Confetti clouded Broadway on Thursday morning for the first hopeful time in 12 years.
The streets swarmed with seafoam green, Lady Liberty crowns, the ringing of cowbells, ticker tape lost in hair and hats, and cheers of joy for the Liberty’s first WNBA title in their 28-year history and New York’s first basketball title in 51 years.
The Liberty, who rode along The Canyon of Heroes in floats from Battery Park to City Hall, insisted they will be chasing another title after getting their first taste Sunday in a thrilling 67-62 overtime victory over the Lynx in Game 5 at Barclays Center.
“It means a lot to bring the first championship here,” Syracuse native Breanna Stewart said at the Liberty’s celebration at City Hall after the parade. “My first WNBA game was a Liberty game at MSG. So, full circle moment. … I have to thank you guys so much. This has been an incredible journey. We’re not done yet, but we are going to appreciate the s–t out of this moment.”
“I feel like I’m a New Yorker. But just the way you [the fans] got behind us, that’s something that I’ll never forget but let’s play it back next year,” head coach Sandy Brondello added.
They’re not the only ones who believe a repeat is possible.
Hope was in the air in lower Manhattan that Thursday would not be the only time in the near future the Liberty would hold a trophy.
“[Game 5] really just showed the depth of the team. I can see them repeating next year. It’s good to see every player involved when your best players are down. That’s what every team needs,” Bedford-Stuyvesant native Mateo Estevez told The Post.
Estevez, who previously had his hair blonde, decided to dye it light blue for the first time a month ago, which, after a few washes, coincidentally looked like the Liberty’s signature seafoam green as the team played deeper into the playoffs.
“I wouldn’t mind doing the color again. If I got to do it again this time next year, I’ll do it again.”
Connor Dewyngaert, a longtime Liberty fan, has been waiting for this moment with the superteam roster and was previously a season-ticket holder during the Liberty’s last season at Madison Square Garden.
He held a sign reading, “Liberty after party at Blue Haven South. 121 Fulton Street,” which is a bar that has hosted several Liberty watch parties.
“Honestly, I read a tweet the other day that was like, ‘The city has been waiting for this for 50 years and it was the women that brought it,’ ” said co-owner of Blue Haven South and fellow Liberty fan Abby Doud, who was with Dewyngaert during the parade. “And I literally had full body goosebumps. … We are f–king hype.”
One excited Brooklyn family was seen with several signs, including a gravestone with the Lynx’s Courtney Williams and Cherly Reeve plastered on it, an “Ellie will you marry me?” poster, and several Liberty player’s faces as the Statue of Liberty.
Another fan held signs that read, “The chicks got us a chip before your Knicks,” along with, “We beat Angel and Caitlin.”
The parade goers easily recognized that something valuable lives in Brooklyn that will be celebrated beyond the 2024 season, especially thanks to Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, who took over in 2019 from James Dolan following the Liberty’s 7-27 2018 season.
Estevez was one of many to see it, fully committing to the team after the drafting of Sabrina Ionescu at No. 1 overall in 2020.
“We got a job to do. We would love to be back here. … Let’s run it back,” general manager Jonathan Kolb said.
If the Liberty are parading again a year from now, it could be something even bigger.