Harris is welcoming Las Vegas Aces to the White House to celebrate team’s 2022 WNBA championship

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will take center court in the East Room of the White House on Friday to welcome the 2022 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces.

The Aces defeated the Connecticut Sun 78-71 at home in Game Four of last year’s finals to win the championship trophy, 3-1.

The team was lifted to its first championship title by Finals MVP Chelsea Gray, who scored a game-high 20 points; regular season MVP A’ja Wilson, who added 11 points, and shooting by Riquna Williams, who came off the bench to score 17 points.

Coach Becky Hammon became the first in WNBA history to win a championship in their first season as head coach. She previously was an assistant coach for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs.

The WNBA title is the first for one of the league’s original eight franchises. The Aces began as the Utah Starzz from 1997-2002, and relocated to San Antonio as the Silver Stars (and later just the Stars) from 2003-2017. The team moved to Las Vegas before the 2018 season.

The Aces are also the first major professional sports team to win a championship for Las Vegas, which also has the NFL’s Raiders and the NHL’s Golden Knights.

The White House previously had announced that President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, would host the Aces. But the assignment fell to Harris after Biden extended a family vacation in California’s Lake Tahoe region to Saturday.