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Alexa Philippou, ESPN
NEW YORK — Because the seconds ticked down in Recreation 5 of the WNBA Finals on Sunday night time, Breanna Stewart dribbled the ball over half courtroom. On the long-awaited buzzer, she discovered Jonquel Jones for an embrace as their teammates rushed the ground.
The New York Liberty had lastly executed it.
Sabrina Ionescu, the franchise’s longest tenured participant, collapsed on the Liberty emblem, her arms protecting her face in euphoria. Frank Sinatra’s “New York, New York” blared as confetti rained down from the rafters.
It was a becoming finish to a 2024 WNBA season that catapulted the WNBA into a brand new period of development and cultural relevance, one which commissioner Cathy Engelbert referred to as “essentially the most transformational 12 months within the WNBA’s historical past.” It featured standout particular person performances — A’ja Wilson gained her third MVP with one of the dominant seasons in league historical past; Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese dazzled with sensational rookie campaigns — and leaguewide development. The WNBA loved its most watched common season in 24 years, its highest attendance in 22 years and its most-viewed playoffs in 25 years.
Ultimately, the highest two groups within the league going through off within the first winner-take-all extra time Recreation 5 of the WNBA Finals was the one conclusion for this transcendent season — particularly when one of many league’s three remaining unique franchises, arguably its most iconic, had the final phrase when the ultimate whistle blew Sunday.
A season that featured loads of firsts ended with the Liberty franchise incomes an elusive first of its personal, lastly shedding the excellence of being the one WNBA unique franchise with out a title and capable of clinch a championship by itself flooring.
“To have the ability to deliver a championship to New York, first ever in franchise historical past, it is an unbelievable feeling,” Stewart stated. “I actually cannot wait to proceed to have fun with the town as a result of I do know it’ll be bonkers.”
New York’s championship — clinched with franchise greats Teresa Weatherspoon and Sue Wicks courtside — was an exorcism 28 seasons within the making, ending a run of frustration that started with the Liberty’s preliminary ill-fated title run in 1997 and coursed by means of the a long time since. It was punctuated by Weatherspoon’s legendary half-court shot to win Recreation 2 in 1999, solely to lose the title the next day; 5 whole empty Finals journeys; 5 different losses within the Jap Convention finals; even a 2-20 report as just lately as 2020. Going into final season, the Liberty had been coming off 5 consecutive shedding campaigns.
Then in a single offseason, New York flipped the script, changing into the primary group in league historical past to make use of free company to assemble a superteam — and an computerized contender — by bringing in two former MVPs in Jones and Stewart and one of many league’s best level guards in Courtney Vandersloot. Most would have deemed final 12 months’s runner-up Finals end a hit for a newly assembled squad. As a substitute, the Liberty’s 2023 consequence left them with what they referred to as a “scar.”
Nonetheless, they did not enter the season because the favorites. The Las Vegas Aces opened 2024 as the highest decide to finish the league’s first three-peat of the millennium, whereas groups just like the Phoenix Mercury and Seattle Storm executed huge offseason strikes in hopes of maintaining. Clark and the Indiana Fever made noise with their first playoff berth since 2016.
However New York asserted itself early, stored a stronghold on the highest spot within the standings and steadily maintained its standing as one of the best group within the league.
Because the Liberty surged, the town took discover. In a summer time brimming with record-breaking crowds, Barclays Middle averaged the second-best attendance within the league (12,730), simply two years after rating eighth (5,327) and 5 after infamously internet hosting video games in White Plains on the Westchester County Middle. The common season was solely a sampling of what awaited within the postseason, as these had been the highest-attended Finals in league historical past.
The followers had been in for a present. The Liberty had been higher from a basketball standpoint than 2023, significantly due to the addition of German rookie Leonie Fiebich — however additionally they developed a deeper chemistry and stronger collective will. Weekly tradition conferences led by gamers and with steerage from psychological efficiency coach Paddy Steinfort allowed the gamers to problem and say laborious issues to one another, and know none of it was private.
