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Liberty Year In Review 2024: Nyara Sabally

Nyara Sabally, a homegrown New York Liberty project, picked the perfect time and place for a statement game.

Geoff Magliocchetti

Brandon Todd, NY Liberty
In this story:

After 27 years, 40 games, 12 more playoff contests, and even a fateful overtime period, the New York Liberty finally stand as WNBA champions.

New York earned its first postseason WNBA title with a five-game series victory over the Minnesota Lynx earlier this fall, capping off a monumental season for the WNBA. For now, the championship serves as a culmination of a long-gestating plan put forth by Liberty leadership, one that brought home the first basketball team honor to the city in over five decades.

The Liberty’s path to a repeat comes at an exciting if not turbulent time on the WNBA timeline: rosters are set to endure tremors caused by expansion drafts (such as that of the Golden State Valkyries in December) and upcoming collective bargaining agreement discussions. 

With the season itself gone — but the memories never fading —Knicks on SI looks back at a victorious season that was and what’s ahead for the Liberty on a case-by-case basis.

2024 Year In Review: Nyara Sabally

Name: Nyara Sabally
Season: 2nd
Key Stats: 4.9 points, 57.5 field goal percentage, 4.0 rebounds

How It Started

Entering this season, Sabally was one of two veteran homegrown projects on the Liberty roster, the other being fellow Oregon alumna Sabrina Ionescu. Sabally entered the league two years after Ionescu, as well as her sister Satou, as she was the fifth pick of the 2022 draft.

Over her first two seasons, Sabally's biggest opponent was the injury bug: the erasure of her 2022 season was announced shortly after her drafting thanks to a lingering knee ailment from college, which put her at a major disadvantage once she was ready to take the floor. The heralded entries of Jonquel Jones and Breanna Stewart shored up the Liberty's interior game, placing Sabally fourth on the metropolitan paint hierarchy behind the legendary duo and valuable sixth woman Stefanie Dolson.

Once Dolson departed for Washington, however, Sabally shot up the depth chart and became an indispensible part of the New York rotation. That trust was placed despite Sabally playing less than eight minutes a game in her de facto rookie campaign.

How It Went

Sabally started modestly, averaging just over three rebounds in just over 11 minutes a game in eight May showings. Yet another injury, a back ailment sustained on May 31 against Washington, kept her out for over a month, seemingly stifling any further progress she could hope to make.

Upon her return in mid-July, however, Sabally offered hints of her championship potential, especially when Leonie Fiebich's promotion and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton's knee issues ate away at the latter half of her season. Sabally brought a more traditional interior player's vibe to the proceedings, similar to what the Liberty's former brothers, the Knicks, had gained (and subsequently lost) with Mitchell Robinson.

Despite dealing with yet another medical calamity in her German Olympic run beside Fiebich (enduring a head injury in the opening game of group play), Sabally averaged a respectable 6.3 points and 4.9 rebounds in just over 15 minutes a game after teams reconvened for the post-Paris portions of the schedule. Adjusted for per 40-minute averages, Sabally was second on the team in rebounds behind Jones with 11.4. In the second half of the season, Sabally's defensive rating of 88.3 led all WNBA reserves with at least 15 minutes and 10 games to her name.

Finest Hour

Hints of Sabally's impact were prevalent in the playoffs (i.e. a seven-rebound showing in the opener agains Atlanta), her emergence in the fateful fifth game of the Finals will likely go down as one of the most pleasant surprises in New York basketball history.

With Satou being one of thousands taking in a bricked slugfest between New York and Minnesota, the younger Sabally broke through as the Liberty opted to stick with a "jumbo" lineup headlined by her, Jones and Kayla Thornton. Sabally was one of the few women on the floor hitting her shots, as she was 5-of-7 en route to 13 points, her last serving as a de facto dagger when she turned a Kayla McBride turnover into a five-point lead.

In the advanced category, Sabally's stellar 63.9 defensive rating in the game was best on the seafoam side. She also became the first player to put up at least 10 points and five boards in relief since Brionna Jones did so for Connecticut in 2022 and only the third overall to pull off the feats in a do-or-die Game 5 (first since Shannon Johnson of the Detroit Shock in 2007).

They Said It

"She has that X-factor. [She has an] ability to make one-on-one plays, to rebound the ball, to play great defense. I mean, all of it, and then to finish plays ... [I'm] really, really proud of her. I know she's had a lot of adversity over her career, but it was the biggest game of her career, and she really rose to the occasion. For a young player, that says a lot about her. I mean, the future is pretty bright."-Head coach Sandy Brondello on why she played Sabally in Game 5

"Perseverance comes right away in my mind. She always wanted to play basketball and fought through her injuries. It's hard to rehab: when I had to go through it, I always thought about her... she inspired me when I had tough days."-Satou Sabally on what she has learned from her sister

What's Next

Few, if any, had an issue with Dolson trying to leave an impact on the shot chart, but a unique advantage that has become an endangered species in major professional basketball has granted Sabally a WNBA future. Now, the question becomes whether her lasting impact will be felt in New York or elsewhere.

The Liberty's expansion draft protection list seems mostly self-explanatory: Ionescu, Jones and Stewart are the cornerstones and it's safe to assume Leonie Fiebich and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton will be afforded similar privileges. That leaves Sabally in a tight competition, as she's by far the most potential-packed option among the competitors: Courtney Vandersloot is a free agent while fellow reserve Kayla Thornton is entering a decade of WNBA service.

Either way, 2024 will be looked back upon as an unmitigated success for Sabally, who has proven she is capable of leaving a championship impact on grand stages. The only question, again, is if New York continues to enjoy it or if she's one of the headliners of an exciting new project in the Bay Area.

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Geoff Magliocchetti
GEOFF MAGLIOCCHETTI

Editor-In-Chief at All Knicks

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