Duck, Knight Rises: WNBA Finals is Fulfillment For New York Liberty's Special Relationship

Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney worked through the New York Liberty's growing pains to earn potential championship glory.

The New York Liberty are about to endure the sweetest side effect a professional team can ask for: management led by CEO Keia Clarke and general manager Jonathan Kolb would perhaps be wise to ensure that their next acquisition is a bandwagon.

With New York's major baseball teams long-eliminated and the gridiron groups hardly hopeful, the Liberty stand as one of the city's hottest tickets and a silver lining in an otherwise mostly-bleak professional sports scene. Even if the Liberty fall behind 2-0 in a best-of-five WNBA Finals set with the Las Vegas Aces on Wednesday night (9 p.m. ET, ESPN) ... inadvisable and inadvertent as that may be ... New York will have at least one more chance to take in their progress when the series moves to Brooklyn on Sunday afternoon. 

Moral victories secure no trophies nor raise any banners, but it'd be foolhardy to deny how far the Liberty franchise has come over the past five years, even if an Aces repeat proves inevitable. Over the first three seasons of the new decade, the Liberty won 30 games ... including playoffs, they've won 37 this year alone. Part of that, of course, can be attributed to the respective arrivals of Jonquel Jones, Courtney Vandersloot, and reigning WNBA MVP Breanna Stewart.

The two outliers among the star-spangled Liberty starting five, however, got to see how the seafoam sausage was made.

When the Liberty punched their Finals ticket, hugs, cheers, and acknowledgments were obviously exchanged. Many understandably turned to family: Jones greeted her fiancée Nesha. Stewart found her daughter Ruby in the stands. Head coach Sandy Brondello didn't have to go far, briefly embracing husband ... and Liberty assistant coach ... Olaf Lange. 

Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney first found each other. 

"It was really special," Laney said of her postgame moment with Ionescu. "We started this journey together. "To be in this moment now, especially where we came from, from going out first round, not getting a win in my first year, to getting one (in a series) but not being able to close it out and then to be here now and be moving on to a Finals, it's really big for us."

Ionescu joined the Liberty as the team's top overall pick in 2020 / Brandon Todd, NY LIBERTY

Familial lauding obviously awaited the duo: Ionescu's fiancée, Las Vegas Raiders offensive lineman Hroniss Grasu had a game in Los Angeles while Laney was immediately found by her infant niece JJ. 

But the two finding each other was the latest culmination of the Liberty's rise and transfer from the brink of WNBA oblivion to the cusp of its ultimate glory. After all, Ionescu and Laney are two of only three witnesses (the other being Jocelyn Willoughby) left from the trials and tribulations of the 2021 season.

"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 Atlantic Avenue pairing. "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."

That season is forgotten or ignored in the eyes of some fans, namely the newer ones, and even the larger WNBA public. After all, it was far from a memorable effort from a conventional standpoint: New York went 12-20 and backed into the playoffs as the eighth and final seed. A spirited one-game matchup with the Phoenix Mercury (ironically coached by Brondello) followed but Phoenix escaped with an 83-82 victory despite 25 points from Laney. the last three came on an equalizer with three seconds to go but was negated by a foul and a single Phoenix free throw. 

Three more steps, namely Finals victories, are required for the promise of the collaboration to be truly realized. The seafoam sisters, however, have not forgotten the impact they've had on each other, honored to have made their first respective championship runs with each other after the trials and tribulations of the past.

Laney (R) helps Ionescu up during the Liberty's victorious Game 4 showdown against the Connecticut Sun on Oct. 1 / Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

"(This process), it's why I loved getting drafted in 2020 to the 12th place team, understanding that there's room to grow and build it into what it is today," Ionescu said prior to Game 1 of the Finals on Sunday. "That's the challenge that I was willing to accept and now it's really gratifying to be able to see us here, one step closer to what the goal of this organization is, what we are all wanting to accomplish."

The Liberty's superteam era was not an overnight, just add Sab, sensation. Having been freed from professional basketball purgatory that often serves as a WNBA death sentence (separation from their NBA brothers in Manhattan), the Liberty formally hit reset with an extreme home roster makeover upon landing under the Brooklyn Nets' umbrella in 2019. 

Ionescu didn't have much of a choice in the matter (not that she's ever complained) as she was the consensus top pick out of Oregon when the Liberty opened the 2020 WNBA Draft. She then lasted three games during the ensuing Bradenton bubble-based season in Florida, sidelined by an early ankle injury that reduced her to a viewer of the Liberty's 2-20 affair, one highlighted by the participation of Willoughby and several rookies. 

Once welcome stability came in the form of a Brooklyn-based home for the 2021 campaign, the Liberty took a full-on splash into the WNBA talent pool, signing the battle-tested Laney fresh off a Most Improved Player bid in the bubble. From the get-go, Laney was attracted to the idea of working with the touted prospect Ionescu while continuing to establish her own budding brand.

Laney joined the Liberty in 2021 after winning the Most Improved Player Award with the Atlanta Dream / Brandon Todd, NY Liberty

"I think she showed a lot of potential. I think her ceiling is very very high. I'm very excited to build with her," Laney said upon her arrival in February 2021. "I think that just watching Sabrina, she's capable of many things...I think that's really good for myself, and everyone else around us...we'll complement each other really well on the court."

The pairing immediately paid off: Ionescu opened the Brooklyn era with a game-winning jumper while Laney opened her Liberty career (and her return to the tri-state area after previously working with Rutgers) with eight consecutive contests of at least 20 points. nagging overuse injuries forced Ionescu to take on an abbreviated role but Laney kept the team afloat in the early going, building a 5-1 foundation in the standings that became the rock they built their playoff trip upon.

That 2021 season also saw the Liberty bring in champions Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb. Future Rookie of the Year Michaela Onyenwere came in as the sixth overall pick of the ensuing draft. Sacrifices in the superteam trek cast them (as well as other contributors like Rebecca Allen, Crystal Dangerfield, Jazmine Jones, and DiDi Richards) elsewhere. Laney's skillset and potential to get lost in the historic fold seemed to imply that she'd be next. 

Instead, Laney has turned herself into an essential part of the Liberty's era of contention, playing at the height of both her offensive and defensive prowess. The pick-and-roll abilities of both Laney and Ionescu have allowed the pair to showcase their ability to shoot and sink from all sides of the floor.

Ionescu couldn't be more grateful.

"She's able to do everything at an elite level," the former Duck lauded. "She drives so well to the basket, able to post up smaller guards...we don't win these games without what she's doing. We go as she goes."