Liberty's Original Stars Bask in Championship Triumph

The New York Liberty's WNBA title carries special meaning for its longest-tenured members.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

BROOKLYN -- If patience truly is a virtue, New York Liberty stars Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton received their just desserts on Sunday.

No one on the active Liberty roster waited longer for their first title in New York than Ionescu and Laney-Hamilton, who were two of the dozen trophy hoisters at the end of a 67-62 overtime victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the 2024 WNBA Finals.

Sunday's title was always the endgame of a long-gestating plan set forth by general manager Jonathan Kolb, one headlined by the acquisition of historic talents before the 2023 season which welcomed Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Courtney Vandersloot to the seafoam fold.

But the revolution all began with the arrivals of Ionescu and Laney-Hamilton, the final original full-time Brooklynites from the Liberty moved onto Atlantic Avenue in 2021. Things were thus just a little more emotional for the original duo, armed with endless smiles and their respective superpowers in the aftermath.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

"I can't put it to words, but this is what we work for," said Laney-Hamilton, who previously brought an NIT title to the tri-state area with Rutgers in 2014. "I came here because I believed in us, and, you know, it's been a journey. Last year, we put together this team, and we had an amazing run in our first year, and obviously we fell short, but I think we learned a lot from it, and then that helped us get to where we are now, and then we're a championship team."

Ionescu was the touted top pick of the 2020 draft out of Oregon while Laney-Hamilton was added during the following winter after a breakout, Most Improved Player campaign with Atlanta in the Bradenton bubble (where Ionescu appeared in only three games due to an ankle injury).

The Brooklyn pilot was downright poetic: in front of a crowd shrunk by lingering COVID-19 restrictions, Laney-Hamilton scored 30 points to set a record in a Liberty debut while Ionescu sank a victorious buzzer-beater in a 90-87 win over Indiana. Three seasons later, the duo is celebrating the franchise's elusive first title and its crowning as the city's basketball standard.

"I got drafted here as the one pick with I felt like the weight of the world on my back to be able to come and bring a championship here," Ionescu recalled of her maiden metropoitan voyage. "I get hurt and I'm not back for about a year and a half, not able to be myself. [But] there was just this belief in me and from this organization and this fan base that just welcomed me with open arms and just helped me get up every morning and just continue to fight, continue to be the best that I can, and wanting to give it my all."

"Every time I've stepped out on the court, I've given it my all, whether I've been injured, whether I haven't, and to be able to just get this like kind of satisfaction of knowing that we did it after everyone's continued to pour into me, it's why I do what I do every day," the point guard said. "There's days when you don't feel like you want to do it, and you can't go anymore, and you just continue to push. To be able to do it for this organization that believed in me, to come in here and win it, I can't put that in words."

Though Ionescu shot 1-of-19 from the field on Sunday and Laney-Hamilton, nursing a lingering lower body injury, played only 18 minutes, both played major roles on the final trek to the title using their trademark talents.

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

Laney-Hamilton's signature two-way game created the most one-sided result of the Finals, scoring 20 points and helping keep the Lynx off the board for the final 3:40 of an 80-66 win. When the series moved to Minneapolis, Ionescu sank a game-winner in the penultimate second of Game 3 to give the Liberty its first Finals series lead in franchise history.

The metropolitan masses certainly hope its only the first of several years on top.

"They've been here for the early days where there was not as much success and now both of them are obviously having wonderful seasons," Brondello said of the duo during last year's run to the Finals, New York's first in over two decades. "They're two different players, but the chemistry that they've been able to keep growing with the more time they spend together, it's just been fun to watch. they're still pretty young, so we look forward to having a few more years so they can continue that journey together."

The Liberty will spent Thursday celebrating with their fans: the festivities get underway with a parade from Battery Park to City Hall in Manhattan (10 a.m. ET, WNYW). A ticketed event will then be held at their home of Barclays Center on Thursday evening beginning at 7 p.m.

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