In-season glory hasn't pulled the New York Liberty out of its rollercoaster mire.
Shoe launches are increasingly common in today's WNBA. But what transpired in Sunday's game between the New York Liberty and Toronto Tempo certainly altered the definition.
With New York inching back from a deficit that reached as high as 20, its stalwart staple Betnijah Laney-Hamilton endured one of the more bizarre ejections in recent memory: Laney-Hamilton threw a lost sneaker that hit Tempo star Marina Mabrey in the back, attempting to get it back to its original owner Jonquel Jones. Having already been charged with one half of a double technical earlier in the game (ironically with Mabrey), Laney-Hamilton was ejected from the contest upon the formation of a second T.
Fortunately for international hardwood relations, cooler heads prevailed, as Laney-Hamilton's fling of footwear has been roundly understood to be accidental. Mabrey perhaps officially buried the hatchet on Instagram, telling Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu to "throw [her]" a pair of the latest offering from college basketball's triple-double queen and 2024 WNBA champion in the comment section of her latest shared post with Nike.
Empire State
While it was fairly easy to re-interpret foreign policy, the problems on the Liberty homefront will take a little longer to reconcile: Mabrey's free throw awarded from Laney-Hamilton's ejection helped provide just enough distance in what became a 93-91 win for the Tempo in front of a supportive crowd in Montreal.
Falling to a team led by former head coach Sandy Brondello creates a fateful landmark on the Liberty timeline: while the playoffs still feel like a shoo-in (sorry), it's still surprising to see New York (13-11) sit seventh on the current WNBA leaderboard and but two games over .500 with the season halfway over.
Since an 11-4 start, the Liberty has dropped seven of nine officially ... uncannily wedged in is a win over the defending champion Las Vegas Aces in the Commissioner's Cup in-season tournament. New York has certainly impressed a hypothetical selection committee: it's 5-1 against Las Vegas, Minnesota, Atlanta, and Indiana but the ledger also include losses to Los Angeles, Portland, Seattle, and now Toronto.
The latter results could prove haunting when it comes to playoff real estate. If the season ended today, New York would face Las Vegas in round one. The Liberty has handled business against its Sin City rivals (winning the Cup against an A'ja Wilson-less group on June 30) but their seven spot would drag them away from the friendly confines of Barclays Center in the all-too-vital bookends of the three-game opening stanza.
Escape From New York
It's a shame that no one seems to know what the Liberty did to annoy the basketball goddesses, as it could well serve as an effective cautionary tale considering the external factors that have defined this season. The Liberty, for example, still hasn't fully exterminated the injury bug infestation that nested on Atlantic Avenue last summer.
Ionescu spent most of this first half working her way back from lower body injuries that originally manifested in the preseason. Marquee addition Satou Sabally has also dealt with a series of ailments. She's still stationed in concussion protocol after taking an inadvertent blow to the head during a June 23 win over Las Vegas. Leonie Fiebich is the latest source of concern thanks to what's been described as foot soreness, which has kept her away from this ongoing New York road trip.
The Liberty has garnered no sympathy from the authorities: Laney-Hamilton's (lack of) free throw caused frustrations with officiating to break out. A Saturday loss to Minnesota, for example saw the Liberty outshot 23-9 at the foul line. Four days prior, the Liberty won the singles showdown against the Dallas Wings but that was hardly any consolation for frequent fourth quarter whistles that somehow missed Rebecca Allen getting elbowed in the face.
Head coach Chris DeMarco kept his sense of humor in the wake of the Dallas defeat, sarcastically remarking that officiating was "awesome" after the loss to the Lynx. He dispensed with the pleasantries, however, after the tussle with Toronto, calling out an "atrocious" end to the game.
“We had all the momentum in the world. Shoe hit somebody, ejected, free throws," DeMarco said, his voice steadily rising as he had further issues with the way Jones was handled under the basket. "I've never seen one of the best players to ever play in this league attack the rim and get fouled and absolutely no call, and we’re just going to play. Atrocious. Pathetic, it was pathetic."
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton was ejected after throwing a shoe at Marina Mabrey.
— espnW (@espnW) July 12, 2026
Earlier in the game she was assessed a flagrant 1 foul for her arm hitting Mabrey's face. pic.twitter.com/CLybbrDgGM
Daily Mirror
Even with such calamities beyond their control, the Liberty knows that they sacrificed the luxury of the benefit of the doubt when New York brought together undeniably historic talents on the Brooklyn beat in 2023. Some of its own players have also maintained some form of status quo: rookie in-name-only Pauline Astier's work among the starters helped sooth the early loos of Ionescu, for example.
