Early success (1997–2002) Prior to the team's first season, to avoid potential trademark infringement, the team purchased the trademarks of the defunct Liberty Basketball Association. When the WNBA opened in 1997, the Liberty were one of the first teams to choose a player, and they signed college superstar
Rebecca Lobo (
UConn) to a contract. Lobo was a starter for two seasons, but was injured in 1999. Her injuries eventually led to her retirement several seasons later.
Point guard Teresa Weatherspoon emerged as a star, and the Liberty made it to the 1997 championship game, where the team lost to the
Houston Comets. In 1999, they added
Crystal Robinson with the 6th overall pick and returned to the WNBA Finals, where they again faced the Comets. In Game 2, Teresa Weatherspoon's halfcourt shot at the buzzer gave the Liberty a one-point road win that tied the series at a game apiece. However, the Liberty lost the third game of the series and the Comets became champions for a third straight time. In 2000, the Liberty traded for
Tari Phillips who blossomed in New York and made four straight All-Star teams. In 2001, Weatherspoon became the WNBA's all-time assist leader. Teamed with Robinson, Phillips and an emerging
Sue Wicks, who was once a back-up to Lobo at forward but made the 2000 All-Star game, Weatherspoon and the Liberty subsequently returned to the finals in 2000 and 2002, but lost once again to the Comets and to the
Los Angeles Sparks, respectively. The Liberty also advanced to the WNBA Eastern Conference Finals in 2001.
Transition seasons (2003–2009) The 2003 season marked a transition for the Liberty and with team leader Teresa Weatherspoon's WNBA career winding down, fan favorite
Becky Hammon emerged as a star player. The 2004 season saw Hammon replacing Weatherspoon as the team's starting point guard. The Liberty played six of their home games during the 2004 season at
Radio City Music Hall as Madison Square Garden was hosting the
2004 Republican National Convention. These games marked the first time Radio City had hosted a professional sporting event since the Roy Jones Jr. boxing match held in 1999. With team leader
Tari Phillips being signed away to the Houston Comets,
Ann Wauters emerged as a force at the team's starting center position in 2005. However, she was injured midway through the season. The loss of Wauters was felt as the team was swept two games to none by the
Indiana Fever in the first round of the playoffs. The Liberty had a poor 2006 season, winning only 11 games. At the beginning of the 2007 WNBA season, the team traded
Becky Hammon to the
San Antonio Silver Stars for
Jessica Davenport, a first round pick in the
2007 WNBA draft. They also acquired center
Janel McCarville through the dispersal draft associated with the dissolution of the
Charlotte Sting. The 2007 Liberty started out 5–0, then lost 7 straight games, then rallied at the end of the season to get the last playoff spot by winning 3 out of their last 4 games, beating the
Washington Mystics on the tiebreaker of head-to-head record. In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Liberty, as huge underdogs, faced the defending champion
Detroit Shock in a best-of-three series. The Liberty defeated the Shock in game 1 in New York. In games 2 and 3 the Liberty lost both games to the Shock in Detroit, 76–73 and 71–70 (OT), respectively. In 2008, the Liberty drafted former
Rutgers shooting guard
Essence Carson and former
North Carolina forward Erlana Larkins, and signed former
Utah point guard
Leilani Mitchell during the preseason. Despite having the youngest average age of any WNBA team, the Liberty managed to win 19 regular season games in 2008, to defeat the
Connecticut Sun in the first round of playoff action, and to come within two points of defeating the
Detroit Shock in the third and last game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Again, the Detroit series entailed a Liberty victory at home in Game 1, followed by narrow defeats away in Games 2 and 3. The 2008 season also featured the "
Liberty Outdoor Classic", the first ever professional regular season
basketball game to be played outdoors, on July 19 at
Arthur Ashe Stadium of the
USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. The
Indiana Fever defeated the Liberty in the Outdoor Classic. In the
2009 WNBA draft, the Liberty selected local favorite
Kia Vaughn from Rutgers. With a solid core group, the Liberty looked to be a contender in the East yet again. In the 2009 season, however, they never proved to be a contender and the team fired head coach
Pat Coyle. To replace Coyle, the Liberty hired then-Liberty assistant coach
Anne Donovan on an interim basis. Despite the coaching change, the franchise continued to struggle, finishing 13–21, their second worst record in franchise history.
The Cappie Pondexter era (2010–2014) The New York Liberty fared better in 2010, during Donovan's first and only full season as head coach. Led by newly signed high scorer
Cappie Pondexter (formerly of the
Phoenix Mercury) and the 2010
Most Improved Player Award winner Leilani Mitchell, the team made it all the way to the
Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Atlanta Dream. The team had high hopes for 2011, after the hiring of former
WNBA champion head coach
John Whisenant.
