 | ||||||||||
| ||||||||||
| Dates | September 12 – 16 | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| MVP |  Lauren Jackson (Seattle) | |||||||||
| Hall of Famers | Storm: Swin Cash (2022) Lauren Jackson (2021) | |||||||||
| Eastern finals | Atlanta defeated New York, 2–0 | |||||||||
| Western finals | Seattle defeated Phoenix, 2–0 | |||||||||
The 2010 WNBA Finals was the championship series of the 2010 season of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) and the conclusion of the season's playoffs. The champions of the Eastern Conference, the Atlanta Dream, faced the champions of the Western Conference, the Seattle Storm.
The WNBA Finals were under a 2–2–1 rotation, with the Storm holding home-court advantage as they had a better regular season record (28–6) than the Dream (19–15). This was the 1st time the teams have met in the championship round. The Dream made their first ever appearance in the Finals while the Storm made their second appearance, after winning the 2004 championship series.
This was the second straight year in which neither team advancing to the Finals had been there the previous season. Seattle had not won a playoff series since their Finals victory in 2004, when they defeated the Connecticut Sun 2–1. Betty Lennox, who played with Atlanta after leaving the Storm (now with L.A.) was named series MVP in 2004. Only two players remain from the championship roster–all-stars Sue Bird and Lauren Jackson. To advance to the Finals, the Storm defeated Diana Taurasi and the defending champion Phoenix Mercury 2–0 in the Western Conference Finals.
This was the first WNBA Finals appearance for both head coaches. Each coach had been with their respective team since the 2008 season. Seattle's Brian Agler had been involved with the WNBA since 1999, when he was head coach of the Minnesota Lynx. Atlanta's Marynell Meadors was one of the league's original eight head coaches, leading the Charlotte Sting to a 15–13 record in their inaugural season. This was the first ever Finals series to feature the two most recent Coach of the Year award winners; Meadors won the award in 2009 and Agler won in 2010.
This series featured 9 international players (most notably Lauren Jackson) from 6 different backgrounds. Seattle's roster boasted five foreign-born players hailing from Australia, the Czech Republic and Russia. Atlanta had four, representing Belarus, Brazil and Saint Vincent and the Grenadines. This was a WNBA record for the championship series; eight international players were featured in the 1998 Finals.
The series ended with the Storm beating the Dream in Atlanta in a three-game sweep. This was only the second time in WNBA history that a team won the Finals three games to none (previously done by Detroit in 2008).