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 by 3.1 points per 100 possessions (and +3.6 over their finals 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 have had some Karl Malone/John Stockton luck — they have been Finals worthy but kept running 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 inaugural season of the WNBA, and the playoffs were the top two teams in the East, and the top two in the West were put into a single-elimination playoff bracket. New York, the No. 2 seed out of the East, knocked off the West No. 1 seed Phoenix 59-41 to advance to the Finals against another East team in Houston.
New York didn’t have an answer for Cynthia Cooper, the Finals MVP who scored 25 points, or Tina Thompson, who added 18. The Liberty were 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 spinning 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 greatest 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
Sensing a pattern here? Once again New York was the best team and top seed in the East, once again they made it to the Finals knocking off Cleveland and Washington in the playoffs, only to run into Cooper and the Comets in the Finals and be overmatched. 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 facing a new opponent in the Los Angeles Sparks, but that was no relief as L.A. 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 had 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 history was familiar, running into a powerhouse team led by the best player in the game in A’Ja Wilson.
New York was the No. 2 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 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 could not hold it in the second half and fell 70-69. Wilson was named Finals MVP, and Las Vegas’ gloating about 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.
