Liberty draft pick Nyara Sabally to miss season

The Liberty have great expectations for Nyara Sabally, just not for this season.

They made Sabally the fifth overall pick in the WNBA Draft on Monday, but GM Jonathan Kolb revealed on Friday that the 6-5 power forward won’t be playing for the team in 2022. Sabally has a knee injury, and it’s still being evaluated as to how to proceed.

“We knew heading into the selection for Nyara that there was a very strong chance that she would not play this year because of her current health condition,” Kolb said. “That will be the case. We knew taking her that we’re going to have her rights going forward, and we’re going to work with Nyara and her representatives and her doctors to make sure she’s ready to roll for ’23.”

Sabally missed her first two seasons at Oregon because she twice tore her right ACL and had to undergo surgery. She then injured the knee again this past season and missed eight games.

She still led the team in scoring at 15.4 points per game as well as rebounding at 7.8 over 24 games.

“Nyara is somebody that, I would argue, has the highest ceiling in this draft and we believe in the future could be a major building block for us,” Kolb said.

The Liberty drafted 6-4 forward Lorela Cubaj out of Georgia Tech in the second round, and then 6-3 forward/center Sika Kone from Mali in the third. But the Liberty aren’t expecting to have Kone play for them this season, either. They may bring her to training camp next year.

Kolb said the 19-year-old is “a longer-term project for us,” but added that the belief is she “has a really bright future.” Kone said in a statement that she’s currently “in Spain with some rehab obligations.”

Training camp begins for the Liberty on Sunday. The regular season starts on May 7 against Connecticut at Barclays Center.