Liberty Receive High Praise in WNBA Player Poll
The New York Liberty are sitting at or near the top of the WNBA in more ways than one as the league celebrates its annual All-Star break.
The awaited weekend's arrival yielded a poll compiled by Sabreena Merchant and Ben Pickman of The Athletic, one that interviewed 40 WNBA veterans about the league landscape. Defending champion New York received high marks about the past, present and future.
For example, with 35 respondents answering a question about the league's best-run organization (other than the answer's own), the Liberty landed over a quarter of the votes and placed second in the polling behind only the Phoenix Mercury by less than three percentage points.
“They take care of their players. Their facilities are nice. They have everything they need," one respondent told Merchant, Pickman and Chantel Jennings, while another felt that a frequently-packed Barclays Center was another sign of success, remarking that, "they must be doing something right."
Such results are no doubt positive yields for Liberty management, which has spared no expense in becoming a player-first organization. Since their purchase of the organization in 2019, Joe and Clara Wu Tsai have introduced numerous innovations to the seafoam landscape, including a move to the spacious Barclays Center and countless sources of outreach into the Brooklyn community.
The next bit of player dedication is set to be erected in the Greenpoint area of the borough in 2027, as the team has announced plans to open a dedicated training facility, an $80 million project fully funded by the Tsais and their business partners.
In the more immediate future, the Liberty remains a trendy pick to return to and win the WNBA Finals: among 27 respondents, over 40 percent see the championship trophy returning to Brooklyn, which once again places second. The Minnesota Lynx, the Liberty's victims in their first postseason championship run from last fall, top both the WNBA leaderboard and the poll at over 55 percent.
Some answerers believe that the Lynx will be inspired by their conquerors, as the Liberty fell to the Las Vegas Aces in the 2023 Finals before prevailing the year after. The Liberty, however, has engaged in its recent work without reigning Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, yet places second on the W leaderboard at the All-Star break.
“(New York wins) because of (Jones)," one player said. "She remains one of the league’s most underrated players.”
The rivalry between the Liberty and Lynx, two of the three teams to earn votes in the championship poll (along with the aforementioned Mercury), appears to be opponents' favorite matchup on the W schedule:
Exactly 75 percent of 35 respondents believe that the Liberty partake in the Association's hottest active rivalry: just under 39 percent says it comes against Minnesota while just over 36 opt for the matchup with the Las Vegas Aces. New York has done even battle with both the Aces and Lynx in both the in-season and postseason competitions, falling to Minnesota in last year's Commissioner's Cup championship last summer before landing revenge in the fall.
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.