By means of the playoffs, the Liberty discovered methods to combat by means of adversity collectively, knocking off the two-time defending champ within the semis, overcoming a disastrous 0-1 begin to the Finals after blowing a 15-point Recreation 1 lead with 5 minutes to go and prevailing in a grueling Recreation 5 regardless of scoring simply 10 factors within the first quarter and going through a 12-point deficit.
It was the success of the imaginative and prescient Jones and Stewart imagined after they determined to hitch forces in New York heading into the 2023 season.
“We talked about it a lot, about coming collectively and what we envisioned of what we needed to do in New York, and what we may do, to have the ability to pull it off and achieve a dream,” Jones stated. “It is so freaking laborious to do. It simply means so much.”
Added Stewart: “Me, JJ, Sloot, all of us got here collectively to win a championship. Final 12 months we misplaced within the Finals. However take a look at us, now we’re right here.”
To take action, New York performed extra like a brilliant group than a superteam.
With Ionescu and Stewart capturing a mixed 5-for-34, the gamers round them stepped up. No another so than Jones, the 2021 MVP who stored the Liberty in it with a team-high 17 factors. The previous No. 6 decide, who left her dwelling nation of the Bahamas to play highschool basketball in Maryland, earned her first championship after falling quick in three different Finals appearances.
“She led us,” Stewart stated of Jones, who was named Finals MVP. “Her dominance within the paint, on the boards, help-side protection. Every little thing that we would have liked, she was there. She needed to wait awhile to get up to now, to get to the Finals to win a championship. However the wait was price it.”
Reserve ahead Kayla Thornton helped change the sport together with her defensive power. Fiebich scored 4 factors towards the tip of regulation and hit the primary shot of extra time. “Whoever scores first in extra time often wins,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello stated postgame. “I used to be assured after that.”
An surprising hero emerged in Nyara Sabally, who embodied the definition of staying prepared when your quantity known as. Brondello inserted the reserve heart into the lineup within the third quarter — enjoying a not often used jumbo lineup of Jones, Stewart and Sabally that swung the momentum in New York’s favor. Sabally completed with 13 factors off the bench, together with 9 within the third.
“She has that X issue,” Brondello stated. “Her capacity to make one-on-one performs, to rebound the ball, to play nice protection. … I do know she’s had lots of adversity over her profession, however the largest recreation of her profession, and she or he actually rose to the event.”
🗽🗽🗽🗽yerrrrrr
— Stewie (@breannastewart) October 21, 2024
And even on an off capturing night time (4-for-15), Stewart devoted herself to serving to her group win no matter whether or not she was scoring. She corralled 15 rebounds, dished 4 assists, blocked 3 photographs.
And he or she made the most important play of the night time: After lacking a pair of free throws with 38.2 seconds left in regulation, she made her subsequent two with 5.2 seconds remaining after drawing a foul on Alanna Smith. The 2-time league MVP then iced the sport with one other pair from the charity stripe in extra time with 10.1 seconds left.
In a 12 months with new faces and new power surrounding the game, Stewart — at 30 already arguably the winningest participant in ladies’s basketball historical past — gained once more, fulfilling her purpose of bringing a title to her dwelling state after the most important free company transfer in league historical past.
“My first WNBA recreation I ever went to was at MSG, was the Liberty,” Stewart stated. “And to have that be full circle was superb.
“All through my entire day, all people was texting me, ‘How are you? Are you prepared?’ … And I used to be calm. I used to be prepared as a result of I knew that it doesn’t matter what, the town was going to have our again, they usually confirmed up they usually confirmed out, they usually continued to be there for us once we want. I am so happy with this group however so glad to have the ability to deliver the primary championship right here as a result of the town deserves it.”
Momentum is snowballing for the WNBA heading into 2025. The league’s first growth group since 2008 will debut subsequent spring in Golden State, with new franchises in Toronto and Portland arriving in 2026. Longer playoffs are on the best way. The league simply signed a long-term $2.2 billion media deal, and a groundbreaking collective bargaining settlement may quickly be within the works. Groups like New York and Las Vegas, which have mixed to win the previous three titles, have set a brand new customary for what’s anticipated from possession funding.
However with its core all however assured to return for one more run, the Liberty aren’t executed but.
“Hey, let’s not cease at one, although,” Brondello stated. “Let’s go for 2.”