Liberty Legend Explains Difference in 2024 Team

One of the modern New York Liberty’s goals is to finish what Rebecca Lobo started.

Lobo is one of the Liberty’s original stars, joining the team upon the WNBA’s formation in 1997. She was a part of three visits to the WNBA Finals over the team’s first four seasons but a championship ring proved elusive despite some memorable thrills and rosters matching her name with Kym Hampton, Vickie Johnson, Teresa Weatherspoon, Sue Wicks, and more.

Lobo has had plenty of opportunities to keep up with the modern Liberty as the lead color commentator and analyst of ESPN’s WNBA coverage. The Liberty have been national network mainstays since acquiring an assembly of All-Stars for last season, as uniting Jonquel Jones, Breanna Stewart, and Courtney Vandersloot with incumbents Sabrina Ionescu and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton turned the team into instant contenders.

Speaking in a conference call prior to her network’s coverage of Saturday’s WNBA All-Star Game (8:30 p.m. ET, ABC), Lobo addressed the difference between this year’s team and that last, which fell two games short of championship glory after a hard-fought series with the Las Vegas Aces. Lobo repeated head coach Sandy Brondello’s continued insistence that a prior year together continues to pay huge dividends but was also impressed with the revamped second unit.

“I think their bench this year has been really impressive to me,” Lobo said. “Kennedy Burke has been very impressive to me, especially without Laney-Hamilton in the lineup. They’re going to need those pieces. Once they get the lineup back intact, they’re going to need those bench pieces, especially in the playoffs, and if they’re going to be facing, in particular, the Vegas Aces.”

As the WNBA closes its first half, the Liberty (21-4) hold a 2.5-game lead over the Connecticut Sun for the top seed in upcoming playoffs. New York was a second seed behind Las Vegas in the prior edition and allowed the Aces to jump out to a 2-0 series lead in the best-of-five Finals set at home.

Lobo’s comments came less than 24 hours after the Liberty took an 82-74 decision from Connecticut at Barclays Center, their final game before the WNBA takes a month’s hiatus for the All-Star Game and Olympics. It was a win earned with both Laney-Hamilton and Stewart on the bench, as super subs Burke and Leonie Fiebich took over in the opening five.

With Marine Johannes sticking around in France to prepare for her national team’s hosting duties and Stefanie Dolson moving onto Washington, the Liberty adjusted its bench around sixth woman Kayla Thornton, adding Burke (Stewart’s former teammate in Seattle) and international prospects Fiebich and Ivana Dojkic (as well as the returning Nyara Sabally, who has battled a back injury most of this season).

Lobo praised the way the new second unit allows the Liberty to create more balanced lineups, which have led to their league-best opening.

“New York is, to me, much better than they were a year ago,” Lobo praised. “They’re deeper than they were a year ago. They have lineups that can be better defensively when they need that than they were a year ago.”

“New York fans, when you’re winning in New York, granted, my experience is in Madison Square Garden; theirs is in Barclays, but those fans are pretty incredible. I’m excited for New York. I’m excited for the Liberty fans.”

There will be plenty of Liberty representation on hand in Saturday’s exhibition, which will be staged at Footprint Center in Phoenix. Ionescu and Stewart will rep the United States’ women’s national basketball team bound for the Paris Olympics after the weekend while Jones, the runner-up in Friday’s 3-Point Contest, will appear on a team of WNBA All-Stars countering them.

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