Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones carry the New York Liberty to a long-awaited first WNBA title

NEW YORK — For so much of the night, the ball simply would not go in the net for the New York Liberty.

The deafening crowd of 18,090 at the Barclays Center was beside itself, especially veteran fans who’d waited all 28 years of the WNBA’s existence for the Liberty’s first championship.

How, in a game this big, could Sabrina Ionescu miss her first 15 field goal attempts, and 18 of the 19 she took in the game? How could Breanna Stewart, the biggest star on this star-filled squad, shoot just 4-for-15 from the floor?

And how could the Liberty as a whole shoot a woeful 2-for-23 from three-point range with that long-sought crown one win away?

All those questions ended up with the same answer: It didn’t matter.

Stewart willed her team to the clinching victory in other ways: 15 rebounds, four assists, three blocks, and a slew of hustle plays in New York’s 67-62 overtime win over the Minnesota Lynx in the decisive Game 5.

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“I came in with a game plan of, like, it doesn’t matter,” Stewart said. “I want to play defense, I want to rebound, I want to do the little things. And I’ll continue to be aggressive and shoot my shots, but if they’re not falling, they’re not falling, and I’m not going to let that affect the way I do things.”

She also knew that she could have won Game 1 had she not missed a free throw in the game’s last second. On Sunday, she missed two with 38.2 seconds to go in regulation, before sinking two with 5.2 seconds left and hitting two more to close out overtime.

“I was like, I can’t do this again, I can’t,” Stewart said. “I have to be here.”

While Stewart, Ionescu, and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton struggled from the floor, there was one player whom Minnesota could not stop Sunday or throughout the series.

Jonquel Jones, the clear choice for Finals MVP, averaged 17 points (on 54.2% field goal shooting) and 7.6 rebounds per game, and delivered 17 and six on Sunday.

» READ MORE: The Liberty won with defense, not just their scoring stars, in the WNBA playoffs

“I’m just really proud of J.J.,” Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said. “I love coaching her — I just love her personality, how she brings it every single day. … She’s been big for us, but in particular these playoffs.”

Stewart, Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot joined the Liberty together last year to try to finally push the WNBA’s most star-crossed team over the top. Along with Ionescu and Laney-Hamilton, they formed one of the most formidable starting fives in league history.

They came up short in their first attempt last year, falling in the Finals to the even more formidable Las Vegas Aces. This year, they finally reached the promised land by beating the Atlanta Dream, the Aces, and the Lynx in succession in the playoffs.

“We talked about it so much, coming together and what we envisioned and what we wanted to do in New York, and what we could do,” said Jones, who was born in the Bahamas and raised in the United States by Temple women’s basketball coach Diane Richardson. “To be able to pull it off and accomplish a dream that is so freaking hard to do, it just means a lot.”

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The title is the first for Ionescu, Jones, and Laney-Hamilton, the second for Vandersloot, and the third for Stewart — and that’s just in the WNBA. Add in Stewart’s three Olympic golds and historic 4-for-4 sweep of college titles at Connecticut, and her legacy as an all-time champion is even more secure.

“This is something that I think I’ll be remembering forever,” said Stewart, who as a youngster in Syracuse traveled down to Manhattan to watch the Liberty play at Madison Square Garden. (She also played for a Philadelphia-based AAU team, a fact the local hoops history books have often overlooked.)

“This is more personal,” she added, “just because I’m from New York [state], and I came here for a reason — and that’s to win a championship.”

Not only has she, but she’s given New York its first professional basketball championship since the 1973 Knicks. It was clinched in the first winner-take-all game of a basketball finals played in the five boroughs since Willis Reed’s legendary night at the Garden in 1970.

» READ MORE: Breanna Stewart's duel with Minnesota's Napheesa Collier was a star attraction of the WNBA Finals

And Stewart did so after making a promise after Game 4 as forceful as Joe Namath and Mark Messier’s long ago: “We’re going back to New York, and we’re going to get it done.”

The promise was kept.

New York Mayor Eric Adams announced that the Liberty will get a classic ticker-tape parade on Thursday, the city’s first for a local team since the Giants won the Super Bowl in 2012. (The U.S. women’s soccer team got them for their 2015 and 2019 World Cups, while New York City FC and Gotham FC didn’t get them for their soccer titles in 2021 and 2023, respectively.)

There might be another soon if the Yankees win the World Series, but New York’s most famous team won’t get to end the Canyon of Heroes’ drought. The Liberty will, putting a fitting capstone on the WNBA’s year of unprecedented success.

“I’ve been manifesting this moment for a while, and there’s no feeling like it,” Stewart said.

She knows better than almost anyone, and she has proved it again.

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