WHAT’S GOING ON WITH THE LIBERTY?

The New York Liberty have hit a rough patch.

Following a solid 3-1 start to the season, the team came home to begin a seven game homestand that will stretch into early June. The team began the homestand with games against the Golden State Valkyries, Dallas Wings, and Portland Fire. What happened in those games, you ask?

Loss in game one. Loss in game two. And loss in game three. Ouch!

One early bit of trouble for the Liberty has been the lack of availability of their key players. Rebecca Allen is finding her footing as she missed the first few games of the season. Sabrina Ionescu has only appeared in one game so far as she’s working her way back from a preseason foot injury.

Leonie Fiebich and Raquel Carrera are back in the USA following championship play and are expected to debut on May 27. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton has missed the past three games due to personal reasons. And Satou Sabally has only appeared in two plus games as she’s working herself back up to full strength.

Admittedly it’s a lot to handle at the beginning of the season. However, New York has enough talent suiting up every night where they should still be able to execute at a high level.

“There’s growing pains in the sense of we’ve got people coming in and out. I want us to have some grace,” Rebecca Allen said after the loss to the Fire.

“Today, we played harder in so many ways but it’s yeah, finding that gelling, that cohesion, offensively and defensively, and I feel like there’s so many moments where we’re lacking. We’re needing to get 40 minutes of that. Really, our fourth quarter today just — it wasn’t good enough with how many points they scored.

Our turnovers, that’s a real problem. Them getting offensive rebounds, that’s an issue as well, so… some of these things are real effort things, so we just need to lift our effort plays.”

As Bec noted, turnovers have been a MAJOR problem for this group. So far, the Liberty have turned the ball over 19.4 percent of the time, fifth highest mark in the league. When you turn the ball over a bunch and don’t give your defense a chance to set up, you’re putting yourself in danger every possession.

To help break things down, we turned to a WNBA media legend. On the latest edition of Gotta Get Up, Erica L. Ayala was joined by all around superstar Ari Chambers!

Erica and Ari go way back and they discussed New York basketball history, the current Liberty season, and plenty of other fun topics.

The Liberty have a lot to clean up. With everyone almost back, the group can start building habits that can carry them deep into the season.

There’s great talent and great expectations, and it’s up to the them to make sure they’re doing what they can to win and win big.

Here’s what you need to know today:

☀️ Honoring Sun history
The Connecticut Sun pay tribute to franchise icons

🎧The Extra Possession: Natalie Nakase has the Valkyries sitting at 3-2.

🏀 Back in action
Caitlin Clark is back and thinking big picture.

💰 Money moves
The long form WNBA CBA is finally done.

🗓 Upcoming games
What’s on deck to begin the week.

📰 What we’re reading
Some great writing that’s come across our desks.

CONNECTICUT PAYS RESPECTS TO ITS LEGENDS

As the Connecticut Sun go through their sunset season, the team is paying tribute to its franchise icons.

On May 26, the Sun announced that Jonquel Jones will be the first player honored by the team when the New York Liberty visit Uncasville on June 8 to take on the Sun. For JJ, this is an honor that has special meaning for her.

“This means a lot to me,” Jones said. “Connecticut’s the place where everything started for me in the WNBA. It’s a place that has a lot of special memories and is near and dear to my heart. I’m just really happy and excited, and I can’t wait to celebrate with all the other people who will be inducted as Sun Legends as well.”

Jonquel blossomed into a superstar while with the Sun. She came in as a talented rookie in 2016 and grew into an MVP, franchise altering do-everything superstar big by the time she left in 2023.

In between, she found her voice and became someone the Sun could count on come playoff time. Jonquel is one of the team’s greatest players and someone that means a lot to the Sun and greater WNBA landscape.

Even as the Connecticut Sun say goodbye, their presence will remain. So many great players have played for them and given fans great moments.

This year is about celebrating that history and remembering everything they’ve done. The team may be gone, but they'll never be forgotten.

CAITLIN CLARK MINDS THE GAME

Caitlin Clark returned after missing a game, and all was right in the WNBA world.

Clark was back after being a late scratch with a back injury on May 20. Caitlin took on the Golden State Valkyries, and fans were treated to the full Caitlin Clark experience.

We got too many turnovers (six) than we’d like for a lead guard and excellent decision maker. We got a testy, competitive back and forth exchange with a player (Tiffany Hayes) on the opposing team. And we got crowd popping logo threes that turned Gainbridge Fieldhouse all the way up

And most importantly, the Fever came away with a great win against a good, competitive Valkyries squad.

For Clark, the past year has been racked with personal and professional frustrations as injuries have limited her time on the basketball court and forced her to start over on numerous occasions. For someone who has all eyes on her at all times, it begins to take its toll.

"I think there's moments where maybe I get in my head a little bit, and that's understandable," Clark said. "I need to have a little grace with myself. I need people to give me a little bit of grace too. When you go through so many things, it becomes a little bit traumatizing too.”

It’s hard to fight back from adversity. Frustration mounts and you wonder when things will go your way. For Caitlin Clark, injuries have slowed her down and made WNBA life challenging.

However, she’s shown herself to be a tough, resilient player that always gets back in the game.

THE LONG FORM CBA HAS BEEN AGREED TO

It’s FINALLY done!

Earlier this spring, the WNBA and WNBPA agreed to a new collective bargaining agreement. The CBA came after a long and winding road that lasted years and featured plenty of moments where we wondered if a season would take place at all.

Even after that agreement was reached in the spring, there was still more work to be done. At the WNBA Draft, Cathy Engelbert noted that the two sides were still working to reach an agreement on a long form CBA.

Now that we are almost a month into the 30th WNBA season, we finally have our long form CBA agreement. From Alexa Philippou of ESPN:

“The execution of the long form signals the formal adoption of the transformational agreement, the terms of which were previously ratified by the WNBA board of governors and the WNBA players in late March.”

Of course, now it’s up to the league to make the long form agreement available for the public. One battle after another, folks!

The new CBA is a massive step forward for the WNBA. The players are getting the money they deserve. New minimum standards are being set across the league. And everyone is working together to push the league to new heights. More good things are on the way for the W.

Here’s the schedule for the next few days

At Black Rosie Media, we love to give flowers to other writers and creators in the women’s basketball community.

Here’s what we’re reading:

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