The 2024 WNBA season is the final season of a 12-team WNBA. Out of those 12 teams, four of them are Original Eight franchises.
The New York Liberty, Los Angeles Sparks, Phoenix Mercury and Las Vegas Aces. The Aces are an Original Eight given they were originally the Utah Starzz and then later on the San Antonio Silver Stars before calling Sin City home beginning with the 2018 season.
The Aces, led by A’ja Wilson have won two championships – 2022 and 2023. The Mercury, spearheaded by Diana Taurasi, have won three championships – 2007, 2009 and 2014. Lisa Leslie guided the Sparks to the first two championships after the initial Houston Comets dynasty of 1997-2000 then Los Angeles brought another title to Tinseltown in 2016 with Candace Parker, Nneka Ogwumike and a young Chelsea Gray as part of its core.
Prior to Sunday, October 20, 2024 – the Liberty were the only remaining Original Eight franchise to yet win a WNBA championship. That changed when New York prevailed in Game 5 over the Minnesota Lynx in of one of the greatest Finals series in history.
The Liberty winning in the WNBA Finals is a massive victory for not only the franchise but also for New York City – and for the WNBA as a whole. For the WNBA, it is a massive win because the Liberty have established itself as one of the W’s class franchises. From having world-class facilities to playing in a world-class arena to having arguably the best home-court advantage in the entire WNBA.
Being in the W’s flagship market also helps as well.
Sports leagues will never admit this, but said leagues understand that when their big market and marquee teams are good, it elevates the overall standing of the league – and this is especially the case or a growing WNBA. A New York franchise automatically is one of a sports league’s marquee franchises because of playing in New York.
One ironic element of it is when one looks at the teams that participated in this year’s WNBA semifinals, it came down to the Liberty, Lynx, Aces and Connecticut Sun. Ask many a sports fan what words come to mind when they think of Connecticut, Minnesota and Las Vegas and the words “small” and “market” are sure to come to mind (even though Minnesota is anything but a small market).
In addition, the Liberty winning occurred in a WNBA climate where the balance of power appears to have overall shifted to smaller market franchises. Look at the four teams that will be participating in next month’s draft lottery – the Los Angeles Sparks, Chicago Sky, Washington Mystics and Dallas Wings – all big market franchises.
One also has to put the Liberty’s win in the broader context of the New York sports landscape. Mostly everyone knows that the New York market has two (or even three) teams in every “major” league. MLB has the Mets (recently eliminated from the National League Championship Series) and the (once again) World Series-bound Yankees. The NBA has the Knicks and Nets (even though the Nets are often much maligned as having no fanbase). The NFL has the Giants and Jets. The NHL has the Rangers, Islanders and Devils. Even MLS has New York Red Bulls and NYCFC.
Just as Gotham FC (which won an NWSL championship last year) has New York all to itself in terms of women’s professional soccer, the same applies to the Liberty in terms of women’s professional basketball. While many of the major men’s leagues usually has the loyalties of Big Apple sports fans split between even two or even three teams, it did not matter what other teams any of the 18,000-plus may pledge allegiance to.
Knicks blue and orange? Mets blue and orange? Yankees navy blue? Nets black and white? Giants big blue? Jets gang green? It did not matter. The whole of the Tri-State was bleeding seafoam, black and copper and those fans were rewarded with a championship and upcoming celebrations in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
Also – the lion’s share of recent New York sports success has not come from teams competing in the more traditional “Big 4.” It has come from teams like the Liberty, Gotham and NYCFC.
But one cannot possibly look at the Liberty’s championship without looking back at the treacherous road the franchise had to travel to get to this point.
Following the 2017 season, New York’s final season at Madison Square Garden, James Dolan put the team on the market – and in the process banished the team to the Westchester County Center which is not exactly easy to get to from the City. The Liberty struggled on that Westchester court as well finishing 7-27 after being victorious in 22 contests the previous season.
Prior to the 2019 season (one where the team finished 10-24), a deal was struck for Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai – owners of the Brooklyn Nets – to purchase the Liberty franchise. The Liberty would play one more season in Westchester and was scheduled to move to Barclays Center in 2020 prior to the onset of the pandemic which forced the whole of the WNBA to the bubble in Florida.
That time period was also one where the Liberty transitioned out of the Tina Charles era and into its Sabrina Ionescu era. A much-ballyhooed prospect out of Oregon, she was selected with the first overall pick in the 2020 draft. Ionescu was seen by many a pundit as a runaway favorite for Rookie of the Year but she was injured a mere three games into the 2020 season and the Minnesota Lynx’s Crystal Dangerfield instead won Rookie of the Year.
In addition, the Liberty finished with a very forgettable 2-20 record in the bubble.
It was in 2021 when the Liberty finally completed its move to Barclays even though the team had to navigate around New York’s pandemic restrictions which limited attendance. The task for the organization was not only to build a winner, but also to regain the trust of its fanbase that still felt the wounds of the Westchester move.
It was also in 2021 when the Liberty added another key piece in its rebuild – Betnijah Laney-Hamilton. After being turned away by three WNBA teams – Indiana Fever, Chicago Sky and Atlanta Dream – the Rutgers alum found a solid home on the other side of the Hudson River.
Laney-Hamilton made the All-Star team that year and the Liberty qualified for the postseason in 2021. The Liberty did so again in 2022 – the first year that the playoffs were extended to a best-of-three. New York actually got a game against the defending champion Chicago Sky only for the Liberty to once again get eliminated in the first round.
It was in 2023 that the Liberty opened its championship window by making huge free agency moves. One of the cornerstones of that very Sky team that defeated the Liberty in the first round – Courtney Vandersloot – announced she would head to New York. The same for Breanna Stewart as she returned to her native New York after winning two championships and two Finals MVPs with the Storm. Jonquel Jones also decided to depart from the Connecticut Sun after a pair of Finals appearances with that organization.
The Liberty’s new owners understood that investing money into facilities was how a franchise would attract top free agents. As a result, the rise of the Liberty as one of the WNBA’s “superteams” along with the Las Vegas Aces (A’ja Wilson, Chelsea Gray, Kelsey Plum, Jackie Young) ensued.
New York got to the Finals in 2023 – but lost to the Aces in four games.
Prior to the 2024 season, one of its key stories was the rookie draft class of that year. While names such as Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, Rickea Jackson, Cameron Brink and Kamilla Cardoso were the headliners, the Liberty joined the party as well with the drafting of Leonie Fiebich.
It was widely expected that the Liberty would get back to – and possibly win the 2024 championship. New York worked all season to ensure that not only would the team get back to the Finals, but that the Liberty would have home court advantage throughout – including a Game 5 at Atlantic and Flatbush. Sunday, October 20, 2024 was the culmination of a season – and a story – where New York Showed Up to Own The Crown and Lit it Up all season by making a very Liberty Loud statement.
