The New York Knicks’ NBA championship, won this past Saturday night, was top of mind for the New York Liberty on Sunday.
It’s true, NYC basketball faithful have put years of heartache to rest between what the Libs accomplished
in 2024 and what the Knickerbockers claimed in 2026.
However, the Liberty were built to be a dynasty, not a one-time champ.
Although they never publicly claimed they would win eight chips, when the core of Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton came together in 2023, there was an unspoken echo of the 2010-11 Miami Heat, about which free agent prize LeBron James’ famously boasted, “Not one, not two … not six, not seven.”
Of course, those Heat, at the time of their assemblage, didn’t have a rival superteam to contend with, while the Liberty do in the Las Vegas Aces, making eight rings quite difficult to achieve.
But three or four? Why not?
The city never sleeps, and the Liberty will not rest until they have ascended to dynasty status.
Such is the attitude of general manager Jonathan Kolb, who made the controversial decision to fire 2024 championship-winning head coach Sandy Brondello after she led the 2025 squad to a very good 27-17 record and near-appearance in the semifinals. The team that eliminated New York last year, the Phoenix Mercury, went on to defeat the league-favorite Minnesota Lynx, so they were no joke.
It just simply wasn’t good enough for Kolb.
Enter Chris DeMarco, a highly-touted Golden State Warriors assistant who has been part of three NBA championships.
Under him, New York got off to a great start in their 2026 opener, clobbering the Connecticut Sun 106-75. Then came a nail-biting overtime win in DC against a Washington Mystics team that the jury is still out on but that has, at the very least, challenged every single team they’ve faced in their home arena.
Then came the stretch of four losses in five games, including two defeats at the hands of the thought-to-be-worst team in the league: the expansion Portland Fire.
All the while, the Liberty were dealing with injuries and other absences. But it was still concerning.
Now, they’ve won seven in a row, comfortably the longest streak in the league, including wins over the 9-4 Atlanta Dream and 9-5 Indiana Fever. New York (10-4) started off the streak with two victories over the Mercury, a team that is now 4-11 but could at any moment give a top team a tough night. They also comfortably defeated playoff contenders in the Mystics and Toronto Tempo, and picked up another W over the lowly Sun.
The last five victories of the streak ensured that they will be representing the Eastern Conference in the Commissioner’s Cup championship game on June 30 (Prime Video) regardless of the result of Wednesday night’s game at the Chicago Sky (8 p.m. ET, USA Network).
Potentially, the Liberty are just getting warmed up.
In Sunday’s 86-64 win over the Mystics, they played 11 players—their top 11 scorers on the season, not counting players who are no longer on the roster. Notably, it was the first game this season with all of Stewart, Ionescu, Jones, Laney-Hamilton, Satou Sabally, Marine Johannès, Leonie Fiebich and Pauline Astier on the court. That’s definitely the top-eight players in New York’s rotation. Projected end-of-rotation pieces Rebekah Gardner and Han Xu played as well, while Raquel Carrera was the 11th Liberty to receive minutes.
It was second-best player Ionescu’s second appearance; in the other Laney-Hamilton and Fiebich—both really important pieces—were absent.
Stewart and Ionescu are superstars, and Jones is a former superstar (and MVP), who has adjusted her role to fit in New York. Sabally, this past offseason’s big addition, is a superstar at her best, having finished fifth in MVP voting in 2023, while Laney-Hamilton is a former All-Star. Then you’ve got the snipers—Johannès and Fiebich—who are stars in their roles.
Finally, rounding out the top eight is Astier, a 24-year-old rookie revelation from France. She had her WNBA coming out party in the second game of the season when she went for 18 points and seven assists, confidently leading the team from the point guard position. Currently, she’s fourth on the Liberty in points per game with 11.3. She makes the third-most field goals per contest (4.2), yet still manages to be shooting the best percentage from the field at 56.7—as a guard! This includes a 45.8 percent clip from 3 that is fourth in the WNBA, albeit on just 24 attempts.
Now that this group is all together, the rest of the league is on notice—the Liberty are coming.
New York has the third-best offensive rating (111.8), fourth-best defensive rating (103) and second-best net rating (8.8) in the league. They’re finding success through efficiency, evidenced by the third-best field goal percentage (46), fourth-best 3-point percentage (36.6) and No. 1 free throw clip (86.1). Though their two best players Stewart and Ionescu have been struggling from deep in recent seasons, they’ve got Astier, Johannès, Sabally, Xu and Jones all shooting above 39 percent with at least 10 makes. Johannès aids their No. 2 standing in makes per contest (10) with 2.9, which is second in the league individually. Meanwhile, Stewie is doing her job by getting to the stripe (league-leading 7.8 attempts per game) and making her freebies (89 percent).
Where the Liberty are struggling is turnover margin.
They’re 12th in the W with 14.7 turnovers committed per game and No. 14 in forcing miscues (11.4). So that’s one area for improvement. At least they’re holding opponents to just 42 percent shooting from the field (No. 4 in the league). So while they’re surrendering the most field goal attempts per 100 possessions (89.8), at least those shots are well-contested.
We’ll see if New York can make the most of their embarrassment of riches. Sabally, who dealt with a cyst that kept her out of the first four games of the season, has started three games that were losses and has come off the bench for six of the current win streak. She’s not playing a ton of minutes. One would think that will change at some point. (She also suffered a concussion in the 2025 Finals that kept her out of Unrivaled and limited her offseason conditioning.)
Laney-Hamilton is also coming off the bench and is averaging just 17.7 minutes. You have to go back to 2018 in Connecticut to find a time when she wasn’t a starter playing at least 25 minutes per game, and that includes her numbers on the 2024 champion Liberty. Meanwhile, you would think Astier’s minutes will take a hit with Ionescu back.
But if the Liberty can figure it all out, they should be in the mix with the Lynx and Aces in the end, just as they are are right now. Even though they won it all not long ago, they’re hungry for more.
