Not Saying the New York Liberty Are Breaking the WNBA… But Yeah, They Definitely Are

The Empire Strikes Back: The New York Liberty Might Be the Greatest WNBA Team of All Time

Not just a revenge tour. A galactic f*ing takeover.

The Liberty didn’t just lose to the Aces in the 2023 Finals — they got humbled, poked, memed, and sent back to reload the Death Star.

But after avenging that loss with a statement series win over the Minnesota Lynx in the 2024 WNBA Finals, New York finally captured its first WNBA championship.

Fast forward to 2025? Alderaan is toast, and the rest of the league is looking around like, “Wait… do we have a lightsaber budget?”

Through their first seven games, the Liberty aren’t just beating teams — they’re running roughshod over the W like a dynastic space cult stacked with championship MVPs.

And speaking of stacking chips, the Liberty just leveled up off the court, too. Valued at a mind-blowing $450 million, they crushed Angel City FC’s $250 million record to become the most valuable franchise in women’s sports history. This isn’t some paper flex — the cash is funding a brand-new, $80 million state-of-the-art training fortress in Brooklyn near Barclays Center.

Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, the Brooklyn Nets owners who run the show, brought in a fresh wave of investors to stack the deck even higher. Clara’s vision? To turn the Liberty into the first billion-dollar women’s sports franchise by the mid-2030s. Yeah, the future’s here — faster and louder than anyone expected.

The Liberty aren’t just a team anymore — they’re the hottest franchise in the game, rewriting the entire women’s sports playbook while the rest of the league scrambles to keep up.

They’re undefeated. They’re unbothered. They’re unstoppable.

This ain’t just basketball.

It’s a supernova in motion — and the box scores are evidence of the blast radius.

Ring Night Wasn’t a Celebration. It Was a Warning.

Raise the banner.

Drop the mic.

Ring Night in Brooklyn brought 17,344 Liberty fanatics to their feet, celebrating the city’s first major pro championship in over a decade. New York hasn’t tasted that kind of glory in a long time. Not since the Giants won the Super Bowl at the end of the 2011 NFL season (played in February 2012).

Among all of the big four professional sports leagues—NFL, NBA, MLB, and NHL—that’s been the lone title in the past 14 years.

Inside of the Barclays Center bouncing before the ball even tipped, Breanna Stewart and Natasha Cloud proceeded to show why they are defending champs like they were crashing the afterparty.

Stewie dropped 25. Cloud added 22 and went full “I told y’all,” icing the Aces with back-to-back three-point plays in the clutch. A’ja Wilson got her 31 and 16, sure.

But the Liberty made the game feel out of reach.

That’s the scary part.

They treated Las Vegas like a subplot. The banner’s up. The empire’s active.

“This Isn’t a Superteam. It’s a Galactic Dictatorship.”

Last year’s Liberty were elite.

This year’s Liberty feel inevitable.

In 2024, New York lit up the league with a 32-8 regular season, a +11.7 net rating, and the best offense in the WNBA, finally hanging a banner in Barclays. It was a breakthrough season — dominant, stylish, historic.

But 2025? It’s different. It’s darker.

It’s scarier.

If last year’s Liberty were running on Windows 98, this year’s squad is booting up on Windows 11 with a Sith-colored screen saver.

The numbers are absurd:

• Offensive Rating: 115.6 (1st)

• Defensive Rating: 89.7 (1st)

• Net Rating: +25.9 — not just best in the league, but better than your fantasy team’s best-case fever dream.

Sandy Brondello’s squad has leveled up from a juggernaut to a galactic empire.

Breanna Stewart is in full Sith Lord form — still the most terrifying Swiss Army knife in women’s hoops. Pick a stat. She’s top 10 in it. She’s playing like she’s got Force lightning in her fingers and debt to settle.

Jonquel Jones is healthy, angry, and playing like a Finals MVP in waiting.

All that “third option” talk? Should’ve never existed. Against Indiana, she torched the Fever for 26 and 12. Versus Washington, she casually dropped 14 and 18 — handing out “no rebounds for you” energy like it’s her side hustle. The Liberty are 26-0 when JJ records a double-double.

That’s not a coincidence. That’s canon.

And then there’s Natasha Cloud — fully locked into her role as Rebel General.

She’s organizing the rebellion, directing the offense, locking up your favorite guards, and raining hell from deep. Cloud is averaging 10.9 points and 6.9 assists per game, dishing out dimes like Halloween candy. She’s shooting a career-high 47% from the floor and a scorching 37% from three.

She’s not trying to score 20 anymore. She’s running a well-oiled war machine.

And Sabrina Ionescu? She’s starting to feel more and more like the Chosen One.

You want volume? You want vibes? Against the Mystics, she casually hit four threes and poured in 28 points like she had a cheat code. The dagger? A three-point play off a floater that jumpstarted a 16-0 run. She’s not over-dribbling. She’s not forcing. She’s just wrecking.

She’s the cool middle chapter now — the Luke Skywalker with a jumper. Let Cloud and Stewie do the dirty work. She’ll be there to end you.

This isn’t a redemption arc anymore.

