The New York Liberty officially closed the book on 2024 with one more celebration at Barclays Center.
May 17 will go down as one of the best days in the 38-year history of New York Liberty. It was the start of the 2025 season … and an opportunity for everyone to officially close the chapter on their magical 2024 championship run.
Brandon Todd/NY Liberty
As our Shara Taylor noted in her video chronicle of the day — and a look forward at the season, the joy was infections from owners to fans.
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In front of 17,344 fans at Barclays Center, the team officially rose the championship banner and handed out some gorgeous rings.
The proceedings began with a video narrated by Liberty Ring of Honor member Sue Wicks
From there, Commissioner Cathy Engelbert gave brief remarks before team owners Clara Wu and Joe Tsai came out to hand out the championship rings to the players. Liberty fans got a special treat as Ivana Dojkic and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton joined the ceremony with their teammates. Dojkic is currently playing in Italy and Laney-Hamilton is out for the season after undergoing knee surgery.
Photo by Brian Babineau /NBAE via Getty Images
The crowd maintained the energy throughout and showered every player and coach with love and appreciation for all of their hard work and dedication.
Afterwards, they got down to the business of 2025 with a convincing win against the Las Vegas Aces. As defending champions, the Liberty know and expect that every team will give them their best shot every single night. And with the banner hanging above them every day, the team has a new goal to aim for.
‘It creates a standard for anybody that comes into Barclays,” Breanna Stewart said in postgame. “Whether it’s us playing, or the [Brooklyn] Nets, or whoever. Championship mindset and mentality for everybody amongst this franchise. It’s a special thing.”
Since the Liberty moved back to New York City in 2021, the team has consistently gotten better. They’ve made the playoffs every season and fan interest has grown exponentially along the way. As they’ve grown, they’ve pushed the WNBA to be better on and off the court, to amazing results. The WNBA has continued to take steps forward and with It starts with the play on the court. Everyone’s pushing in the same direction and hoping to lift everyone up as they climb new heights. It starts with the championship mindset Stewart discussed and when your superstar sets that tone, everyone else follows. As the Liberty start their title defense, that energy and focus will help them stay on task.
After the win on Saturday, the Liberty had one more bit of celebrating to do. This time, they took a group trip to the Subway Series.
Taking the mound
Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images
The celebration continued as the champs took a trip up to Yankee Stadium. It was Liberty night at the Stadium and Breanna Stewart threw out the first pitch before the Yankees took on the Mets.
Breanna Stewart of the @WNBA champion @NYLiberty threw out the first pitch before the Subway Series finale
Stewart had her teammates on the field with her as she threw it, and was purposeful about including them with her in her big moment. She was asked about who she considers to be the Liberty’s biggest rivals, and she went with the Aces. She also added:
“I think a healthy rivalry is similar to what you saw last night. Our fans are booing Vegas, and when we go to Vegas, we’re going to get booed. And similar situation to what you’re going to see here today. I saw yesterday when the fans were turning their backs on Soto.
“That’s the luxury of the sport. That’s what sports is all about, is having passionate fans behind you, like we do at Liberty games, like they do here for the Yankees.”
Liberty fans are some of the very best in sports and create a distinct homecourt advantage at Barclays. That passion and care shines through whether you’re watching at home or are in person
NATASHA WENT COAST-TO-COAST
The New York Liberty crowd was loving this Natasha Cloud bucket pic.twitter.com/k0v4g3M7Sj
— ESPN (@espn) May 17, 2025
It makes games more fun, and at the end of the day, that’s what this is all about. When fans are dialed in to the action and having a good time, it makes for a tremendous atmosphere. We run into problems when some people bring their biases and negativity into the environment, and make things worse for everyone. When that happens, it’s up to all of us to denounce those actions and create a safe environment for everybody.
For the Liberty, this weekend represented a well deserved victory lap. All the hard work they’ve done over the years paid off in such an enormous and satisfying way for them and all of New York. However, they know that a new adventure is beginning and are ready to make even more history. We’ve got a long way to go, but their first at-bat in 2025 was a grand slam.