2024-10-21 22:05:02
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Michael Voepel, ESPN Senior Writer
NEW YORK — The franchise that won the first game in WNBA history finally has won the last game of the season.
More than 27 years after playing for league’s inaugural championship and following several near misses, the New York Liberty became WNBA champions with a 67-62 overtime victory Sunday over the Minnesota Lynx.
Breanna Stewart sealed the win with two free throws with 10.1 seconds left in the extra period. After Leonie Fiebich stole a pass, the Liberty dribbled out the clock on a victory that was as hard-fought and dramatic as any in a Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.
The Liberty prevailed 3-2 in a series marked by huge shots and big momentum shifts in the first three games. Little separated the teams in Game 4, which the Lynx won on two free throws with two seconds left.
In Game 5, before a packed house at Barclays Center, the Liberty battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit to take a 47-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter. So many years of waiting would come down to 10 minutes.
Or so it appeared.
Instead, these teams — which faced off nine times during the season, including the Commissioner’s Cup final that the Lynx claimed in June — worked into overtime.
With 6.3 seconds left in regulation, the Liberty had the ball, trailing 60-58. Stewart was fouled by Alanna Smith, a call the Lynx challenged. After the challenge was ruled unsuccessful, Stewart hit both free throws to tie the game at 60-60. Kayla McBride missed a 3-pointer for Minnesota, and the game went to overtime.
Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve spent a considerable part of her news conference criticizing the officiating in Game 5 and the entire series, saying, “This s— was stolen from us.”
In the extra period, the Liberty’s points came from Fiebich, Nyara Sabally and Stewart. Sabally had her biggest game yet as a Liberty player, with 13 points and seven rebounds. Fiebich, Sabally’s German national team teammate in the Olympics, also had 13 points and seven rebounds.
The Liberty won despite shooting just 30.6% from the field. Sabrina Ionescu made just 1 of 19 shots from the field, finishing with five points. Despite those struggles, she had eight assists and seven rebounds.
Liberty forward Jonquel Jones was named Finals MVP after leading New York with 17 points in Game 5. Jones, who was +1000 to win MVP at the start of the series, tied Diana Taurasi for the third-most career points in the Finals with 320. She was playing in her fourth career Finals, after previously losing with the Connecticut Sun in 2019 and 2022 and with the Liberty last year.
“I could never dream of this,” said Jones. “You know how many times I’ve been denied. It was delayed. I am so happy to do it here.”
The title is extra special to Stewart, the team’s lone native New Yorker who recalls attending Liberty games as a kid. A two-time champion while with the Seattle Storm, she joined the Liberty before the 2023 season as the biggest free agent signing in WNBA history.
“I’ve been manifesting this moment for a while. There’s no feeling like it,” Stewart said after the game. “Credit to Minnesota — they gave us a tough series. The fans have been amazing everywhere we’ve gone. To bring a championship to New York, first ever in franchise history, it’s an incredible feeling. I can’t wait to continue to celebrate with the city. It’s going to be bonkers.”
The Liberty’s ticker tape parade is scheduled for Monday.
The Liberty gave the Big Apple its first major professional basketball championship since 1973. That’s when the New York Knicks won the NBA title, which came 16 years before the oldest player on the Liberty’s roster, 35-year-old guard Courtney Vandersloot, was born. (The New York/New Jersey Nets won the ABA title in 1976, but that league was down to seven teams then and would merge with the NBA for 1976-77). A city that loves hoops and winners gets to combine both again.
After five previous tries to win the title — starting in 1997, the WNBA’s inaugural year — the Liberty now have a crown to go with their iconic torch logo.
Disappointed after losing 3-1 to the Las Vegas Aces in last year’s Finals, Stewart didn’t have her best game offensively in Game 5, as she was 4-of-15 from the field and 5-of-8 from the foul line for 13 points. But she was strong on defense and had 15 rebounds.
Stewart, Jones and Ionescu were the Liberty’s top three scorers in the regular season and the playoffs. Ionescu, the No. 1 draft pick in 2020, made a 28-foot 3-pointer with one second left in Game 3 that now surpasses Teresa Weatherspoon‘s half-court heave that won Game 2 of the 1999 Finals as the biggest shot in Liberty history.
The day after Weatherspoon’s shot, the Liberty lost Game 3 and the title to the Houston Comets in what was then a best-of-three series. Ionescu’s shot Wednesday sealed an 80-77 come-from-behind victory and gave the Liberty two chances at clinching the title. They fell short on the first attempt Friday but secured their championship Sunday.
After watching the Aces celebrate the title on New York’s court last year, the Liberty all season talked about the scars they had from that — but also the lessons they learned.
The Liberty were the No. 1 seed at a league-best 32-8, but in the playoffs had to get past the Atlanta Dream, last year’s nemesis Las Vegas and Minnesota.
And the Liberty had to overcome a gut-punch loss in Game 1 of the Finals in Brooklyn, where they led by as much as 18 points and by 15 with just over five minutes left before falling 95-93 in overtime. The Liberty knew they couldn’t afford to wallow in that missed chance; they won Game 2 at home 80-66.
Game 3 and its fantastic finish will go down as an epic tale in Liberty lore, which has included many highs that were overshadowed by disappointments. Game 4’s loss added more drama to what many might consider the most competitive WNBA Finals ever. And Game 5 was a catharsis for the Liberty and their longtime fans.
The franchise that won the first WNBA game — June 21, 1997, at Los Angeles — has reached its pinnacle.
Just four years ago, Ionescu was the No. 1 pick but missed most of 2020 after suffering an ankle injury in the third game of her rookie year. The Liberty finished 2-20 in the pandemic-shortened season.
The Liberty went 12-20 and returned to the playoffs in 2021. Sandy Brondello took over as coach in 2022, and New York finished 16-20. The additions of Stewart, Jones and Vandersloot in 2023 were huge moves that helped produce back-to-back 32-8 seasons and Finals appearances.
“To just be able to see what we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time is crazy to think of,” said Ionescu, the only player on the 2020 roster who is still with the Liberty.
Stewart recalled having a moment of second-guessing before announcing her free agency decision in 2023.
“I thought, ‘Am I doing the right thing? I’m leaving my safe space of Seattle,'” she said. “But it’s been incredible. I’m back where I’m rooted. It feels like home.”
And now it’s a place to hang a championship banner.
