This was the Liberty’s reward for ambition.
It came covered in sterling silver, by way of Tiffany’s, as the confetti flew and streamers covered the court at Barclays Center, as the delirious witnesses to a basketball breakthrough supplied a roar that could bridge Brooklyn and everyone watching women’s sports around the world: the WNBA trophy.
It was passed from the owners who moved this whole triumphant show to Brooklyn, was shepherded by the head coach hired to lend her championship pedigree, and finally was hugged and held aloft by the players who delivered an historic, 67-62 overtime victory Sunday in Game 5 of the Finals.
Now the capital of women’s basketball, at long last, isn’t pinned in Storrs, Conn., or Columbia, S.C., or Las Vegas. It is here, in New York City, to the delight of a constituency in every stripe of seafoam.
It didn’t come easy. It didn’t come cheap. It wasn’t pretty. This was no one’s advertisement for the aesthetics of the product, as earlier passages of the Finals had been.
The Liberty had to rally from a 12-point first-half deficit. Breanna Stewart (4-for-15) and Sabrina Ionescu (a shocking 1-for-19) had abysmal shooting nights. The team didn’t hit a 3-pointer until Ionescu sank one late in the fourth quarter, and they wound up 2-for-23 from deep.
But it was championship mettle, in all its blood-and-loose-teeth-on-the-asphalt glory, the kind that would make the ’90s Knicks blush.
The Liberty were here in the beginning, a WNBA original, and had waited 28 seasons to call themselves champions.
They came from the bottom — from playing 2019 home games in the minor league Westchester County Center, from going 2-20 in the 2020 “bubble” season.
Because this is a team in the ascendant image of the modern WNBA.
They have investment from Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, who took up the torch five years ago and set about building a world-class organization.
“Look what can happen when you have an intention, and you put care and resources toward it,” Wu Tsai said.
They have an electric home atmosphere at Barclays, which quivers with decibels of passionate partisans and thumps along to the trunk-raising stylings of Ellie the Elephant.
They attracted a transformational free agent in Stewart, they cultivated a homegrown star in Ionescu and over the course of four-plus years, they patiently rounded out a roster (signing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, trading for eventual Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, importing Leonie Fiebich) without discernible holes.
“It takes everyone,” Ionescu said.
And still they had Nyara Sabally up their sleeves. The second-year pro swung the game with her 13 points, seven rebounds and 17 minutes of energy off the bench.
“That’s what I’ve been working toward my whole career, moments like this,” Sabally said.
The Liberty were hailed as a superteam. It would have meant nothing without a banner. The project was validated on a night of celebration in Brooklyn.
For the first time in their history, the Liberty are champions.