Liberty's 40-Game WNBA Season Tips Off May 19
No matter what happens next WNBA season, the New York Liberty will be making history.
The WNBA released the schedule for its 2023 season on Wednesday, revealing a May 19 opening. This campaign will see each of the Association's dozen teams play a record 40 games, upping last year's slate by four.
New York will partake in the opening night festivities, battling the Washington Mystics at Entertainment and Sports Arena. The Liberty's 2023 Barclays Center debut lands two days later when the Indiana Fever comes to visit from a 2 p.m. tip-off. Indiana owns the top overall pick in the upcoming WNBA Draft, a choice many expect to be used on South Carolina star Aliyah Boston.
View the full Liberty schedule below:
The Liberty teamed up with several local Brooklyn-based businesses (as well as the team's elephant mascot Ellie) to reveal the slate in a video narrated by Stef Dolson, a showing primarily focused on the 20 home contests. This season will mark the Liberty's third full-time effort at Barclays Center, which also serves as the home of the NBA's Brooklyn Nets.
Set to play in their 27th season, the Liberty will look to build on a seventh-place finish in last year's standings. The 16 wins they tallied last season, earned through Sabrina Ionescu's breakout to professional stardom and an All-Star campaign from champion veteran Natasha Howard, was the team's best output since 2017. New York later took the defending champion Chicago Sky to the brink in the opening round of the summer's WNBA Playoffs, which saw the latter prevail in a decisive third game in Brooklyn. Chicago visits Atlantic Avenue on June 4 and Aug. 11.
Other notable dates on the Liberty calendar include June 29, the first of four meetings against the Las Vegas Aces. The newly-crowned WNBA champions are led by MVP A'ja Wilson and Liberty Ring of Honor inductee Becky Hammon. Visits from Washington will bookend the 2023 campaign, as the slate wraps up on Sept. 10, five days before the postseason's scheduled tip-off.
The 2023 WNBA All-Star Game will be held on July 15 while the third Commissioner's Cup final, the culmination of an in-season competition built upon results of conference matchups, will be staged on Aug. 15. Locations for each event will be announced at a later date, as will television information for all games.
In addition to the schedule release, the WNBA also revealed that teams will be permitted to talk with free agents beginning Jan. 21. Contracts can be signed as soon as Feb. 1.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
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