Janel McCarville did not report to training camp, seeking time with her family, and as such, was suspended for the duration of the 2011 season. This caused division and discord within the New York Liberty fanbase.
Kia Vaughn was unexpectedly thrust into the role of starting Center. The Liberty were originally scheduled to be displaced from their usual home court due to renovations at
Madison Square Garden scheduled to begin in 2009. However, the renovation plans were delayed, and the Liberty played at the Garden in 2009 and 2010. The Liberty ended up playing in the
Prudential Center in
Newark,
New Jersey, for their 2011, 2012, and 2013 seasons while the renovations were ongoing. Pondexter and
Plenette Pierson, along with improved play from Vaughn, allowed New York to be competitive early in the 2011 season. The team went into the
All-Star break in third place in the Eastern Conference. In August,
Sidney Spencer was traded to the
Phoenix Mercury in exchange for
Kara Braxton. By maintaining a fairly even standard of play, the Liberty made their way into the WNBA playoffs. However, the Liberty fell to the
Indiana Fever in the Eastern Conference Semifinals. Just before the
2014 WNBA draft, the New York Liberty traded
Kelsey Bone, the fourth overall pick in the 2014 WNBA draft (
Alyssa Thomas) and the fourth overall pick in the
2015 WNBA draft to the
Connecticut Sun for WNBA All-Star
Tina Charles, who had requested a trade. In February 2015, Pondexter was traded to the
Chicago Sky for
Epiphanny Prince.
The Isiah Thomas era (2015–2018) On May 5, 2015, the Liberty hired Thomas as team president overseeing all business and basketball operations of the franchise. Under Thomas' leadership as team president and the coaching staff led by
Bill Laimbeer as head coach, the Liberty finished first in the Eastern Conference during the 2015 season. On August 2, 2015, during halftime of the game against the
Seattle Storm, the New York Liberty inducted WNBA legend
Becky Hammon into the Liberty's Ring of Honor. Thomas presented Hammon with her ring during the induction ceremony at
Madison Square Garden. Hammon is currently the head coach of the WNBA's
Las Vegas Aces. After qualifying for the
2016 WNBA playoffs, the Liberty lost to the
Phoenix Mercury in the second round. The Liberty lost to the
Washington Mystics in the second round of the
2017 WNBA playoffs. In November 2017, the Madison Square Garden Company and
James L. Dolan announced they were actively looking to sell the franchise. After not immediately finding a buyer, MSG relocated most of the Liberty's 2018 home games to
Westchester County Center in nearby
White Plains, New York, the home of MSG's
NBA G League team the
Westchester Knicks, while still continuing to pursue a sale. In 2018, the Liberty failed to make the playoffs, with a 7–27 record.
The Tsai era and 2024 championship (2019–present) On January 23, 2019, the Liberty were sold to Joseph Tsai, co-founder of the Alibaba Group, a Chinese internet company, who then owned 49% of the NBA's
Brooklyn Nets, and
Clara Wu Tsai, an American businesswoman and founder of
nonprofit organization Reform Alliance. Isiah Thomas was relieved of his duties a month later, on February 21, 2019. During the 2019 season, the Liberty played two games in Brooklyn at the Nets' home of the
Barclays Center, with the rest still in White Plains. Later that year, Joseph Tsai became the sole owner of the Nets and the Barclays Center. For the 2020 season, the Tsais relocated the Liberty to Brooklyn on a full-time basis. The Liberty were major players in the
2020 WNBA draft, entering that draft with three first-round picks plus two in the early second round. Shortly before the draft, they traded former league MVP
Tina Charles to the
Washington Mystics in a deal that also involved the
Dallas Wings. They chose
Sabrina Ionescu as the
first pick, with
Megan Walker and
Jazmine Jones selected later in that round. The team also introduced a new logo, featuring a simplified version of their
Statue of Liberty branding. The color black was also made one of the primary colors, echoing the aesthetic of their NBA brother squad, the Brooklyn Nets. The Liberty began the 2020 season, held in a "bubble" in
Bradenton, Florida, due to the
COVID-19 pandemic, with seven rookies on their opening-night roster. The team suffered a major blow in their third game, in which Ionescu suffered a severe ankle sprain that ultimately ended her season. The Liberty ended the season with a league-worst 2–20 record. Despite the lack of wins, one of the first-year players, 12th overall pick
Jazmine Jones, was named to the Associated Press and WNBA's All-Rookie teams. The Liberty made major splashes during the 2021 offseason. Prior to its first season as full-time tenants of Barclays Center, the Liberty added WNBA champions
Natasha Howard and
Sami Whitcomb in a multi-team trade that sent
Kia Nurse and
Megan Walker to the Phoenix Mercury and signed
