May 18, 2025
After emotional ring ceremony, the Liberty flip the switch to defeat rival Aces
Inside the Liberty lifting their first championship banner
BROOKLYN, N.Y. — Both Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello and center Jonquel Jones slept in on Saturday morning. Brondello, who usually starts game days with a walk around prospect park, thought she needed the extra rest.
Continue reading with a subscription to The Next
Get unlimited access to women’s basketball coverage and help support our hardworking staff of writers, editors, and photographers by subscribing today.
Already a member?
Login
Jones opened her eyes at 7:50 am but still felt a little sleepy. The 2024 WNBA Finals MVP went back to sleep for an hour, made some coffee and then walked her two golden doodles Rylo and Kiba before coming to the Barclays Center for a day that both Jones and Brondello knew was going to need a lot of focus and energy. It was going to be a day in WNBA history full of both nostalgia and pomp and circumstance, necessary for a day that was celebrating an original franchise in New York winning its first championship.
“I’m pretty relaxed going into it,” Brondello said pregame. “I’m excited, but I’m relaxed. I’m excited for this organization to put the banner up in the arena, and then it’s back to business.”
Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every single month!
Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at editors@thenexthoops.com to discuss ways to work together.
Prior to tip off against the Las Vegas Aces, one of New York’s central rivals in this era of the WNBA, pregame activities were much more chaotic than usual. Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart did WNBA Countdown interviews on court in matching black tank tops. Over 100 credentialed media members were scrambling around trying to figure out the best ways to be covering an extra special Liberty opening day.
The Timeless Torches, the team’s 40+ aged dance troop, got new seafoam baseball jersey uniforms to wear and perform in.
Ellie the Elephant showed up at Barclays Center in a jean jersey dress with longer seafoam nails. She previewed what was to come by also wearing the earrings or at least earrings that look like what is included inside the team’s championship rings. The team mascot went onto deliver a halftime performance that was more elaborate than any of the others the elephant had done before. She paid homage to Nicki Minaj, the latest character in her series of artists she often tributes.
“Onika Ellie Minaj” wore a dual blond and pink wing, which calls back to the look Minaj wore for her “Super Bass” music video. The elephant and over 30 dancers around her danced and lip-synched through the best of Minaj’s catelog including the slower tempo song “Moment 4 Life” when Ellie was presented with her own New York Liberty championship ring.
Just like Ellie the Elephant, the team found a way to give a convincing on-court performance following the emotional and theatrical ceremony. New York defeated Las Vegas 92-78 in a game where both teams went on their runs throughout the first three quarters but then New York shot an efficient 11-15 from the field in the final frame to defeat Las Vegas once again at home.
Save 30% when you order “Becoming Caitlin Clark”
Howard Megdal’s newest book is here! “Becoming Caitlin Clark: The Unknown Origin Story of a Modern Basketball Superstar” captures both the historic nature of Clark’s rise and the critical context over the previous century that helped make it possible, including interviews with Clark, Lisa Bluder (who also wrote the foreword), C. Vivian Stringer, Jan Jensen, Molly Kazmer and many others.
Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.
Nostalgia, pomp and circumstance dominated ring ceremony
Robin Roberts and Spike Lee had a front row seat to the Liberty’s ring ceremony which began around 20 minutes before tipoff. While Lee was in Knicks Orange and Blue rather than Liberty Seafoam and Black, the filmmaker was still very into the ceremony. He stood up multiple times trying to make sure his phone could capture some of what he was seeing over the top of the multiple video cameras shooting the ceremony.
Ionescu led her team out through the tunnel all in bright white Fenty Beauty warmup jackets that featured the team’s championship insignia on the back. Ionescu skipped in with a pep in her step and a wide smile.
The 2024 team marched to center court to stand in a horizontal line while the newcomers and players not on the 2024 team, including Natasha Cloud and Marine Johannès, stood near the team’s bench. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton made her expected return to Barclays wearing her Off-White Varsity Jacket and Black and White patent leather Adidas sneakers. But the larger surprise was Ivana Dojkić, who is not playing the WNBA this season, walking out of the tunnel in a maroon velvet jacket.
“I had no idea she was coming,” Ionescu told reporters about Dojkić postgame. “I think I jumped in her arms when I saw she was here.”
Before Commissioner Cathy Engelbert gave brief opening remarks to begin the ceremony, a video played on the Barclays Center jumbotron. Liberty Ring of honor member Sue Wicks’ voice narrated a special hype video welcoming all of the fans to the ring ceremony. Wicks’ calm delivery and theatrical pacing made for an emotional moment for every person in the arena including two of the team’s biggest stars.
Ionescu and Jones both admitted that the way that Wicks narrated the video just got them all in the feels. It took Ionescu back to the moment when she and her teammates won it all. Jones said to Ionescu that she needed a tissue while the pair sat together, watched and listened to Wicks.
“I think it was just the whole moment of being in the arena,” Jones told The Next. “Understanding how hard we worked for the championship and then me thinking about my personal journey of how long it’s been and how close I’ve been. So to finally have one and to have it in a special place like New York it means a lot.”