Jones, Breanna Stewart, and the since-departed Courtney Vandersloot joined the fold with Ionescu and Laney-Hamilton back then. The collaboration has yielded the franchise's first postseason championship in 2024 (the only team to break the Aces' exclusivity in the title department since 2022) and the Liberty is also the only team to drink from two Commissioner's Cups.
But the team that has everything can't help but feel there should be more, especially with roster continuity ranking toward the bottom of metropolitan concerns.
"At this point, we've had practice reps, we've had shootaround time, and we've had time with each other. I'm not about to come in here and make an excuse for us. We just have to be better," Jones said at the time. "It's not about the reps, it's not about playing time, it's not about any of that stuff. It's just about having some heart and playing with some f****ing heart."
New York placed fifth last season and bowed out to the Phoenix Mercury in the opening round of the playoffs. It led to them switching from Brondello to DeMarco at the helm, embracing a modernity under one of the lasting voices of the Golden State Warriors groups that changed basketball forever.
Some of that innovation indeed manifested in the first half: New York became the first team in WNBA history to break the century mark in each of its first four games of a season and it has an eight-game winning streak that's tied for the longest in the W this season. But some of the intensity and victorious miscellanea present in their prior endeavors has disappeared at vital points, as noted by Jones in her call for heart.
For example, the Liberty has learned the hard way that somehow it's indeed about how you start: in these last nine games, New York's first half numbers are 11th in both points scored and differential, where it is mingling with those on the playoff outskirts like Chicago, Los Angeles, Portland, and Washington. It led the league on both departments during the famed title run in 2024.
Too Thriller, Too Late
New York's comeback efforts have admittedly been impressive: they were down by 15 with just under nine minutes remaining against Toronto but managed to create a tie game in the final hours. Points for perseverance, however, make no difference on the WNBA leaderboard: on Saturday against the Minnesota Lynx. New York they trailed by 15 in that game before taking fleeting leads but a dueling masterclass from Kayla McBride and Olivia Miles spelled their doom in the eventual 90-85 final.
Adding to the frustration, perhaps, is a struggle to close, particularly on the offensive glass: New York has allowed at least 20 second-chance tallies on four occasions this season (only the expansion Portland Fire have allowed more such games).
The Liberty has proven it can withstand an onslaught of turnovers, but it's not making up the possessions that such losses kill. Entering Tuesday night play, the Liberty let up the most shot attempts in the league while taking the second-fewest. The minus-153 discrepancy is the most egregious this season and the worst through 24 games since the 2023 Phoenix Mercury.
Consistency across the board has been a struggle to maintain: New York's rotational decisions have been called into question, whether it's the case of keeping Laney-Hamilton on the bench or tinkering with the starting lineup. The Liberty ran out their 11th on Sunday in Montreal, adding Han Xu to a relatively "jumbo" package that already featured Jones and Stewart. Such experimenting has only highlighted the Liberty's rollercoaster experiences in second unit showings, which haven't been truly the same since Kayla Thornton took her two-way talents to the Bay Area despite some undeniable progress from contributors like Asiter, Han, and Marine Johannes.
Fire in the Torch
The tastier part of the Liberty's bittersweet situation is that the mantra of 2024 that occasionally resurfaces in modern Brooklyn showings rings true: "We all we got, we all we need."
While it wouldn't be out of the question for the always-busy general manager Jonathan Kolb to scour the trade block before the early August transactional deadline, solutions are stationed in the New York arsenal. That tends to happen with a Ionescu-Jones-Stewart triumvirate and the group is starting to showcase old and new tricks like.
Ionescu, for examples, has re-emerged as a sterling penetrator, breaking through for 24 points in the paint over the last three games, tied for fourth-best among guards in that span. She also has the most second-chance points among backcourt dwellers with 16 in the trio.
Ionescu's return came too late to factor into any All-Star Game decisions but Brooklyn will still be well-represented with Jones and Stewart in tow. Stewart's reliable box score entries have created some history (moving up to 11th in all-time WNBA scoring) while Jones' return to three-point form has offset New York's struggles in the department. Since May 27, she has sunk just over 43% from deep, fourth-best among women with at least three appearance and four average tries.
In short, New York knows that, if it needs saving, the only help it'll get comes from within city limits. Testy as the situation may seem, they wouldn't have it any other way.
"We're not really measuring our performance based off of wins and losses," Ionescu noted after Saturday's narrow loss in Minneapolis. "Obviously we know we're missing key players ... I think, for us, it's about understanding we have to stay ready."
"Everyone that comes in has to play their role and play their best basketball with as much effort as they can and energy and pick each other up. It might be somebody else's night every single night. We've just to continue to stay ready no matter what the lineups look like."
The Liberty's next chance to make things right lands on Thursday when it looks to avoid a season sweep at the hands of the aforementioned Wings (9 p.m. ET, Prime Video).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
