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What will it take for the New York Liberty to become WNBA champions again?

What will it take for the New York Liberty to become WNBA champions again?

NEW YORK – The long wait is over and the New York Liberty have finally joined the ranks of the WNBA champions.

But general manager Jonathan Kolb hasn’t turned the Liberty into a one-hit wonder. This is a team designed to compete for years to come, and winning a title in 2024 was the highlight of the first chapter.

As coach Sandy Brondello said after beating the Lynx for the title in overtime Sunday night: “Let’s not stop at one thing, though. Let’s go together.”

The scars of defeat in the 2023 final have helped build a more resilient group this season. New York had the best regular-season record and net rating, with a plus-11.7 mark that is in line with some of the best teams of the last decade. The Liberty were not as dominant in the postseason as they were earlier in the year, but their strength and talent gave them an advantage as they endured a tiring five-game finals series.

Heading into 2025, the Liberty have the big pieces in place again, but the edges will require a little more creativity. The majority of the rotation is under contract, and star Breanna Stewart has essentially committed to returning, leaving Courtney Vandersloot and Kennedy Burke as holdouts. It’s hard to imagine Vandersloot coming back for such a small role (she averaged 14.3 minutes per game in the 2024 postseason, compared to 32.6 minutes in 2023), so New York will have to contend with its backup point position Guard deal. Maybe Marine Johannès will return in a non-Olympic year, or Jaylyn Sherrod will fill that role, or a veteran will join in free agency.

The Liberty enjoy the advantage of playing in New York, a market that attracts free agents because of the fan base, the city’s history and the ownership group’s investment. That should help fill the gaps in the squad, especially now that the team has overcome the crisis and is no longer chasing that elusive first championship.

The Liberty’s main rivals in 2025 include the Aces, who are returning their core team, and the Lynx, who have all but Natisha Hiedeman and Myisha Hines-Allen under contract. Indiana also expects to see improvement in Caitlin Clark’s second year, but the depth of talent in New York – even after the upcoming expansion draft – will be better than anywhere else in the league. The Liberty could also add a high-profile free agent with the cap space from Vandersloot’s contract. DeWanna Bonner and Alysha Clark would be interesting additions to the wing group if either of them wanted to move to New York.

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The Liberty did not enter the 2024 season as championship favorites, even though they have been playing with the goal of being a super team for two years. They know the pressure and have struggled to handle it at times – Game 5 being an example of this. Even if New York is the betting favorite in 2025, that won’t necessarily be the case. The league is too deep and there were cracks in the Liberty’s execution during the finals series.

It’s also about motivation. New York’s quest for revenge drove the team in 2024, and that’s over. Jonquel Jones attributed the 2023 loss to the Liberty reaching the finals again. “I truly believe that if we won it last year, we’re not here now,” she said. “As a unit and as a whole, we understood how hard it would be to win a championship and that we had a different level to take it to. Honestly, I think we would have gotten complacent if we had won last year.”

The influx of new role players who brought a different energy to the locker room helped avoid complacency this season. In addition to New York’s three stars (Stewart, Jones and Sabrina Ionescu) being better than they were in 2023, the front office also built a more complete roster in the 2024 offseason that provides greater lineup versatility for the postseason. “It’s hard to win because this league is so good. You need a bit of luck on your side, but also talent,” said Brondello after the final. “You also need talent, the right talent that you can put together.”

Acquired in 2023, Leonie Fiebich arrived from Germany after a full round of on-court recruiting as a tall winger who could help solve Liberty’s full-back woes. Fiebich was substituted for Allisha Gray, Kelsey Plum, Courtney Williams and Kayla McBride during the playoffs, duties that would have gone to Ionescu or Vandersloot last season.

Burke moved to the Liberty after a year out of the WNBA and provided depth in the frontcourt. Burke’s defensive positioning came in handy during the semifinal series against Las Vegas and she played 13 minutes in the final win.

The front office also relied on second-year center Nyara Sabally to be the full-time backup despite playing 260 minutes (less than eight per game) as a rookie. A back injury sidelined Sabally throughout June, but she improved as the season progressed and played a crucial role in the WNBA Finals. New York wouldn’t have won in Game 5 without their rim pressure.

Acquiring Fiebich and Burke required some ingenuity. New York joined the Marina Mabrey deal in 2023, capitalizing on Phoenix’s immediate need for help on the wing. The Liberty gave up Michaela Onyenwere, who would have struggled to stay on the roster after acquiring Stewart and Kayla Thornton, and brought back Fiebich and a first-round pick swap in 2025 that would take her up to five in the upcoming draft will bring up places.

New York was able to entice Burke to move from the French league with a guaranteed contract usually reserved for high-profile players. However, the Liberty were able to convince Stewart and Ionescu to sign unprotected contracts as both players knew the Liberty would never waive them, so the protected contract was available to Burke. That gave the veteran the confidence to exit her European season early, knowing there was a spot waiting for her in New York.

“(Kolb) has built this team to withstand anything any of the opponents in the W can throw at us,” Jones said.

Defending a title is a unique challenge, a feat only one team in the WNBA has accomplished in the past two decades. Maybe New York will be relieved of the pressure of chasing its first title and will play like the most talented team in the league. Or the burden of being the favorite could add new pressure. In any case, there’s no denying that greatness is to be expected from the Liberty. They came together to win titles, and that mission has just begun.

(Photo: David Berding / Getty Images)