Meet Liberty’s New Forward
Emma Meesseman knew she was going to take the floor with fellow All-Stars once she committed to signing with the New York Liberty. She probably didn't envision such stars coming from the debut exhibition back in 1999 at Madison Square Garden.
Meesseman entered the Liberty ledgers over the weekend as the latest addition to the team's championship defense. She made her debut on Sunday, scoring 11 points in the second half of the Liberty's 87-78 victory over the Connecticut Sun, one that snapped a four-game losing streak for the ailing Brooklynites.
Hours before the Sunday afternoon tip-off, Meesseman was engaged in three-on-three action with expected teammates: members of the Liberty coaching staff. It was all part of a fatiguing, yet potentially fateful, 48 hours that officially painted Meesseman in seafoam.
Scheduling Conflicts
One of the latest innovations of this WNBA season, with momentum fueled by the Liberty's title defense, the returns of sensational sophomores like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, and more, has been the expansion to 44 games, culminating in a best-of-seven WNBA Finals.
In keeping with the traditional late spring-into-early fall nature of the WNBA season, however, the schedule has taken on a compacted form, one that has forced teams into compacted stretches, which have become quite prevalent as the league inches toward its stretch run.
New York, for example, has 14 games packed into the first 30 days of August, including three championship rematches against the Minnesota Lynx. The Liberty is engaged in such a stretch without the contributing triumvirate of Kennedy Burke, Nyara Sabally and Breanna Stewart, all of whom are missing time due to injury.
That, simply put, has put practices at a premium and a recent Liberty road trip has kept them away from their prep courts in Barclays Center's lower levels. Meesseman has yet to partake in an official practice beyond a shoot around staged prior to the Liberty's Tuesday tilt against the Dallas Wings (7 p.m. ET, My9), the first half of a home-and-home before New York returns to Arlington on Friday.
New York has never been one to show desperation, but, eager to get Meesseman into the fold before she donned her seafoam threads for the first time, they had her engage in a brief scrimmage with unexpected teammates.
Coach's Connecticut Clinic
Meesseman's first collaboration with a metropolitan point guard, to that end, was not with Sabrina Ionescu, but rather Brondello, over 20 years removed from her most recent playing days with the Seattle Storm.
With the Liberty's remaining contingent granted a rest, Brondello and Meesseman laced their sneakers up alongside player development boss Andrew Wade. Enlisted as the opposition was assistant coach and Brondello's husband Olaf Lange, who was joined by video department leaders Brian Lankton and Parker Lovett.
"Nearly died, but we went through," Brondello, a 1999 All-Star with the Detroit Shock, said with a laugh on Sunday. "It wasn't high level, because we had coaches [partaking]. We just tried to get us some contacts in a little bit with different people, not just one on one. That's as best we could prepare and that's it."
Such a session likely served as a brilliant opportunity for Meesseman to leave her lasting impression on Brondello, who has had to scout the Belgian breakout for numerous high-profile stages, including last summer's bronze medal game between the Cats and Australia's Opals at the Paris Olympics. When all was said and done, it was Meesseman who was perhaps left most impressed.
"Sandy's fit. I can only hope that I'll be still as good when I'm that age, so a lot of respect" Meesseman said with a slight smile before Sunday's game.
No matter how dire the Liberty injury situation gets, don't expect Brondello to suit up and she and Meesseman aren't going to challenge Natasha Cloud for the Skills Challenge title if it returns to a tandem format. Brondello herself humorously downplayed Meesseman's assessment but was left somewhat invigorated by what the session offered.
"She's won everywhere she goes. She knows how to win. She knows the moment. She handles the big moments," Brondello noted on Tuesday. "At times I think we go too fast. Sometimes we want pace ... I think Emma, just the way she plays, I think hopefully it will rub off, and we just want to slow down. If teams are set, we don't, we want to downshift all the way to really slow and being intentional with how we want to play. I think she'll hold that in that regard, steadying the ship."
Film Major
Even though the latest edition of "Love Island" has ended, Meesseman was binge watching over the weekend.
She took in the Liberty's prior endeavors with Wade, who has frequently engaged in deep-rooted work with the New York's primary reps since coming to Brooklyn after a head coaching stint in the Stewart-founded league Unrivaled.
Wade, for example, was previously part of the contingent that flew south for the All-Star break with Jonquel Jones, who completed the final stages of her rehab from an ankle injury in her native Bahamas with several staff members in tow.
It was a de facto session of movies with friends, as Meesseman and Wade previously collaborated on a 2019 WNBA championship run with the Washington Mystics. Her resulting Lettboxd review labeled the Liberty "resilient" and further vindication for her decision to don seafoam in spite of remarks from other coaches.
"It's not easy in a busy schedule like this, playing with eight people," Meesseman noted, remarking on reduced Liberty ledger. "That's not easy at all at this level. So a lot of respect for that, what they have done until now. So I just hope I they can [appreciate] an extra body."
"I'm just looking to know good people, to feel home wherever I am. So I felt like now was the time again to go back to America, and I think I'm in the right team to feel that."
Fun vs. the Sun
The seafoam savants no doubt appreciated Meesseman for reasons beyond her mere presence: the weekend, of course, culminated in her official metropolitan debut, which went two minutes past the original Brondello mandate of 15.
The early nerves were apparent: Meesseman put up two unsuccessful tries within the first 70 seconds of action as New York tried to put the meandering Sun away early.
But Meesseman eventually found her footing upon losing it: after taking the brunt of a Bria Hartley drive that resulted in a flagrant foul, Meesseman earned her first Liberty points at the foul line and went on to reach double-figures, giving New York the necessary firepower to earn the vital triumph.
"I'm happy to have her out there," forward/center Jonquel Jones noted. "It's so nice to be able to play with her in the WNBA and not against her, and to kind of see that connection."
"It was really nice, obviously, to have Emma, it was easier for the rotations in the matchup," "[We were] really happy to integrate her, for her to come out and play the game that she did. We know how she's going to add to it, but it's good to get one win."
Kind words from prior teammates is one thing: she and Brondello ended their collaboration undefeated and untied after she and Jones collaborated with Russian club UMMC Ekaterinburg. The true barometer, at least until the multi-faceted Stewart returns, may well be her work with Sabrina Ionescu, who has willingly taken on the team's scoring asks.
Fortunately, Meesseman passed the Duck test, as Ionescu lauded her early adaptation in the wake of the win.
"I've never played with her, and so now it's like trying to speed up the chemistry by communicating and being able to figure out what she likes, what I like, how we can get each other going, and how we can play off one another," Ionescu said. "To be able to do what she did in her first game, I don't think many people could do. I'm super proud of her and her ability to stay locked in from the first to the second half and come out and help us win."
Time will tell if Meesseman's presence is enough to push the Liberty to consecutive titles. Minnesota, the Liberty's recent Finals foe, has likewise revamped in its quest for a return trip, making a blockbuster trade that acquired reigning Most Improved Player DiJonai Carrington from the Dallas Wings.
If Meesseman proves be the seafoam spark that reignites the championship fire, the Liberty's most important game may have featured the most unlikely of All-Star combinations in her and Brondello.
Geoff Magliocchetti is a veteran sportswriter who contributes to a variety of sites on the "On SI" network. In addition to the Yankees/Mets, Geoff also covers the New York Knicks, New York Liberty, and New York Giants and has previously written about the New York Jets, Buffalo Bills, Staten Island Yankees, and NASCAR.