From DUMBO to Brownsville, the NY Liberty are making Brooklyn proud and playing their best basketball season in recent history. Currently, the WNBA team is in first place in the Eastern Conference and second place in the league overall, meaning the Liberty will likely be playoff bound this fall.
The Liberty are behind the Las Vegas Aces in the league, but the Liberty defeated the Aces by 38 points in a blowout victory at Barclays Center on Aug. 6.
The Liberty have never won a WNBA championship, but this could be the year. As Brooklyn basketball fans await the official announcement of which teams are going to the playoffs, here’s a quick primer on this star-studded team.
Humble beginnings
The Liberty are one of the original eight franchises that launched the WNBA in 1997. The Liberty had success and star power in the early days, with players like Swin Cash, Rebecca Lobo, Cappy Poindexter and Becky Hammon, when they called Madison Square Garden home.
After years of playing at MSG in Manhattan, the team was relocated to the Prudential Center in Newark, NJ, from 2011-2013 while MSG was being renovated and then was returned to MSG in 2014.
But, the team went without a winning record, and after the 2017 season, the team was relocated to Westchester County Center in White Plains, NY, for the 2018 and 2019 seasons, as the team was in an ownership transition. Joseph Tsai, owner of the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, purchased the NY Liberty from Jim Dolan, owner of MSG, the Knicks and the Rangers, in 2019.
After that, the team planned to play at Barclays Center, but relocated to the WNBA Bubble at IMG Academy gymnasiums in Bradenton, Florida, when the pandemic swept through the country.
In 2021, the Liberty moved to Barclays Center, and have been dominating the court ever since.
The "superteam"
Since owning the team, Tsai has treated the squad to wine country getaways and has chartered planes for the team to travel to and from games, both of which put him in hot water with the league since both were designated a competitive advantage and outlawed by the WNBA Collective Bargaining Agreement.
Ahead of the 2023 season, the team made strategic trades that helped form what ESPN called a "superteam." It’s led to a huge turnaround and positioned the Liberty as the team to beat for the 2023 season.
The Liberty made a three-team trade for 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones in January, which immediately upped team expectations. The superstar was the first of a trio of lauded players to join the team early this year.
Tsai and the Liberty’s management team then signed Breanna Stewart. Affectionately nicknamed “Stewie,” Stewart has won four straight national championships from 2013-2016 while playing at the University of Connecticut, winning Final Four Most Outstanding Player each year. She was then the first pick in the 2016 WNBA draft, selected by the Seattle Storm, and led the Storm to championships in 2018 and 2020. She signed a one-year deal with the Liberty in 2023.
The new trio also includes star point guard Courtney Vandersloot, who signed during open free agency in February. Vandersloot is second in assists in the WNBA and brings her own championship experience as the point guard for the Chicago Sky, who won it all in 2021. Turns out that all three players planned to play together this season for the NY Liberty and had a text thread going about signing with the team.
That trio joined All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu who was already on the Liberty roster, to form a “big four” on Atlantic Avenue for 2023.
The team also introduced the new “Rebel Edition” jersey in a seafoam and black colorway this season. There’s no hard evidence that the new jerseys are a good luck charm, but the Liberty have jumped out with the best start in the team's history, delivering a steady diet of victories with a 20-6 record so far.
They’re en route to play in the Commissioner’s Cup against the Las Vegas Aces on Aug. 15, a unique in-season tournament the WNBA introduced in 2021.
The rest of the NY Liberty 2023 game schedule can be found here. Playoffs start on Sept. 13, and the WNBA will announce the competing teams soon.
