Know All About New York Liberty: Roster, Owner, Coach and More

The New York Liberty were one of the original eight teams in the WNBA league. However, the team went through several ups and downs along with unfortunate turnarounds in their whole WNBA path. Whenever the star players emerged as the hope of the pro basketball franchise, the New York Liberty faced disappointment.

Recently, in the 2024 season, the franchise ended its long 27 years of patience and emerged as the final champion of the league among stars like Angel Reese, Caitlin Clark, A’ja Wilson, and Nneka Ogwumike, among others. Today we’re going to cover the franchise arc of the New York Liberty over the years that reached its peak last season.

New York Liberty Overview:

New York Liberty has been in the headlines for months since their championship title last season. But it all started in 1997 when the Liberty entered as one of the original eight teams in the league. The franchise had even got the chance to pick one of the best players from collegiate basketball, Rebecca Lobo of the UConn University. She was striving for a better season run until 1999 when she got injured and retired ultimately after several seasons.

But Teresa Weatherspoon was there to replace Lobo as she got assistance from Crystal Robinson in 1999. Both of them tried their best, but the Comets were on their way to get to the Championship. So before getting to a championship last season, the New York Liberty went through various transitions. Let’s take a brief overview of the franchise’s history and social presence.

New York Liberty Roster:

New York Liberty are on high energy, especially after winning a championship last season. They have a roster that can compete against the rebuilding efforts of the different franchises in the league. Here are the details of the WNBA Champions level players who might go for another title in the 2025 season, as per Liberty’s official site:

The Liberty management has curated a roster with not just the native USA players but also the international basketball powerhouses. That’s what gave them an edge last season for their unique approach.

New York Liberty Coach

For analyzing how the New York Liberty got their championship ambitions in 2024, it must be followed who was the guiding light of this team. Who was the head coach, along with their assistant coaches and other coaching staff?

Head Coach:

Currently, the championship winning coach of the New York Liberty is Sandy Brondello. Former Olympian basketball player for Australia, Sandy Brondello, joined the franchise as head coach on January 7, 2022. joined New York after an eight-year head coaching tenure with the Phoenix Mercury where she led the team to a playoff appearance in each of her eight seasons. And it had a drastic effect on New York Liberty’s consistency as Sandy has maintained 57.6% after the 2023 season with a 212-156 winning record. When Sandy won the championship in 2024, she said to the Basketball Australia, “New York, we did it! I’m really proud of how resilient we were, we stayed together, and Minnesota, credit to them they are a tough team.”

In 2023, Brondello led the Liberty to the Commissioner’s Cup Championship and the first WNBA Finals appearance since 2002. It is worth noting that Sandy was also a player before becoming a coach. Brondello finished a stellar 17-year professional playing career with a five-year run in the WNBA in which she played for Detroit (1998-99), Miami (2001-02), and Seattle (2003), and was named a 1999 WNBA All-Star. Sandy is also a Brondello a four-time Olympian, a two-time silver medalist (2000, 2004), and was named the 1992 Australian International Player of the Year.

New York Liberty Assistant Coach:

Recently, the New York Liberty got a new assistant coach alongside the head coach Sandy Brondello in the league. After a successful run last season, the reigning champions hired Sonia Raman as the new assistant coach. Raman will join returning assistant coaches Olaf Lange and Zach O’Brien on Brondello’s staff.

With a new addition to their coaching staff, Sandy said to the Liberty media, “We are excited to welcome Sonia to New York as we prepare for our title defense in 2025. Specializing in the offensive side of the ball, she brings a wealth of experience to our staff and aligns with our core principles of play as we continue to evolve.”

New York Liberty Coaching Staff:

The coaching staff of the New York Liberty includes head coach Sandy Brondello, along with assistant coaches Olaf Lange, Zach O’Brien, and Sonia Raman. In addition to the primary coaching staff, the team also has athletic trainer Terri Acosta and Strength-Conditioning Coach Emily Zaler.

New York Liberty Owner:

The majority owners of the New York Liberty are Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai. Surprisingly, both of these business owners are also the majority stakeholders of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets. On January 23, 2019, the New York Liberty franchise was sold to Joseph Tsai, co-founder of the Alibaba Group, and Clara Wu Tsai, an American businesswoman and founder of the nonprofit organization Reform Alliance.

Isiah Thomas was relieved of his duties a month later, on February 21, 2019. During the 2019 season, the Liberty played two games in Brooklyn at the Nets’ home of the Barclays Center, with the rest still in White Plains. Later that year, Joseph Tsai became the sole owner of the Nets and the Barclays Center. For the 2020 season, the Tsais relocated the Liberty to Brooklyn on a full-time basis.

New York Liberty – Famous Players

The Liberty have produced some of the exceptional players in their 27 year long stint in the league. However, three of them stand out in the league for their following and the contributions that they have made to the basketball world:

Jonquel Jones:

Soon after joining hands with the New York Liberty, Jonquel Jones transformed her career. She has spent 8 seasons in the league but requested a trade and joined the Liberty in January 2023. Soon after this incident, she even made her team get past her former team, Connecticut Sun, in the 2023 WNBA Playoffs.

