I recently looked at how Sabrina Ionescu will impact the New York Liberty. While she gets the lion share of the coverage, Ionescu is just one of six rookies drafted by New York—all of whom were selected within the first 15 picks. On TBW’s WNBA podcast, Get the W, Gabe Ibrahim and I also talked…
A new era is dawning for basketball in New York as Sabrina Ionescu and five other rookies join the Liberty at Barclay’s Center in Brooklyn. But which expectations are realistic versus those coming a year or two too early? TBW’s WNBA staff writer Myles Ehrlich joins host Gabe Ibrahim to reveal the road ahead for…
On April 17, the WNBA held its annual draft remotely. Prospects tuned in, along with nearly 400,000 fans, waiting for Commissioner Cathy Engelbert to reveal each successive selection. Except, they weren’t waiting for the No. 1 pick. Oregon’s Sabrina Ionescu was not only among the most certain locks for the spot in league history, it’s…
On a Sunday afternoon last August, the New York Liberty played the Seattle Storm at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn—a one-game respite from the undersized Westchester County Center the team had called home for two seasons. Everything was bigger in Brooklyn. Nearly 8,000 fans—more than three times as many as the team’s average for 2019—showed…
Welcome to TBW’s first annual WNBA mock draft! The 2020 WNBA Draft will air on ESPN this Friday night at 7pm EST. Due to social distancing guidelines, teams will log on from afar to make their selections. By night’s end, thirty-six young women, also all remote, will learn of their futures (and destinations) in the…
Before being shut down by the Coronavirus, the many levels of women’s basketball were buzzing with excitement. Maybe it was the result of multiple exciting seasons—both past, present and future in the WNBA and NCAA. Perhaps it was WNBA’s new Collective Bargaining Agreement and its subsequent free agency—all portending greater player movement and empowerment. Maybe…
With so many WNBA teams diving headlong into free agency, a divide has eroded the mid-tier competition. In fact, we’ve seen a binary of approaches in this new CBA era: Some franchises are win-now while others seem to be preparing only for the future (which may be multiple seasons down the road). The new CBA…
While not quite matching the record-setting pace of the first wave, WNBA Free Agency’s second week hasn’t lacked excitement. That said, a few teams have been conspicuously quiet in comparison to the rest. The Indiana Fever, Minnesota Lynx and New York Liberty have largely sat out the proceedings while everyone else has loaded up or…
One week before the ever-extended CBA deadline, the New York Liberty introduced Walt Hopkins on Wednesday as its eighth head coach in franchise history. Sitting beside General Manager Jonathan Kolb, Hopkins could hardly withhold an enthusiastic grin through his introduction at the Liberty’s new home arena, the Barclays Center in Brooklyn. He comes over from…
The Indiana Fever coaching staff is finally taking shape. The team hired Hall-of-Famer Marianne Stanley as head coach and promoted Tamika Catchings to general manager on November 26. Stanley is both a smart and safe hire for the young Fever: Her first head coaching job was at Old Dominion University over forty years ago, and…
