What's interesting to me is that a lot of these players who have come close but haven't won one always played on MAJOR underdogs. The Liberty teams from the Comets/Sparks runs and the trio of Atlanta teams were never favorites and quite frankly weren't very good, they benefitted from being in the Eastern conference which was almost always underwhelming. Look at their record compared to the western conference champions:
1997 Houston: 18-10
1997 New York: 17-11 (1st in East)
Houston wins 1-0
1999 Houston: 26-6
1999 New York: 18-14 (1st in East)
Houston wins 2-1
2000 Houston: 27-5
2000 New York: 20-12 (1st in East)
Houston wins 2-0
2002 LA: 25-7
2002 New York: 18-14 (1st in East)
LA wins 2-0
2010 Seattle: 28-6
2010 Atlanta: 19-15 (4th in East)
Seattle wins 3-0
2011 Minnesota: 27-7
2011 Atlanta: 20-14 (3rd in East)
Minnesota wins 3-0
2013 Minnesota: 26-8
2013 Atlanta: 17-17
Minnesota wins 3-0
The west won 15 out of 19 titles before they ditched the conference format. Even since then, in 26 years, 20 of the champions came from the west.
Moreover, to win a title you need to have talented teammates, plain and simple. All of the greats won their titles with loaded rosters and talented teammates who were in their prime (Parker, Taurasi, Moore, Cooper, Jackson, Leslie, etc). The only one who somehow won a title without a stacked roster was Tamika Catchings but she's the exception rather than the norm. Hammon had some brilliant years in San Antonio but never had the teammates to get the job done, Angel never had the talent necessary in Atlanta and was past her prime in Vegas (and her teammates hadn't hit their prime yet). Charles never had strong teammates in New York or Connecitcut and has yet to reach a finals in her 12 years, and Diggins-Smith's teams always seem to underperform or have chemistry issues. Also, all of the NYL greats like TSpoon, Hammon, Lobo, Johnson and Crystal Robinson made several finals but their talent always paled in comparison to the likes of Houston (Swoopes, Cooper, Thompson, Arcain) or the Sparks (Leslie, Milton-Jones, Dixon, Mabika). Ultimately history says you need multiple stars to get the job done, so if you're a star and want to get a title, you need to find your way on a roster with a couple other elite players who can do the heavy lifting to get you there.