By: Reagan McLean
Not only was the weather nice on May 8, but it was also a nice day to be a Women’s National Basketball Association (WNBA) fan. The New York Liberty hosted its season-opening game against the Connecticut Sun winning with a massive lead of 106-75.
Since the end of the 2025 WNBA season, many changes have been made to the Liberty roster. The Liberty announced that Chris DeMarco, a four-time NBA champion assistant coach, had been named as their head coach last December. This news comes after the controversial firing of previous head coach Sandy Brondello, whom the Toronto Tempo has since hired. Sonia Raman, former assistant coach of the Liberty, has since been named the head coach for the Seattle Storm.
During the off-season, the roster saw some restructuring, as well. The Liberty lost one Sabally sister to the Toronto Tempo, Nyara Sabally; however, they gained another, Satou Sabally, in free agency. Isabelle Harrison also signed a one-year contract with Tempo. The Sun signed Kennedy Burke to a one-year contract. At the end of the first quarter, the Liberty played a tribute video to Burke, highlighting her time with the Liberty. At the end of the video, the crowd gave Burke a standing ovation while tears were streaming down her face.
During the free-agency period, there was a lot of controversy around Natasha Cloud not being signed by the Liberty and where she would land in the league. Cloud is a very outspoken player. She advocated for the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) to be signed and spoke heavily about social and political issues on her social media. Fans were speculating whether it was due to how outspoken she was, or because she got blacklisted, or due to how long she has been playing in the league, she’s looking for the best deal.
At the end, Cloud signed with the Chicago Sky on a one-year contract. Once you lose players on a team who made a significant impact on the team last season, you try to get players who can “fill their shoes” in the role that they had. Sometimes a player can execute plays well and have chemistry with the team; other times, the player doesn’t make an impact on the team at all.
Despite losing players, the Liberty roster includes returning players and newly acquired players. Some key returnees include the “Core Four” (Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, Sabrina Ionescu, and Leonie Fiebich, who is playing overseas). Marine Johannès and Rebekah Gardner have both re-signed their contracts with the Liberty.
With all of these moves made in the off-season, one question remains: can the Liberty win a championship under a new head coach?
For the WNBA’s 30th anniversary, the Liberty brought back retro-chic uniforms and a hardwood court from when the team first came on the scene in Madison Square Garden (MSG) in 1997. Maddie the Dog, the original Liberty mascot, also made her debut at the Barclays Center alongside Ellie the Elephant.
The energy was high at Barclays Center.
Although the Liberty were short-staffed with nine available players, once the ball tipped off, they had their feet on the gas. With 8:15 left in the first quarter, Pauline Astier was fouled while making a layup by Suns’ Saniyah Rivers. Johannès made a crowd-rousing three-pointer shot with 6:27 left in the first quarter, making the score 13-4. With 22.5 left on the regulation clock, Julie Vanloo passed the ball to Jones to drive the ball into the hoop, making the score 36-13.
After the end of the first quarter, the score was 13-36, and Stewart ended the quarter with 10 points. This was the highest-scoring first quarter the Liberty had in a game since 2023. With 8:30 remaining in the second quarter, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton did an intense crossover against the Suns’ rookie Gianna Kneepkens and made the long two-point shot. By halftime, the score was 66-37. The Sun was able to close the gap in the third quarter by making a run of 11-2, but it wasn’t enough to beat the Liberty.
With only 8:20 left in the third quarter, the Suns’ Diamond Miller got a steal, and Stewart made the block of the night. With 38.2 left in the third quarter, Stewart was fouled while making a layup by the Suns’ Olivia Nelson-Ododa. At the end of the third quarter, the score was 87-60, with the Liberty still maintaining their lead.
Johannès made another crowd-rousing three-pointer with only 8:12 remaining in the fourth quarter. Han Xu made her first three-pointer with 4:58 remaining in the fourth quarter. Stewart finished the game with a double-double of 31 points and 10 rebounds. Stewart also became the second-fastest player in WNBA history to score 6,000 career points in her 293rd game. Johannès finished with 17 points, five rebounds, three assists, and three steals in 28 minutes. Vanloo came off the bench and scored 12 points with seven rebounds and a game-high 11 assists for the first points/assists double-double by a reserve in Liberty history. Laney-Hamilton ended the night with 12 points on 57.1 percent (four-for-seven) shooting from the field in her first regular-season game since 2024. Jones had 10 points, five rebounds, two steals, and one block in 25 minutes. Rookie Astier and Aubrey Griffin both made their WNBA debuts and scored the first regular-season points of their careers.
This is just the start of a new chapter for the Liberty with DeMarco as their new head coach. After one dominant win, how long of a winning streak can the Liberty go on? That will be answered as the season progresses this summer.