Liberty Player Preview 2025: Leonie Fiebich
The trophy is stored, the confetti is cleared, the rings have been sized, and the banner will be raised. Now comes the question: what can the New York Liberty possibly do for an encore?
The Liberty's roster is set for its first postseason championship defense, which gets underway this week as the WNBA prepares to tip off its 29th season. Fresh the famous five-game win over the Minnesota Lynx in last fall's Finals, the Liberty now seek to bring another parade to Manhattan and Brooklyn after ending the long wait for the original.
With the season quickly approaching, New York Liberty on SI will go through each player's 2025 outlook on a case-by-case basis.
Player: Leonie Fiebich
Height/Position:
From: Germany
Experience: 2nd season
2024 Stats: 6.7 points, 3.0 rebounds, 43.3 three-point percentage
How Acquired: 2023 trade with Chicago
The Story So Far
Fiebich's wunderbar debut proved to be the missing piece in the Liberty's championship puzzle.
Quietly acquired in the 2023 offseason deal that bid farewell to Rookie of the Year winner and original Barclays Center Michaela Onyenwere, Fiebich proved that the deal was about way more than just gaining cap space. A rookie in name only thanks to some standout play overseas, Fiebich wound up become a sterling fourth quarter closer and wound up flirting with freshman numbers some viewed as only attainable by draftees like Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese.
By year's end, Fiebich led rookies in three-point percentage (mine 3 tries per game) and was second in the same group in full percentage (58.7) behind only interior threat Kamilla Cardoso after she partook in Germany's Olympic cause next to Nyara Sabally (Fiebich was also fourth in rookie scoring in that same span). Her efforts were rewarded with not only an invite to the All-Rookie Team (the first New Yorker to make it there since Onyenwere in 2020) but an entry into the Liberty starting five when the playoffs tipped off.
Fiebich's brilliant bookends in the postseason cemented her spot in Liberty history: with 23 points in the opening win against the Atlanta Dream, Fiebich set a Liberty record for most points in a maiden playoff voyage, breaking a mark long held by Tari Phillips. In the end, it was Fiebich's overtime-opening three in Game 5 of the WNBA Finals, sunk less than 10 seconds into the extra session, that permanently placed momentum in the seafoam corner.
The Liberty ring that Fiebich receives before the team's 2025 opener on Saturday isn't the only piece of hardware she's earned in over the past year: Fiebich missed almost all of the Liberty's preseason activities as she finished out a title trek with Valencia Basket Club in Spain. That's far from her only international honor, as she has won two MVP awards in the Spanish League and was also the top in the 2022 NBL1 Final in Western Australia.
They Said It
"We always knew she had talent, but it's not easy for a new player to come into a new system with all these players. But Leo's a baller. She's been in professional basketball for such a long time. I think that experience playing over in Spain and then with her country Germany helps. She's got high IQ and figuring it out on the fly, making use of the practice we do have ... she can see it and put it into the game immediately. I think there's another level we can get to for sure."-Sandy Brondello
"These are players that have been pros for a very long time, and they played in really high stakes games. So you look at a player for us, Leo Fiebich last year. Just go to Game 5, overtime, jump ball, kick to the corner, three within a second, right? She shines when those lights are bright. She's done it a lot. So that's what we look we look for internationally."-Jonathan Kolb on how Fiebich has influenced the Liberty's international development
2025 Outlook
This time around, Fiebich isn't sneaking up on anybody: with Courtney Vandersloot gone and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton out for the year with an injury, it stands to reason that she'll reprise her starting role if and when she's conditioned well enough after he extended international stint.
Fiebich's strong two-way game should mesh well with fellow opening newcomer Natasha Cloud. For the time being, Fiebich is the poster child of the Liberty's international "stash-and-dash" approach: normally a defending champion could thrown off by the idea of a newcomer in the starting five but Fiebich's high-profile experience on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean now doubt keeps the championship momentum rolling ... and perhaps a few cruel imitators rising up in the Liberty's wake.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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.