It feels like a now or never year for the New York Liberty.
They are back in the WNBA Finals and have 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 of 3.1 points per 100 possessions (and +3.6 over their playoff opponents, the Minnesota Lynx). They have home court advantage in the Finals.
They also carry the weight of history – the Liberty are 0-5 in the WNBA Finals.
How did that happen? To use an NBA analogy, the Liberty had some Karl Malone/John Stockton luck – they were Finals worthy but kept running into dominant teams and players.
Let’s look at each loss by year.
1997: Houston beats New York, 65-61
It was the inaugural season of the WNBA, 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 number 2 seed from the East, knocked off the western number 1 seed Phoenix 59-41 to advance to the Final against another eastern team in Houston.
New York did not have an answer for Cynthia Cooper, the Finals MVP who scored 25 points, or 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.
This was a best of three series and New York took the second game with “The Shot”. Houston took a 67-65 lead when Tina Thompson banked in a layup shot with 2.4 seconds left in the game. New York was out of timeouts and had to go the length of the court, Kym Hampton inbounded the ball to Teresa Weatherspoon who hit the biggest shot in Liberty history.
That forced a Game 3 but again Cooper was too much, she scored 24 points in the 59-47 Houston win and she was named Finals MVP.
2000: Houston beats New York 2-0
Are you sensing a pattern here? Once again New York was the best team and main seed in the East, again they made it to the Final beating Cleveland and Washington in the finals, only to meet Cooper and the Comets in the Final and be surpassed. However, Game 2 was pushed to overtime. 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 in the Los Angeles Sparks, but that was no relief as LA was led by the legendary Lisa Leslie, who was named Finals MVP. Becky Hammon and Weatherspoon led New York.
Game 2 was tied 66-66 with time running down when Nikki Teasley hit what proved to be a series-winning 3-pointer with 2.1 seconds left. Weatherspoon tried to repeat history with a half-court shot, 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 return 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 familiar, facing a powerful team led by the best player in the game in A’Ja Wilson.
New York was the number 2 seed entering the finals and knocked off Washington and Connecticut to reach the Final. Las Vegas won the first two games at home, but New York took Game 3 behind 27 points from Jonquel Jones and a 20-point, 12-rebound outing from Breanna Stewart. New York raced to an early lead in Game 4 at home but couldn’t hold on to it in the second half and fell 70-69. Wilson was named Finals MVP, and Las Vegas’ jubilation of Stewart — the 2023 WNBA regular-season MVP — lit the fuse that pushed New York back to the Finals.
Because of all that, this year feels like now or never.
