New York Liberty

For twenty-seven years, the New York Liberty were the most tortured franchise in women's basketball. One of the WNBA's eight original teams when the league launched in 1997, the Liberty reached the Finals four times—in 1997, 1999, 2002, and 2023—and lost every single one. They were the franchise that proved you could fill arenas in the biggest market in the world and still find a way to come up short when it mattered most. Then came 2024, and the Liberty finally, mercifully, broke through, defeating the Minnesota Lynx three games to two to capture the franchise's first championship. Jonquel Jones earned Finals MVP honors, and the celebrations at Barclays Center in Brooklyn felt less like a victory party than an exorcism.

The team that owner Joe Tsai assembled—Breanna Stewart, acquired from Seattle in 2023; Sabrina Ionescu, the number-one overall pick in 2020; and Jones—represented the most talented roster the Liberty had ever put on the floor. Stewart brought MVP-caliber production, Ionescu brought a shooting touch that stretched defenses to the breaking point, and Jones brought the interior presence that had always been the missing piece. Together they made the Liberty not just champions but the most visible franchise in the WNBA's modern era, playing before packed houses in a building they shared with the Brooklyn Nets under Tsai's ownership umbrella.

Defending the title in 2025, however, proved far more difficult than winning it. The Liberty started the season a scorching 9-0 before injuries ravaged the roster—Stewart, Ionescu, and Jones all missed significant time. New York limped to a 27-17 finish and the fifth seed, a far cry from the juggernaut they had been. The postseason was brief and painful: the Phoenix Mercury eliminated the defending champions in the first round, winning the decisive Game 3 by a score of 79-73. It was a reminder that in the WNBA, where rosters are small and margins are thin, even the most talented teams are one injury away from seeing their title defense unravel.