BROOKLYN — When the Liberty constructed their superteam in Brooklyn, they could only dream that it would go as well as it did on Sunday afternoon. Breanna Stewart put up a career performance, the fans packed Barclays Center for the first home game of the season and the Liberty operated like a well-oiled machine after suffering a disappointing defeat to the Washington Mystics in the season opener.
New York will need to replicate the success, but it’s hard to argue the new era of Liberty basketball didn’t get off on the right foot.
The Liberty’s season has taken on a greater meaning than just wins and losses on the court, the superstar trio that calls New York home now hopes that it can drastically change the way women’s basketball is viewed. Along with the ongoing fight for a more leveled playing field for WNBA players.
“It was really important to play with like this in my debut, because I want people to be here and I want them to come back,” said Stewart, who put up 45 points in the Liberty’s win. “And I want more. I want more of everything. And yeah it sounds selfish, but as a woman’s basketball player, as a female athlete, we need to continue to kind of get recognized for more. And in a lot of different ways and media coverage and in fans and eyes and viewership. So to be able to make, hopefully, I made a few first impressions on some people and I hope they come back and they come back with more.”
The Liberty have gained more notoriety since acquiring their new superstar trio. They already had rising star Sabrina Ionescu on the roster and that has all come with rising expectations for the club to win a WNBA title.
Beyond that, the Liberty represents a massive shift in the WNBA and part of the reason that Jones, Stewart and Vandersloot made the move to New York was to be able to facilitate greater changes across the league. It is a noble task, but one that comes with the challenge of balancing winning on the court with the pressures off of it.
“I mean, it’s difficult. I can’t lie,” Vandersloot said. “There is something about it. The expectations I think we felt that a lot in the first game, but it’s something we have to embrace. This is what we chose to do and this is what we want to do. We got the roster that we really wanted and we worked hard to get this, so we have to embrace that. And know that we’re gonna get everybody’s best shot and people are going to be coming for us and that we can just accept that and put on a show.”
The Liberty certainly put on that show on Sunday in front of the 8,000-plus fans that showed up at Barclays Center. The crowd was the largest home-opening attendance since the Liberty’s final season at Madison Square Garden in 2017.
Jones said after Sunday’s win that she expected the fans to be loud and the building to be packed, and after the game she felt that the fans had started to buy into what they were doing. Even to that extent, she felt the need to make a good impression.
“Obviously starting in a new city with fans that that know the game and love the game the way that the fans in New York do. I think I’ve been feeling that pressure for sure,” Jones said.
