The New York Liberty are a superteam — and the Big Apple’s best chance for a long-awaited first WNBA title

In the WNBA’s 26 seasons to date, teams from 11 cities have won championships. Those cities span the country, from north to south, from the east (though that one took a while) to the midwest to the west coast. All four continental U.S. time zones are on the list, too.

But while most of the league’s biggest cities and most popular teams and players have had title parades at some point, the WNBA has stared at one big absence since its very first days.

Not once, ever, have the New York Liberty won a championship. Exactly zero times has the team from the biggest city of all stood atop the pile.

If you live in Philadelphia, or many other places, the sight of a New York sports team never winning anything is a thrill. But if you’re in charge of, say, getting the WNBA a really big new TV contract after the 2025 season — like Collingswood-born commissioner Cathy Engelbert is — the Big Apple’s goose egg does not help.

And it’s not just that the Liberty have never won the title. They haven’t made the WNBA Finals in 21 years. They haven’t made the playoffs’ second round since 2017, and have done so just four times since 2003 — a year that marked the Liberty’s fourth WNBA Finals appearance in the league’s first six seasons. They have failed to make the playoffs altogether eight times in that span.

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Now, finally, the time may have arrived for New York to reach the mountaintop. The arrivals of 2021 title-winner Courtney Vandersloot, 2021 regular-season MVP Jonquel Jones, and, above all, two-time-champion superstar Breanna Stewart have given the Liberty the look of a superteam.

Add those players to a recipe that includes record-setting recent TV ratings for the WNBA and college women’s basketball. With those broadcast rights negotiations looming, it feels like the Liberty and the league are on the verge of something big.

“New York is ready for this, is excited for this,” said Rebecca Lobo, the former UConn and Liberty star who’s now ESPN’s lead women’s basketball game analyst. “That there could be real life around the Liberty again … that’s what I expect to see this year. And, of course, it’s good for the league if some of the original franchises, especially those in the biggest markets, have that kind of energy and buzz about them.”

It’s rare for any New York team not named the Yankees, Knicks, or Giants to make a big impact on the city’s sports scene. When New York City FC — a team partly owned by the Yankees — won Major League Soccer’s championship in 2021, it got barely any local attention despite being the Big Apple’s first pro sports title in a decade.

Before the Liberty have even played a game this year, they’ve already moved ahead of where NYCFC got. The team’s local broadcasts mostly are on the Yankees-owned YES Network, but their season opener Friday at Washington (7 p.m., NBA TV) will be televised locally on an over-the-air channel that used to carry packages of Yankees and Mets games.

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When YES owned NYCFC’s broadcast rights before the Apple TV deal that started this year, there often were schedule conflicts with the Yankees. But the soccer team never got the privilege of being bumped up to an over-the-air channel — only bumped down to a streaming app that still required a cable login to use.

In terms of national broadcasts, all but two of the Liberty’s 40 regular-season games will air on national TV or widely available streaming platforms, from ABC and CBS to ESPN, Twitter, and Amazon’s Prime Video. The WNBA’s new deal for Friday night games on ION TV, a network of local over-the-air channels nationwide (Channel 34 in Philadelphia and 799 on Comcast cable), will feature the Liberty eight times.

Of course, there is one caveat to all the spotlight and expectations heaped upon Stewart, Jones, and Vandersloot — plus returning veterans including stars Sabrina Ionescu and Philly-bred Betnijah Laney — before the first jump ball is tossed. The team has to win.

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“I think we put a really good team [together]. We’ve had a great offseason, but on paper doesn’t mean anything at the moment,” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello said this week. “With experienced players, it allows you to get to where you want to be, but we know we have to keep improving and peak at the right time. … Pressure, but that’s a healthy pressure. We all want to win.”

Washington’s Elena Delle Donne will want to have a word about that on Friday. So will the Indiana Fever, with a big-time frontcourt of NaLyssa Smith and this year’s No. 1 draft pick, Aliyah Boston, when they play in the Liberty’s home opener on Sunday in Brooklyn.

Above all, there are the Las Vegas Aces. The reigning champions added Candace Parker to a squad already led by A’ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum. Circle June 29 and Aug. 6 as the dates of the clashes of the potential western and eastern superteams, first in the desert and then in Brooklyn.

Until then, and throughout the year, there are games to be played. If they go well for the Liberty, the WNBA could be in for a historic moment. If not, even New Yorkers know how it feels to have their sports teams disappoint.

“I think that they’re going to be really, really good and contending for a championship by the end of the year,” Lobo said, but she warned: “There might be some less-than-smooth patches early on, just because they have so many pieces that are new. They’re not Vegas; they’re not returning five of their top six scorers and adding a dominant player.”

But there is some existing chemistry already, because Vandersloot, Stewart, and Jones have played overseas together during past WNBA offseasons. And as for other intangibles, well, that’s why stars are stars.

“Breanna Stewart is going to be unfazed by pressure,” Lobo said. “I think Courtney Vandersloot’s the same, probably Jonquel Jones as well, and Sabrina Ionescu too. I think they’ve got the right personalities there who thrive when they’re in the spotlight and thrive when there’s bigger expectation.”

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