Tari Phillips Embraces Ultimate Liberty Honor
MANHATTAN — The torch of Tari Phillips will burn forever after Sunday's New York Liberty game.
The Liberty legend will become the eighth woman inducted into the team's Ring of Honor amidst Sunday's showdown in Brooklyn against the Minnesota Lynx (12:30 p.m. ET, ABC). Phillips spoke about the honor at a Liberty pop-up event in Manhattan the day before the anticipated clash, as she and several former teammates got together just over a mile away from their former stomping grounds of Madison Square Garden.
"I just think the overall experience of them welcoming [me] to New York and just all the great memories and stuff that was created and such a competitive time of my year in my life," Phillips said of her New York tenure, unable to narrow her favorite period to a single memory. "Being able to be a part of something that you love and share that with other people who have and share the same feeling. So for me, I feel just really blessed to be able to be here and be a part of this whole family."
Phillips, 56, spent five years (2000-04) with the Liberty during its Manhattan heyday and joins fellow Madison Square Garden dwellers Becky Hammon, Kym Hampton, Vickie Johnson, Rebecca Lobo, Crystal Robinson, Teresa Weatherspoon and Sue Wicks.
Despite her relative metropolitan brevity (as she also played with the Orlando Miracle and Houston Comets), Phillips continues to rank in the top 10 of several major Liberty statistical categories, including field goals, free throws, minutes, points, rebounds, and steals.
After years of pressing the New York franchise forward, Phillips mentioned that receiving seafoam immortality gave her a thrust to push on after a hospitalization.
"It came at the right time in my life," Phillips said, recalling her conversation about the induction from "one of the general manager," possibly top name Jonathan Kolb. "I didn't know what I was going to do, and it just gave it gave me that umph, that I needed to come out and just to do well and then keep persevering."
"It's really about having that perseverance, and even though you're going through life challenges and hurdles, that people remember and that you are part of something that's really real, and it's part of your DNA. So I'm I'm very thankful."
Sunday's enshrinement will be the culmination of the Liberty's "Legends Week" festivities, which also saw the Liberty briefly return to Manhattan for a special regaling. Phillips and about 20 fellow seafoam savants appeared at a pop-up event branded "Giver Her Her Flowers" across from Union Square Park, which afforded fans to group a bouquet and handwritten messages together for both past and present New York stars.
The bouquets will be bestowed following Sunday's game, which sees the modern Liberty take on the Lynx at Barclays Center for the first time since they secured the first postseason championship in franchise history over Minnesota in October. It completed the work of Phillips and her fellow honorees, who appeared in four of the first six editions of the WNBA Finals.
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.