Liberty not afraid to call themselves New York's best team
Liberty forward Breanna Stewart and guard Sabrina Ionescu react during a WNBA first-round playoff basketball game against the Mystics at Barclays Center on Friday. Credit: Kathleen Malone-Van Dyke
They are sick of hearing how depressing the New York sports scene is, sick of hearing there are no good teams to cheer for, sick of being overlooked as they being what could very well be a championship run.
Two hours before their playoff opener against the Washington Mystics on Friday, the Liberty decided to call out those in their city who will not give them respect.
“I feel we’re going to let our work do the talking,” guard Sabrina Ionescu said. “We will be able to shut up those people on twitter. As far as I’m concerned, we’ve been playing the best basketball that’s been played in New York in a very long time. Whether people recognize it or not, they will in the next few weeks. I’m excited to see what they say then.”
Forget about We Got Next, the slogan that was crafted by the league six months before Ionescu was born. She and her teammates feel They Have Now. And the vibe at the Barclays Center certainly backed them up Friday night as the power elite of women’s activist/celebrities — everyone from Billie Jean King to Nobel prize winner Malala Yousafzai — was on hand for the action.
The Liberty, winners of 14 of their last 16 games heading into the playoffs, have a chance to be the first basketball team to bring a title to New York since the Nets won the ABA in 1976.
On Thursday, Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb was named the WNBA Executive of the Year after a historic offseason in which he acquired 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones in a three-team trade, and signed Breanna Stewart and seven-time WNBA assist leader Courtney Vandersloot as free agents. The three joined forces with 2020 No. 1 draft pick Ionescu and 2021 All-Star Betnijah Laney.
Kolb said before last night’s game that the intention in putting together this superteam was to take the sport to the next level.
“I think when we had the press conference in New York announcing Stewie, we talked about it. We want this team to be mainstream,” Kolb said before last night’s game. “This is our first step toward that. Credit the players and the coaches.”
Kolb believes the Liberty are already changing attitudes. He mentioned a tweet earlier in the week where someone talked about the best sporting teams in New York, and forgot to mention the Liberty.
“Everybody let him have it,” Kolb said. “That was cool. That was something where you are seeing change.”
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello believes that most of the noise being made is from those who have never bothered to watch a WNBA game.
“I did see the tweets obviously. It’s a bit of ignorance,” she said. “People who have been to these games will obviously tell everyone how great it is. It’s more about breaking down the perception isn’t it?
“Like males, females play really good basketball as well. I always encourage people if you come, you will fall in love with it . . . I’m not a New Yorker. It’s kind of annoying. We’re used to it but hopefully we will break down the barriers and the perception that goes on with that. And we can continue to grow this great game of ours.”
Of course, the best way to grow the game would be if the postseason culminated in a clash of the league's two superteams, the Liberty and the Las Vegas Aces. The Aces finished the year with two more wins than the Liberty. While the teams split their four regular-season meetings, the Liberty won a fifth game — the final of the new Commissioner's Cup — and has been the hotter team down the stretch.
Ionescu said she has been waiting for this moment since she was drafted. Said Ionescu: “This year, dating back to the regular season has been the most fun I’ve had at basketball. I’ve had time to reflect on where I’m at and where I’m from and where this team wants to go. I’m not taking any of these moments for granted. We all want to win and we are going to do what it takes to win a championship.”
Win a championship, and win over a city.
Barbara Barker is an award-winning columnist and features writer in the sports department at Newsday. She has covered sports in New York for more than 20 years.