It’s a hostile takeover — executed at hyperspeed.

Bench Mob? Depth Mob: Liberty’s Secret Army

The Liberty’s starting five has been rock solid, but what’s powering their early-season dominance is the depth behind the stars.

It’s not just the starters. This bench could start in a parallel WNBA.

Despite missing Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, their do-it-all defensive ace and secondary scorer, New York hasn’t missed a beat — and that’s thanks to a bench that’s playing fast, physical, and fearless.

Kennedy Burke has been a revelation. She’s hitting over 52% from three on high volume, providing length and switchability across three positions. Her 115.4 offensive rating and 69.3 true shooting percentage are absurd for a role player seeing over 21 minutes per game.

Marine Johannès, the Liberty’s resident chaos agent, is back to her old tricks — pulling up from the parking lot and threading no-look passes in transition. She’s averaging 6.3 points in just 17.9 minutes, shooting a clean 36.4% from deep with a 56.4 eFG%. She adds an unpredictability the starters don’t have.

Rebekah Gardner, signed late and flying under the radar, has been a defensive menace off the bench. She’s shooting nearly 62% from the field, has a 141.5 offensive rating, and brings veteran grit and low-maintenance energy every time she checks in.

Don’t sleep on Isabelle Harrison, either. In her limited minutes (7.2 per game), she’s converting efficiently around the rim and showing she’s more than ready to eat up second-unit frontcourt minutes when needed. And Nyara Sabally, though only logging two appearances so far, has posted video-game level offensive and rebounding numbers in her small sample.

This is a team built for the long haul.

They’re winning minutes without Stewart or Ionescu on the floor.

They’re running up scores without Laney-Hamilton.

And they’re doing it with a bench unit that’s out-executing second units all across the league.

History Watch: Are We Already Seeing the GOAT Team?

Let’s start here with the 1998 Houston Comets.

Those Comets were amazing to say the least. The Comets went 27-3, steamrolled the league with a +17.5 net rating. Today, they are still widely considered the greatest team in WNBA history. Offensively, they were dominant and led the league in scoring (76.2 PPG).

Defensively, they were dominant and allowed the fewest points (63.6), and topped every advanced stat category that matters. First in offensive rating (105.7), first in defensive rating (88.2), first in net rating (+17.5). That team played slow (dead last in pace), but they were surgical, brutal, and inevitable.

They had Cynthia Cooper at her peak (22.7 PPG, league MVP, Finals MVP), Sheryl Swoopes locking down wings before it was fashionable, and Tina Thompson hitting from everywhere on the floor. That Big Three didn’t just win — they authored the blueprint. They’re the standard.

Since then, a few teams have tried to touch the sky

• 2001 Sparks — Lisa Leslie in her imperial phase. Back-to-back titles. No notes.
• 2014 Mercury — The modern superteam template with Diana Taurasi, Brittney Griner, and Penny Taylor. Elite spacing, ball movement, and defensive length.
• 2022 Aces — The dynasty prototype. Plum, Young, Gray, Wilson. Champagne basketball.

Now fast forward to 2025.

The New York Liberty are 7-0 with a +25.9 net rating — not just on pace to beat the Comets’ mark, but to obliterate it. They’ve already made 19 threes in a game (a new WNBA record), they’re elite offensively and defensively, and every win has felt different: gritty, flashy, balanced, explosive. They haven’t peaked. They’re just existing in rarefied air.

The numbers say history is watching. The eye test says they’re not bluffing.

But to surpass Houston’s crown, the job has to get finished in October. The Liberty have to finish the job.

With rings. With receipts. With a legacy.

This isn’t the same team that won a WNBA championship last season.

This is the upgraded, modded, 99-overall version with better spacing, more chemistry, and scary depth.

They’ve got ring night receipts, Jedi coaching, Sith efficiency, and a vengeance plot so thick George Lucas could storyboard it.

And unless someone finds a way to blow up the Death Star from the inside, the 2025 Liberty are about to rewrite the entire WNBA canon.

TL;DR – Liberty’s Galactic Takeover 

• Undefeated (7–0) with a staggering +25.9 net rating — best in the W, and on pace to break records.

• Top offense (115.6 OffRtg) and top defense (89.7 DefRtg) — they’re dominating both ends like it’s a cheat code.

• Breanna Stewart = Sith Lord — top 10 in everything, leading with vengeance and versatility.

• Jonquel Jones is healthy and terrifying — Liberty are 26–0 when she double-doubles.

• Natasha Cloud is the rebel general — elite defense, clutch buckets, career-best shooting, full command of the war machine.

• Sabrina Ionescu is the Chosen One — confident, efficient, closing games with icy precision.

• Bench mob is deep — Kennedy Burke, Marine Johannès, Rebekah Gardner, Isabelle Harrison all thriving; Laney-Hamilton hasn’t even returned yet.

• 17,344 fans packed Ring Night — but the banner wasn’t the story. The warning was.

• Historical watch: Their numbers are on pace to obliterate the legendary 1998 Houston Comets.

• The mission isn’t revenge — it’s domination. And unless someone finds the Death Star’s weak point, the rest of the WNBA is in deep trouble.