Locked on Women’s Basketball: New York Liberty Media Day, Part I

It’s time for another episode of the Locked on Women’s Basketball podcast, and it comes to you live from New York City, at media day for the New York Liberty! Our host Howard Megdal and Liberty beat reporter Jackie Powell were there and spoke to head coach Sandy Brondello and her staff, chief executive officer Keia Clarke, center Stefanie Dolson and forward Natasha Howard.

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“Culture is a big part of developing a winning team for sustainable success, and so we spend time on that,” Brondello said. “What kind of team do we need to be to be the best we could be? What’s our identity going to be? And it’s a group effort; I’m not a dictator coach. So … it’s a lot of collaboration. … I’m really excited about where we’re at at the moment. But it’s an ongoing process to build that culture.”

As the Liberty build a culture, they have already rejuvenated their fan base, according to Clarke. She said that the franchise suffered what felt like “unsurmountable” losses in ticket sales and fan engagement when it moved from Madison Square Garden to the Westchester County Center in 2018. (The Liberty now play at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.) But, she said, “I’m really, really excited to say that we’ve basically gotten back to where we started, for the most part. So … that’s a barometer for me as a leader to say we’re doing this the right way.”

Later in the episode, you’ll hear Howard Megdal ask Natasha Howard and Dolson to share their thoughts on each other. We’ll let you listen to the episode to hear what Natasha Howard thinks has contributed to Dolson’s ability to win an Olympic gold medal, a WNBA championship and a championship overseas in the past year, but here’s Dolson on how she and Natasha Howard fit together in New York:

“Both of us are two players that [play the] four, five [positions], but we both do both. She can shoot, I can shoot, she’s got great post moves and I like to be in the post sometimes … So I just think that’s perfect. We can just play. It’s hard to scout when both players can kind of do everything. So I think we’ll work well together.”

Make sure to subscribe to Locked on Women’s Basketball, where we have new shows every weekday.