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The New York Liberty are building a new generation of diehard basketball fans
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Sep 18, 2025
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Giulia Heyward/Gothamist
By
Giulia Heyward
Published Sep 18, 2025
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It’s a great time to be a New York Liberty fan.
Just ask 12-year-old twins Billie and Cassie Hess, who have donned the same floor-length seafoam green tunics and matching crowns to see the Brooklyn-based WNBA team compete at every single home game this season.
“We wore them once and then we didn’t want to stop wearing them, so we just brought them to every game!” one of the twins said.
The girls — season-ticket holders along with their father, Rob Hess — leave school and drive from Yonkers to Barclays Center each time the Liberty play there. They also get the same game-day meal every time: jerk chicken, onion rings and lemonade.
The family has maintained the tradition since becoming fans just two years ago, and plans to continue doing so for as long as they can.
From niche to mainstream
Basketball has always been a sacred sport in a city built on asphalt courts and working-class dreams. While Knicks and Nets fans have long packed Madison Square Garden and Barclays Center, the Liberty — and women’s basketball more broadly — once drew a smaller, loyal crowd.
But that’s changed.
The Liberty’s move from White Plains to Barclays Center in 2020 following a change in ownership, as well as the arrival of buzzy, beloved mascot Ellie the Elephant, helped boost the team’s visibility. After securing the franchise’s first-ever WNBA championship — and New York City’s first professional basketball title in a half-century — last year, the Liberty became a household name.
Fans packed Barclays on Wednesday night to see the team face the Phoenix Mercury in Game 2 of the first round of the 2025 WNBA Playoffs. The energy in the arena felt like a block party.
Families wore matching jerseys. Some brought pets in Liberty gear. Couples strolled hand in hand. Classmates clustered near concession stands.
Some attendees, like new fan Tony Fang, came from just a few blocks away. Fang, who said he recently moved to the area, is known by locals for his service dog, Happy, a goldendoodle in a seafoam green vest.
“I’m a big fan of the NBA already, but I’ve never had a WNBA team beforehand that I can say is my team that I’m gonna root for,” he said. “So what better time to do that?”
Happy gets lots of attention from fellow fans and helps elicit gameday cheer, Fang added.
Others traveled much farther to be part of the moment. Lissa Keebler said she drove three hours from Connecticut with her wife, Sharon. The couple normally watches from home, sharing strawberry popsicles during games.
“It’s been a tradition since we started watching,” Keebler said. “We bought four boxes the other day, and now we have two left.”
The legacy of seafoam
A wave of seafoam green swept the city after the Liberty's 2024 championship. At a ticker-tape parade in Lower Manhattan, team players rode floats on Broadway's "Canyon of Heroes" before receiving a ceremonial key to the city at City Hall.
Fans had hoped for a repeat this season, but that path got harder after a series of injuries plagued the team during its title defense.
Only one player, guard Marine Johannes, has appeared in every game this season. While other players — including stars Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu — all missed time for health reasons, Sports Illustrated reported.
The Liberty's win Sunday in Game 1 of the playoffs was marred by a knee injury to Stewart in overtime. She returned Wednesday for Game 2 following a last-minute decision, according to the team's head coach Sandy Brondello.
The Liberty fell to the Mercury, 86-60, forcing a decisive Game 3 in Phoenix on Friday.
Longtime Liberty reporter Jackie Powell said the team is well-embedded in the city's fabric by now.
“When I first started covering the team, I didn’t really see people wearing the gear,” said Powell, who writes for the IX Basketball. “But all these years later? I’m seeing people wear their stuff — bars around the city and Brooklyn with Liberty gear hung up on their walls. There’s been such a shift when it comes to the mainstream attention that this team is getting.”
Kim Wiley-Schwartz and her 23-year-old daughter are part of that shift. The season-ticket holders wear matching seafoam tutus to games. Their seating section also plans to wear Batman masks in honor of team guard Natasha Cloud, who has been wearing a protective face mask during games.
“It’s just such a carnival atmosphere inside!” Wiley-Schwartz said. “And one of the things I love about being a Liberty fan is to celebrate all the different ways that we can express our femininity and what it means to be female.”
Brooklyn dad Aaron Ali brought his 10-year-old daughter Nora to the game. She wore a seafoam jersey for her fifteenth Liberty matchup and dreams of playing basketball professionally.
“She’s a little girl growing up, and this is opening the door — an eye-opening experience for her,” Ali said.
Less of a gap between 'them and us’
Regardless of how the Liberty fare in this year's playoffs, fans say they’re in it for the long haul.
Wednesday night’s crowd reflected a fanbase that’s deeply invested not only in wins but in what the team represents.
“There’s a reason why the players of the WNBA are some of the most outspoken on social justice issues and engaged when it comes to philanthropy in their communities,” Powell said. “There’s less of a discrepancy between who WNBA players are and their fans.”
The team has worked to reflect its fanbase as well. At a West Indian Night game in August, the Liberty celebrated Brooklyn’s Caribbean communities. During Pride Night in July, they partnered with the Lesbian Herstory Archive in Park Slope to showcase an exhibit inside the arena.
Frankie Pokorny, a Newark resident who took the train to Wednesday’s game with their partner Priyanka Bharadwaj, said it was affirming to see openly queer athletes on the court.
“I was a queer kid that played basketball when I was younger, and it’s really helpful for younger queer kids to see that they can keep playing,” Pokorny said.
Celebrities from around the New York metro area are also routinely seen at Liberty home games. Spike Lee, Alicia Keys and Fran Lebowitz have all been spotted at Barclays.
Earlier this summer, the Brooklyn Public Library issued special-edition Liberty library cards. The team's new practice facility is also scheduled to open in Greenpoint in 2027.
It all amounts to something Liberty fans know intimately: Whether the team repeats a title run this season, they're a growing part of the city’s story.
Tagged
Existing in New York City
barclays
basketball
brooklyn
new york city
new york liberty
sports
Giulia Heyward
Giulia Heyward is a breaking news reporter on the Day-Of desk. She previously worked at NPR, as a breaking news reporter, and the New York Times, as a reporting fellow on the national desk. Her work has also appeared in CNN, The Atlantic and Politico. Got a tip? Email [email protected] or more securely on signal at 917-715-1458.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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