Once Engelbert gave her congratulatory opening speech, it was time for Clara Wu Tsai to speak directly to the fans, who she confidently referred to as “the seafoam army” and her team of players and staff.
She praised the determination and sacrifice of everyone involved, including players like Stewart and Laney-Hamilton who put their bodies on the line to win this championship. And then it was time to give out the rings. CEO Keia Clarke got hers first followed by Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb, and then the Liberty’s coaching staff. When head coach Brondello walked out with her daughter Jayda as the last coach called out before the players, the fans took their applause up to another level. Ever since Brondello landed in New York over three years ago now, she’s been Brooklyn’s unofficial mayor who always takes time to chat and interact with fans when she can.
When the players were called, the Tsais were figuring out their rhythm when it came to handing out the rings. Do they hug them first and then present them with the ring? That was a question they pondered early on in the ceremony. Joe didn’t trust himself holding a ring while going to hug a player or a coach. Clara made sure to keep each ring safe in her hands while Joe embraced each and every player.
The crowd of 17,344 fans helped take the players back to those magical moments this past October. When Nyara Sabally’s name was called the fans naturally began the Sa-bul-lee chants once again. She and Jones also took turns holding the championship trophy during the ceremony.
The wave of volume rose substantially when Laney-Hamilton made her way to get her ring. Liberty fans clearly will miss the second-longest tenured player on the team (behind Ionescu) and were hyped to see her back at Barclays. Laney-Hamilton was seated in the front office’s section near the Liberty bench during the game alongside her husband Jordan Hamilton and her niece JJ. Dojkić and JJ clearly became close last season as Dojkić was seated next to them with JJ on her lap and playing with her hair.
Jones walked out to accept her ring holding her hands above her head in the shape of a heart. She almost forgot to get her ring after hugging the commissioner first followed by Joe and Clara. The team governors had to get her attention amongst all the cheers to make sure she was given her ring. When Jones looked down at her hand the first words out of her mouth were, “Oh my god.”
A similar reaction came when Ionescu’s name was called. Her jaw dropped at how big and shiny the championship ring was. It wasn’t a surprise to Stewart, who was consulted by Clara during the design process, but that didn’t mean Stewart didn’t find the ring to be any less large and shiny. With both of her kids by her side as she accepted her ring, her youngest son Theo, wanted to touch it.
“I was like, you are not taking that. I don’t know what you’re going to do with it,” Stewart recalled.
Once everyone got their rings, and Ionescu addressed the fans, the players were all so giddy, showing off their rings to each other all like they were children who just got the birthday gift they always wanted. Then everyone from the team got together so they could watch the championship banner rise into the rafters. The front office staff, coaches and players all had their arms around one another as the countdown began to send the banner up into the arena.
Laney-Hamilton squeezed the shoulders of Clarke and Brondello. Brondello could tell Laney-Hamilton was getting emotional. Brondello asked her: “Are you okay?” and Laney-Hamilton shook her head up and down with joyful tears in her eyes.
The group watched intently for around four minutes as the seafoam green banner with a black border rose slowly alongside smoke and the flame of the Liberty torch that comes out for every home game. Once the banner landed in its forever home, pyrotechnics exploded out of the arena’s backboards.
“I’m thankful like none of us took that moment for granted out there,” Ionescu said about the whole ceremony. “I think we could have looked forward to the game, locked in and turned the page. I think for us it was more now we want to enjoy and celebrate that moment with the team that we have here and the journey, it starts after that banner went up.”
The Next, a 24/7/365 women’s basketball newsroom
The Next: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX. 24/7/365 women’s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.
How the Liberty settled into the game
After all of that, there was still a game to be played, and there certainly was some concern ahead of time about how the team would deal with the emotional and psychological gymnastics of celebrating their championship from last year and then flipping the switch so quickly to focus on defeating the Aces.
While Brondello wasn’t concerned because the Aces are an opponent the Liberty should have no concern to get up and be ready for, there was a focus toward this challenge in the Liberty’s culture meetings. Cloud encouraged her new teammates to “be where your feet are” and then once the team steps off the floor to head back to the locker room, it would be time to concentrate, focus and throw the joy out until the game’s end.
Kennedy Burke said the pregame ceremony brought out “a feeling you can’t really describe,” but said she got emotional — especially with her Dad making the trip out from California to see his daughter be given her championship ring. But once they returned to the locker room with their rings, Ionescu spoke up and reiterated the switch that needed to be changed.
“We enjoyed the moment and then [Ionescu] was like we got our rings, now it’s a new chapter for us,” Burke said. “It’s time to get busy because we’re going to be hunted.”
For Stewart, the idea was to remember who she was playing against and how much juice the Aces had to go out and beat them. Aces point guard Chelsea Gray had previously said that she was very motivated to spoil the Liberty’s ring night. Case and point: Gray and Jones got into a heated stare down and shove match that Stewart had to break up in the middle of the fourth quarter.
