked that when New York signed multiple MVPs in Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones, Minnesota coach Cheryl Reeve said the Lynx needed to do things differently because they had picked up all the talent. So Minnesota assembled a roster full of afterthoughts and role players, centered around an underrated star in Napheesa Collier. Reeve trained her incredibly and now we are here.

In many ways, these teams couldn’t be more different. But the similarity between the four-time champion Lynx and the titleless New York Liberty is pretty obvious: They’re run by people willing to spend money.

For years, the WNBA was treated more like a tax write-off than a business, and owners refused to spend money to make money. Teams failed, players had to train and play in poorly maintained buildings in the middle of nowhere, fans struggled to find jerseys of their favorite players – the list goes on.

But then coaches and players began to demand higher standards, and (some) owners stepped up to the plate. Reeve told USA TODAY Sports earlier this week: “We got this organization to the state it is in now. We pulled them.” More than once, Reeve said she was called “difficult” by people within the Minnesota organization who didn’t like the way she demanded more.

But they listened and she delivered tracks – four of them, with another possibly on the way.

The 2024 season was Reeves’ first as Lynx president of basketball operations, after five years as general manager. Working closely with current GM Clare Duwelius and with the support of owner Glen Taylor, the Lynx assembled a team they believed could compete for titles.

In New York, Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai bought the Liberty in 2019, brought it out of Purgatory (aka Westchester County) and moved to Brooklyn. From day one, they promised to invest in their WNBA team like they did their NBA team – the couple also owns the Brooklyn Nets – and they’ve more than delivered. The Tsais were so intent on treating the Liberty like a professional sports franchise that they willingly accepted a $500,000 fine for launching the team in 2022 before it was approved leaguewide.

And when they decided to rebuild No. 1 pick Sabrina Ionescu around 2020 and use free agency to go after some of the world’s best talent, players paid attention.

The result is two extremely capable teams delivering one of the best Finals series in WNBA history.

As Sandy Brondello said after a record crowd turned up in Game 1, the real winner of these Finals is women’s basketball. Reeve agreed Friday, saying “all the investments” had led to this point.

We were lucky.

Email Lindsay Schnell at [email protected] and follow her on social media @Lindsay_Schnell

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Lynx and Liberty owners are rewarded for their investment in women