NEW YORK — The franchise that won the first game in WNBA history finally has won the last game of the season.
Nearly 30 years since playing for league’s inaugural championship and after several near misses, the New York Liberty are WNBA champions following a 67-62 overtime victory Sunday over the Minnesota Lynx.
Breanna Stewart sealed the win with two free throws with 10.1 seconds left in the extra period. After Leonie Fiebich stole a pass, the Liberty dribbled out the clock on a victory that was as hard-fought and dramatic as any in a Game 5 of the WNBA Finals.
Liberty forward Jonquel Jones was named Finals MVP shortly after a game in which she led New York with 17 points.
“I could never dream of this,” said Jones, who previously had lost in the WNBA Finals twice — once with the Connecticut Sun as well as last year with New York. “You know how many times I’ve been denied. It was delayed. I am so happy to do it here.”
The Liberty prevailed 3-2 in a series marked by huge shots and big momentum shifts in the first three games. Little separated the teams in Game 4, which the Lynx won on two free throws with two seconds left.
In Game 5, before a packed house at Barclays Center, the Liberty battled back from a seven-point halftime deficit and took a 47-44 lead heading into the fourth quarter. So many years of waiting would come down to 10 minutes.
Or so it appeared.
Instead, these teams, who played each other nine times during the season, including the Commissioner’s Cup final in June, worked into overtime.
With 6.3 seconds left in regulation, the Liberty had the ball, trailing 60-58. Stewart was fouled by Alanna Smith, a call the Lynx challenged. After the challenge was ruled unsuccessful, Stewart hit both free throws to tie the game at 60-60. Kayla McBride missed a 3-pointer for Minnesota and the game went to overtime.
The OT period was a defensive struggle, with both teams combining for just seven points before Stewart’s two game-clinching free throws.
The title is extra special to Stewart, the team’s lone native New Yorker who recalls attending Liberty games as a kid. A former two-time champion with the Seattle Storm, she joined the Liberty before the 2023 season as the biggest free-agent signing in WNBA history.
“When I left Seattle, I kind of started a new chapter,” Stewart said. “And went to a place that had been on the build, wanting to take ownership and leadership of getting this team to a championship level.”
The Liberty gave the Big Apple its first professional basketball championship since 1973. That was the New York Knicks’ NBA title, which came 16 years before the oldest player on the Liberty roster, guard Courtney Vandersloot, was born. A city that loves hoops and winners gets to combine both again.
After five previous tries to win the title — starting in 1997, the WNBA’s inaugural year — the Liberty now have a crown to go with their iconic torch logo.
Disappointed after losing 3-1 to the Aces in last year’s Finals, Stewart didn’t have her best game offensively in Game 5, as she was 4 of 15 from the field and 5 of 8 from the foul line for 13 points. But she was strong on defense and had 15 rebounds.
Stewart, Jones and Sabrina Ionescu were the Liberty’s top three scorers in the regular season and the playoffs. Ionescu, the No. 1 draft pick in 2020, made a 28-foot 3-pointer with 1 second left in Game 3 that now surpasses Teresa Weathersoon’s halfcourt heave that won Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals as the biggest shot in Liberty history.
The day after Weatherspoon’s shot, the Liberty lost Game 3 and the title to Houston in what was then a best-of-three series. Ionescu’s shot Wednesday sealed an 80-77 come-from-behind victory and gave the Liberty two chances at clinching the title. They fell short on the first attempt Friday, but secured their championship Sunday.
After watching the Aces celebrate the title on New York’s court last year, the Liberty all season talked about the scars they had from that — but also the lessons they learned.
The Liberty were the No. 1 seed at a league-best 32-8, but in the playoffs had to get past Atlanta, last year’s nemesis Las Vegas and then Minnesota, which had defeated New York for the Commissioner’s Cup in-season title in June.
And they had to overcome a gut-punch loss in Game 1 of the Finals in Brooklyn, where they led by as much as 18 points and by 15 with just over 5 minutes left, but then fell 95-93 in overtime. The Liberty knew they couldn’t afford to wallow in that missed chance; they won Game 2 at home 80-66.
Game 3 and its fantastic finish will go down as an epic tale in Liberty lore, which has included many highs that were overshadowed by disappointments. Game 4’s loss added more drama to a what many may consider the most competitive WNBA Finals ever. And Game 5 was a catharsis for the Liberty and their longtime fans.
The franchise that won the first WNBA game — June 21, 1997, at Los Angeles — has reached its pinnacle.
Just four years ago, Ionescu was the No. 1 pick but missed most of 2020 after suffering an ankle injury in the third game of her rookie year. The Liberty finished 2-20 in the COVID-19 shortened season.
The Liberty went 12-20 and returned to the playoffs in 2021. Sandy Brondello took over as coach in 2022 and New York went 16-20. The additions of Stewart, Jones and Vandersloot in 2023 were huge pieces to the puzzle and produced back-to-back 32-8 seasons and Finals appearances.
“To just be able to see what we’ve accomplished in such a short amount of time is crazy to think of,” said Ionescu, the only player on the 2020 roster who is still with the Liberty.
Stewart recalls having a moment of second-guessing before announcing her free agency decision in 2023.
“I thought, ‘Am I doing the right thing? I’m leaving my safe space of Seattle,’ ” Stewart said. “But it’s been incredible. I’m back where I’m rooted. It feels like home.”
And now it’s a place to hang a championship banner.
