It feels like a now or never year for the New York Liberty.
They are back in the WNBA finals and having the star power to win it with Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones. They have the best record in the WNBA this season and the best net rating with 3.1 points per 100 possessions (and +3.6 over their opponents in the Finals, the Minnesota Lynx). They have home advantage in the final.
They also carry the weight of history: The Liberty are 0-5 in the WNBA Finals.
How did this happen? To use an NBA analogy, the Liberty had some luck with Karl Malone/John Stockton – they were Finals-worthy but continued to run into dominant teams and players.
Let’s take a look at each loss by year.
1997: Houston beats New York, 65-61
It was the WNBA’s inaugural season, and the playoffs were the top two teams in the East, and the top two in the West were placed in a single-elimination playoff bracket. New York, the East’s No. 2 seed, knocked off West No. 1 seed Phoenix 59-41 to advance to the final against another East team in Houston.
New York had no answer for Cynthia Cooper, the Finals MVP who scored 25 points, nor for Tina Thompson, who added 18. The Liberty was led by Kym Hampton, who scored 13 points.
1999: Houston beats New York, 2-1
New York’s second trip to the Finals ended in a loss to a familiar opponent in Houston.
It was a best-of-three series and New York won the second game with “The Shot.” Houston took a 67-65 lead when Tina Thompson hit a spinning shot with 2.4 seconds left. New York had no timeouts left and had to run the length of the court, Kym Hampton handed the ball to Teresa Weatherspoon who made the greatest shot in Liberty history.
That forced a Game 3, but once again Cooper was too much, she scored 24 points in Houston’s 59-47 victory and she was named Finals MVP.
2000: Houston beats New York 2-0
Do you sense a trend here? Once again New York was the best team and top seed in the East, once again they reached the Finals by beating Cleveland and Washington in the playoffs, only to run into Cooper and the Comets in the final and be overtaken. However, Game 2 was pushed to overtime. Once again, Cooper was named Finals MVP, but Sheryl Swoopes also had a strong series for Houston.
2002: Los Angeles beats New York 2-0
New York’s fourth trip to the WNBA Finals finally saw them face a new opponent, the Los Angeles Sparks, but that was no relief since Los Angeles was led by the legendary Lisa Leslie, who was named MVP of the final. Becky Hammon and Weatherspoon led New York.
Game 2 was tied 66-66 with time winding down when Nikki Teasley scored what proved to be a series-winning 3-point basket with 2.1 seconds left. Weatherspoon tried to repeat history with a shot from midcourt, but the shot was blocked this time. Leslie was named Finals MVP and Los Angeles repeated as champions.
2023: Las Vegas beats New York, 3-1
This is the series that stuck with the Liberty, put a chip on their shoulder, and motivated them to get back to the 2024 WNBA Finals (beating the Aces along the way).
Last year, after two decades, the Liberty were back in the Finals, but the story was a familiar one, coming up against a powerhouse team led by the best player in the game, A’Ja Wilson.
New York was the second seed entering the playoffs and knocked off Washington and Connecticut to reach the finals. Las Vegas won the first two games at home, but New York took Game 3 thanks to 27 points from Jonquel Jones and a 20-point, 12-rebound outing from Breanna Stewart. New York took an early lead in Game 4 at home, but couldn’t hold it in the second half and fell 70-69. Wilson was named Finals MVP, and Las Vegas’ jubilation over Stewart — the 2023 WNBA regular-season MVP — lit the fuse that pushed New York to the Finals.
Because of all of this, this year feels like it’s now or never.