“Once we walked off that court, it was like, all right, stay in the now, because this team is hungry, and they want to come after us with everything that they got,” Stewart said. “I thought we did a great job locking in. There’s moments where we kind of lose it, and we bring each other back together and get it done.”
Order ‘Rare Gems’ and save 30%
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The Next and The IX, released his latest book on May 7, 2024. This deeply reported story follows four connected generations of women’s basketball pioneers, from Elvera “Peps” Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.
If you enjoy his coverage of women’s basketball every Wednesday at The IX, you will love “Rare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.” Click the link below to order and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout.
Breanna Stewart efficient in first outing since surgery
Speaking of Stewart, her partial meniscectomy this past March left questions lingering about her general health and stamina to start the season. Stewart wasn’t a full participant in the first week of training camp, and since she was cleared to practice the day after the Met Gala, she has been slowly ramping up.
While she played very well in the Liberty’s final preseason game after sitting out the first one, the opponent was a much smaller team that doesn’t have larger and stronger defenders to place on Stewart.
Playing against the Aces and two-time Defensive Player of the Year A’ja Wilson was going to be a more accurate test of how Stewart is moving and playing post-surgery. Stewart was efficient, scoring 25 points on 10-14 shooting in addition to eight rebounds, three assists and one emphatic block on Aces guard Dana Evans. Stewart scored 11 of her 25 points in the second quarter. Most of her made looks came within 10 feet of the rim and in movement if that meant cutting or in transition. It’s the shot profile that she and Liberty assistant Olaf Lange worked to establish last season.
When Brondello was asked pregame about a minutes restriction for Stewart, she was a little cagey. She didn’t want to say there was an official minutes restriction for Stewart, but she didn’t want Stewart’s load to be heavy during the first game of the season.
In postgame Stewart clarified that she’s 100 percent. “We just had a little back and forth in the minute restriction, but we were in a good place,” she said. “27 [minutes], it’s not bad.”
Your business can reach over 3 million women’s sports fans every single month!
Here at The Next and The IX, our audience is a collection of the smartest, most passionate women’s sports fans in the world. If your business has a mission to serve these fans, reach out to our team at editors@thenexthoops.com to discuss ways to work together.
Natasha Cloud rose to the occasion in Barclays Center debut
The Liberty had as much as a 14-point lead going into the second half after punching the Aces in the second quarter which included the Stewart barrage and two wide open threes from Burke.
But the Liberty came out at halftime a bit slower and the Aces took advantage. By 6:46 in the third, the Aces got the game within six points. By the time the fourth quarter began, the Aces were within just 5 points. Las Vegas out rebounded the Liberty in the third quarter and the Aces were making all of the effort plays.
But once the final frame began, Cloud proved what her acquisition could amount to day-in and day-out. She had nine points in the fourth including back-to-back and-ones on lane penetration plays. Cloud’s steal off Jackie Young with 3:39 remaining in the fourth quarter was what sealed the game for the Liberty. Stewart scored on the other end off a Cloud pass in transition and the Liberty’s lead stayed in that 9-12 point range for the rest of the quarter.
While Cloud had a team leading 17 shots and finished with 22 points on 8-17 shooting, six rebounds and nine assists, she was most proud of her defensive effort that she brought to the team to make sure New York could secure its first win of the season.
“So I know that’s where I hang my hat mostly,” Cloud said. “I know, offensively I [did] whatever today, but the defense is like that’s my bread and butter.”
While Cloud had the most shots, that didn’t seem to matter, and if anything to her it didn’t seem to meet her goals offensively. She wants to be aggressive in getting to the basket, but that doesn’t mean she’s always the one taking the shot and scoring.
“If I’m not being aggressive and trying to get to the basket, that I’m not really effective for this team, but once I’m aggressive in the beginning, I can get to what I ultimately want, which is to set my teammates up for easy shots,” she said postgame. “So that’s just my mindset.”
Cloud explained that another objective of hers is to be the “energy person” for the team. But without Cloud the fact that the Liberty only shot 4-21 from three might have haunted them and prevented them from winning the game. Having Cloud on roster allows the Liberty to be able to win games in multiple ways and fans got the first taste of that on Saturday afternoon.
“I think that it’s probably a big reason why [Cloud] was such a huge person for us to bring in and someone that can get downhill and get to the rim and finish through physicality,” Jones told The Next. “I think that it just means our team is evolving the right way and we can find other ways to score and other ways to be productive.”
Tune in to Locked On Women’s Basketball
Here at The Next, in addition to the 24/7/365 written content our staff provides, we also host the daily Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast. Join us Monday through Saturday each week as we discuss all things WNBA, collegiate basketball, basketball history and much more. Listen wherever you find podcasts or watch on YouTube.
Written by Jackie Powell
Jackie Powell covers the New York Liberty for The Next and hosts episodes of Locked on Women's basketball where she explores national women's basketball stories. She also has covered women's basketball and the culture of the sport for Bleacher Report, Sports Illustrated, MSNBC, Yahoo Sports, Harper's Bazaar and SLAM. She also self identifies as a Lady Gaga stan, is a connoisseur of pop music and is a mental health advocate.