Betnijah Laney, the league's 2020 Most Improved Player Award winner. The team then added
Michaela Onyenwere and
DiDi Richards in the 2021 WNBA draft. Laney would represent the Liberty at the 2021 WNBA All-Star Game while Onyenwere won the Associated Press' and
WNBA Rookie of the Year Award. New York finished the year with a 12–20 record but the 10-game improvement in the win column was enough to push the team into the WNBA playoffs for the first time since 2017. Seeded eighth, the Liberty put up a valiant effort against no. 5 Phoenix in the opening round but fell by an 83–82 final. On December 6, 2021, the Liberty and head coach Walt Hopkins Jr. parted ways. The team would hire former Phoenix head coach
Sandy Brondello in his place just over a month later on January 7, 2022. On the roster, the team brought in
Stefanie Dolson of the defending champion Chicago Sky and drafted
Nyara Sabally fifth overall, though the latter would miss her whole rookie season with an injury. In Brondello's first season at the helm, the team was forced to overcome an early injury to Laney and got off to a 1–7 start. But the All-Star efforts of Ionescu and Howard kept the team afloat and they would end the season on a three-game winning streak to secure its second consecutive playoff berth. In the ensuing postseason, the Liberty won the opening game of a best-of-three set with the Chicago Sky but dropped the latter pair. In 2023, the Liberty made several major transactions that turned them into immediate contenders: the team acquired 2021 WNBA MVP
Jonquel Jones from the Connecticut Sun in a three-team deal that also obtained reserve
Kayla Thornton from the Dallas Wings. The Liberty then added the equally accomplished
Breanna Stewart and
Courtney Vandersloot in free agency. Over the ensuing season, the Liberty won a franchise-record 32 games and defeated the Las Vegas Aces in the
Commissioner's Cup in-season competition, with Jones securing MVP honors. The Liberty then took down the Washington Mystics and Connecticut Sun in the WNBA playoffs to earn their first WNBA Finals berth since 2002. Las Vegas, however, took revenge and the best-of-five series in four games. New York retained most of its core from the Finals run, re-signing both Jones and Stewart. Further assisted by the emergence of WNBA rookie
Leonie Fiebich, the Liberty once again won 32 games, tying the franchise record set the year before. The Liberty also returned to the Commissioner's Cup final but were denied a repeat by the
Minnesota Lynx. This time around, the 32 wins were good enough to secure the top seed on the WNBA playoff bracket, which saw the Liberty sweep the eighth-ranked Atlanta Dream in two games before defeating the Aces 3–1 in the semifinals. New York won its first WNBA championship, beating the Minnesota Lynx in the
2024 WNBA Finals. Coming off their first-ever WNBA championship, the Liberty entered the
2025 season with high expectations and began the year with a dominant 9-0 start. Their first loss came on June 14 against the
Indiana Fever. Despite the strong start, the Liberty's momentum was hampered by a series of injuries. The team's "big three"—
Sabrina Ionescu,
Jonquel Jones and
Breanna Stewart—each missed significant time due to injuries. Ionescu was sidelined for four games with a toe injury, Jones missed nearly six weeks due to a sprained ankle and a later aggravation of the same injury, and Stewart was out for a month with a bone bruise.
Betnijah Laney-Hamilton missed the entire season and
Leonie Fiebich missed nearly a month while representing
Germany at
EuroBasket. Amid the injury-plagued season, the Liberty made a historic move by signing
Emma Meesseman on August 1, marking her return to the league for the first time since 2022. The Liberty concluded the regular season with a 27-17 record, securing the No. 5 seed and their fifth consecutive
playoff appearance. In the first round, they faced the No. 4 seed
Phoenix Mercury. Liberty won Game 1, 76–69, despite Stewart spraining the
MCL in her left knee during overtime. Although she returned for Game 2, she played only 20 minutes and scored six points in what turned into an embarrassing 86–60 loss—the worst home playoff defeat in franchise history and the second-worst playoff loss by a defending WNBA champion. In the decisive Game 3, Stewart scored 30 points, including all 14 of the Liberty's points in the fourth quarter, but the team fell short, losing 79–73 and ending their playoff run. On September 23, the Liberty announced they had parted ways with head coach
Sandy Brondello, less than a year after she led the team to its first championship. General manager
Jonathan Kolb stated, “I think our organization has always taken pride in being innovative and looking forward and being future oriented and process based. For us, we not only evaluate throughout the season our own team, but we also evaluate the league and with where this league is going. We felt very confident that we need to move forward.” ==Season-by-season records==