Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu, GM Jonathan Kolb hoping to finish what they started
New York Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu (20) reacts after making a three-point basket during the second half against the Minnesota Lynx in Game 3 of a WNBA basketball final playoff series, Wednesday, Oct. 16, 2024, in Minneapolis. Credit: AP/Abbie Parr
MINNEAPOLIS
On the morning of what he hoped would be the final game of the Liberty’s season, general manager Jonathan Kolb stood at the edge of the Target Center court watching the media surround Sabrina Ionescu.
Two days earlier, Ionescu and Kolb had shared a crazy, screaming hug as she walked off the court after hitting one of the biggest shots in New York basketball history.
Ionescu’s 28-foot three-pointer with one second left in Game 3 of the WNBA Finals gave the Liberty an 80-77 victory over the Lynx. It brought the Liberty within one win of the franchise’s first title and one victory from completing the ambitious vision Kolb had for the franchise when he was hired in 2019.
“It’s just really special. This is what you envision when you take over a team,” Kolb told Newsday on Friday. “The goal is always a championship, especially in New York. This is what our fans have deserved for a really long time. We are in a position to win a championship.”
That Ionescu was the player who put them on the precipice of winning it all has to be special to Kolb, who chose her with the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft as his first significant move in building this Liberty superteam.
Kolb, who had spent five years working in analytics and basketball operations for the WNBA, was only 34 when he was hired by Joe and Clara Tsai shortly after they bought the team.
The franchise had pretty much hit rock bottom at that point, having been moved by former owner James Dolan from Madison Square Garden to Westchester County Center, which was far from their city-centric fan base and had a seating capacity of less than 5,000.
During the next couple of years, Kolb retooled the roster through the draft, trades and free agency before finally ending up with the current superteam of Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones.
This is the second year the Big 3 have been together. Their experience and familiarity was on display late in Game 3.
Stewart almost singlehandedly lifted the Liberty out of a 15-point first-quarter deficit. She scored 13 straight points in the second half and finished with 30 points, 11 rebounds and four blocks.
Jones, who had a relatively quiet game, came up big in the final two minutes when she hit a three-pointer and made a layup on consecutive possessions to give the Liberty their first lead since the beginning of the first quarter.
It was Ionescu’s shot with one second left that will define this team for years to come, especially if they are able to win one more game and finally bring a title to Liberty fans.
Despite having been to the WNBA Finals five times, no Liberty team has won it all. That includes last year’s team, which lost the final game of the series to the Las Vegas Aces at Barclays Center. The spectacle of seeing their archrivals celebrate on their home floor was so painful that the Liberty was still thinking about it Friday morning as they prepared for Game 4.
“I saw a thing today that it was one year ago exactly that we lost,” Stewart said. “I never want to go through something like that again.”
Neither does Kolb, who was named executive of the year last season but still can remember the pit he felt in his stomach after watching the Aces pop champagne corks in the Liberty’s building. That is why it was so exciting for Kolb to see the team win Game 3 the way they did.
Ionescu had some growing pains early in her WNBA career because of injuries and high expectations. Each year, she has added something to her game, most recently improving drastically on defense.
Hard as it is to believe, Ionescu, 26, is the longest-tenured player on the team. Through it all, she and Kolb have developed a special bond, which made the way she put the team on the precipice of winning it all even more special.
“He drafted me. I was his draft pick,” Ionescu said. “He believed in me at a really young age. He’s never wavered in his belief in me through good and bad years, especially with injury early on.
“He easily could have aborted mission. But he was patient and understood that when I would be healthy, this is something I could do.
“Now there’s one more thing we have to do together.”
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.