Jones won the Commissioner’s Cup with the Liberty, scoring 16 points and grabbing 15 rebounds. She was even named the WNBA Finals MVP and led the Liberty to victory over the Minnesota Lynx in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.

Breanna Stewart:

Breanna Stewart is already a big name in the franchise history with just eight years of experience in the pro-basketball world. She is the only one of the 10 players in the league who are part of ‘W25. These W25 are the WNBA’s top 25 most dominant, skilled, and entertaining players in league history.

Breanna Stewart’s versatility led the Liberty to the championship, leading the pack from the front as a forward.

Sabrina Ionescu:

The 5’11” guard for the New York Liberty was the round 1 pick 1 from the 2020 WNBA Draft class. Sabrina was the fastest Player to record a Triple-Double in WNBA History in Just Sixth Career Game.

It was a burst of fame for Ionescu as a guard as the Liberty played continued her performance, earning her place among the fans. Through her efforts, she made it to the WNBA All-Star in 2022. It has been just five years, and Sabrina has yet to achieve much in the WNBA.

Becky Hammon:

Becky Hammon, the 2015 Ring of Honoree, first made a splash as a player in the league and then got her deserved place as a coach in the league. The 3x WNBA All-Star took on the court with her aggressive style after Teresa Weatherspoon.

She took the place of Teresa as a star and was an anchor for the team. Hammon ranks second in games played and 3-point field goals, and third in scoring of the Liberty’s history.

Teresa Weatherspoon:

Teresa Weatherspoon was the first ray of hope for the New York Liberty during the initial years of the league. She led the team to the WNBA Finals in 1997 and 1999 and even earned the Defensive Player of the Year title both times.

She was the first one to score the bucket during WNBA’s first game in 1997.

New York Liberty – Arena/Stadium

Barclays Center became the home arena of the New York Liberty from the 2020 WNBA season. When the arena got its status as the Liberty home, David Levy, the CEO of Barclays Center, said, “We are committed to the Liberty’s long-term success in New York, and relocating the team to Brooklyn will provide the franchise with tremendous opportunity. With many of our fans based in the five boroughs, moving to Barclays Center will make the Liberty more centrally located, allowing us to bring back the original fan base and attract new supporters. The venue change, along with the first pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, has positioned the team for an exciting future.”

New York Liberty Stats & Records

The New York Liberty got a bunch of players from time to time as their anchor players. However, none of them could last long enough to lead the next generations. That’s why the team had to start from zero most of the time. It will be better to understand the trivia through this stat history of the franchise as per basketball reference archives:

New York Liberty Jersey & Logo

In 2020, when New York Knicks owner James Dolan moved away from the franchise, it also changed the color theme of the Liberty logo. Instead of an orange and blue color scheme, the Liberty team got pale green, black, and white as their new color scheme.

This change happened after the Brooklyn Nets owner took charge of the franchise in 2020. For now, the logo of the franchise carries the flame torch of the Statue Of Liberty with its flames representing the grips of the basketball. The Statue of Liberty torch in the logo represents the original New York heritage that the team is still carrying with it.

New York Liberty Retired Jersey:

The New York Liberty have not retired any jerseys, but they do have a ring of honor that honors the players who have contributed a lot to the franchise and are not active. The Ring of Honor is currently comprised of seven pioneering women who have played pivotal roles with the Liberty and generated some of the most memorable moments and seasons in the franchise’s history: Becky Hammon, Kym Hampton, Vickie Johnson, Rebecca Lobo, Crystal Robinson, Teresa Weatherspoon, and Sue Wicks.

New York Liberty Mascot:

The mascot for the New York Liberty WNBA team is Ellie the Elephant. She was introduced in 2021, replacing the previous mascot, Maddie the dog. There are some signature steps that this new mascot of the Liberty carries with it.

She possesses sass, twerking along with trending dance moves and stomping for fan entertainment. The idea behind the mascot was to get someone who represents strength, power, wisdom, and determination. Elephants were the perfect icon for it and that’s why Ellie was chosen as a mascot.

New York Liberty Rivalries:

The New York Liberty’s main rival is the Las Vegas Aces. The two teams have faced off in the WNBA Finals multiple times, including in the 2023 and 2024 Finals. Before the competitive Aces, Connecticut Sun was also the arch-nemesis of the franchise. However, the lack of a talent pool on Sun’s end has deteriorated the hype of their rivalry among the fans.

New York Liberty Instagram & Social Media Presence

New York Liberty has 344K followers on their Instagram profile with almost 12K posts. On the X platform, the team has 116.5K following. Most of their posts are related to the player shoutouts, the festive celebrations, and insights into player practices. Here are the links to the team’s Instagram and X profile:

• Instagram: @nyliberty
• X Profile: @nyliberty
• Facebook: New York Liberty

New York Liberty Other Social Presence:

Apart from the main social media platforms, New York Liberty is also active on YouTube(12.8K followers), providing locker room fun and interviews to the fans. To deal with the official deals and signings, Liberty has a LinkedIn profile with 6K followers.

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