The Liberty gave the city of New York its first basketball title since 1973 when the Knicks won the NBA championship!
The New York Liberty bring the Big Apple its first WNBA Championship, after coming up on the losing end of five WNBA Finals. They defeat the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in a winner-take-all Game 5 Sunday night at Barclays Center.
Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, two Liberty stars, had difficulty during the victory, but when it counted, their teammates stood up for them. After a 3-pointer by Leonie Fiebich to open overtime, Nyara Sabally stole the ball and made a layup to make it 65-60 and send the sold-out crowd into a frenzy.
Jonquel Jones, who was named the WNBA Finals MVP led New York with 17 points and six rebounds, and Breanna Stewart had 13 points and 15 rebounds. Napheesa paced Minnesota with 22 points and seven rebounds, while Kayla McBride added 21 points, five rebounds, and five assists.
Breanna Stewart sunk two free throws with 10 seconds left on the clock to pull Liberty clear in a game that ended 60-60 in regulation. And now Stewart, a two-time MVP (2018 and 2023) and former Rookie of the Year Award winner (2016) is now a three-time WNBA champion, earning her first title with the Liberty after winning two championships with the Seattle Storm (2018 and 2020) before joining New York ahead of the 2023 season and re-signing with the team earlier this year.
As the final seconds ticked off the clock the players hugged and streamers fell from the rafters.
It’s been a long road for the Liberty, one of the original teams when the WNBA debuted in 1997. New York reached the league’s first final that season, losing to the Houston Comets, and were dispatched by the Comets again in 1999 and 2000 before losing to the Los Angeles Sparks in 2002. It then took the Liberty 21 years to make it back to the Finals, but they couldn’t overcome the Las Vegas Aces last year.
But now, New York has finally conquered the mountain and can celebrate. It’s been 28 years in my making but now the New York Liberty can finally call themselves WNBA champions!
Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello earned her second championship as a WNBA head coach (2014 with Phoenix Mercury).
