Liberty Raising Old Mantra as Championship Defense Ramps Up
Amidst several major signings, the New York Liberty's biggest acquisition may well be dragging a series of words out of retirement.
There was no ceremony, no press conference, no funeral, but the Liberty made the choice to quietly retire the "we all we got, we all we need" chant that guided the 2024 group to the franchise's first postseason championship. It was said to be formed as a pregame ritual in September by All-Star and future Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, who was looking for a new pump-up alongside the departed Kayla Thornton.
New York wasn't the first to use such a chant, its usage originally popularized by the Seattle Seahawks' "Legion of Boom" groups in the 2010s. Brooklyn adopted it to a whole new level, as it was uttered not only in the halls that led to the event level entrance but also the Barclays Center seating areas, which brought it to a fever pitch during the most tense moments of the title run, namely the narrow yet thrilling WNBA Finals saga against the Minnesota Lynx.
"When we're out there, it's just us," Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, currently rehabbing a season-long injury, said when describing what the quote meant to her last season. "No one else can do it for us. We have everything that we need within a team. It's just about us coming together, going out there, and explaining it."
"It's a way for us to to kind of get hyped," Breanna Stewart prior to the 2024's playoff run. "But it's also a way to remember that this is our group, that these 12 aren't changing. These are the 12 that we'll go to war with."
Whether its on the professional or amateur levels, the Liberty certainly won't be the last ones to engage in the chant. Its modern edition certainly assured so as it worked through its first bit of turbulence on the flight back to the Finals.
Well-prepped for critics to wonder "what have you done for me lately," the Liberty left the past in its proper place after some initial hoopla (i.e. opening day's championship banner raising, Thornton's return after her move to Golden State). That included the mantra, which might as well have been stitched into the championship banner that now hovers over the Brooklyn playing surface.
The sequel's first act started brilliantly, as New York won each of its first nine under the banner. However, losses in six of nine followed, defeats punctuated by an ankle injury to Jones and a lengthy departure for EuroBasket-bound Leonie Fiebich, conquering where the Liberty admitted that they themselves left the gate open.
"I think we were losing some of those games ourselves, like we were just not coming out with the right energy. We were not playing Liberty basketball," Sabrina Ionescu noted just before the break. "There was kind of just this realization of, if we just kind of settle into doing that, we're in a really good spot."
Amidst it all, New York began to look inward for not just the apparent brutality ensuing but for the lingering good: those who stepped in for Fiebich and Jones (as well as brief, if not equally nagging, departures for Natasha Cloud, Isabelle Harrison, and Sabrina Ionescu) could well be relied upon in postseason situations where a little something different is required to advance.
It harkened back to the mantra the Liberty were slowly yet surely beginning to restore.
"In the end, you have good people," head coach Sandy Brondello said when asked how the mantra helped. "Everyone faces adversity, so you got to stay together This is where your characters show up and we've been our worst enemy ... For people that don't know the issues behind it, it's hard, but in the end, we didn't play hard enough, so that's what the last few days have been, getting back to who we are, and demanding more."
"I think the team did a good job of staying together, understanding there was going to be a lot of adversity. Even though we weren't at full strength, teams are still coming and playing us at their best," Jones said of the team's progress during her absence. "We said at the beginning of the season that pressure is a privilege and that teams are going to give us their best shot. I think we did a good job of staying together as a team, just understanding that we had to weather the storm until we were back with everybody back in."
An active, lengthy homestand has only given the mantra a stronger lifeforce, to the point where the Barclays Center videoboards are starting to encourage its resurrection. Even without prompting, fans were more than happy to improvise, as several sections managed to raise it the old fashioned way.
Even newcomers like Cloud have embraced its use, referencing it in her first comments to ESPN's Holly Rowe after winning the Skills Challenge at last weekend's All-Star festivities. She has frequently united it with her own metropolitan motto "Liberty Biberty" in a brand of corporate synergy team partner Liberty Mutual no doubt adores and her quick adoption no doubt bodes well for a group that keeps rolling out the in-season welcome mat to high-profile talent.
"We're all we got, we all we need. We have everything that we need in that locker room, [so] there's no panic," Cloud said earlier this month. "There's accountability that we can take in the losses ... When I say there's no panic, there literally is no panic."
For the time being, the Liberty (15-6) appear to have weathered the seafoam storm that deterred them from early landmarks like the Commissioner's Cup final. New York won four of its last five before the recent All-Star break (and before Jones' targeted return from injury) and their three-game winning streak is the longest active tally on the W leaderboard.
Time will tell if it's enough to earn the first banner company, but they'll do so with the undeniable ingredients: all they've got and need.
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.