NEW YORK — The ways in which Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones and Sabrina Ionescu left the Barclays Center court for the last time in 2026 were symbolic.
Ionescu left the floor wincing after she had played 35 minutes and scored 12 points on 4-of-12 shooting in addition to three assists and four rebounds. Jones and Stewart, who scored 26 a piece, stayed on the floor a little bit longer.
Jones congratulated Angel Reese before acknowledging the fans for their unrelenting support. Stewart also congratulated Reese, hugged DeWanna Bonner, and embraced former teammate Jordin Canada before she took her Gatorade towel to wipe her eyes that welled up with tears. She placed the towel around her head as she made her way to the team’s locker room.
Stewart had never been swept in a WNBA playoff series in her life after she and the New York Liberty fell in game 1, lost at the final moments in game 2 and now have ended their season losing to the Dream 85-83 in game 3. Stewart had an opportunity to tie the game with 17 seconds left. She got downhill and rose over one of her shoulders with the Dream’s Naz Hillmon guarding her closely. Stewart elevated, one of her signature moves, but couldn’t get the shot to fall.
“I think that I need to just have a little bit better touch when you’re going off the backboard, but those are the positions that you want to be in,” she said on the podium alongside her teammates in Ionescu and Jones. “That’s the shot that I want to take, and it hurts because you don’t always make those shots, but you need to continue to keep going.”
Stewart kept going for the Liberty during their five games played during the 2026 postseason. She averaged 27 points, 6.8 rebounds and 5 assists on 48.2% shooting including 35.3% shooting from three. She averaged 39.9 minutes in these playoffs, the heaviest load in a postseason she’s carried since 2022 during her last season for the Seattle Storm.
On Friday Jones was the team’s top performer who matched Stewart with 26 points but also had 14 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks and shot 64.7 from the floor including 40% from three-point range. Ionescu, who was the only other Liberty player in double figures on Friday night hit four threes, but struggled to get down hill and coughed up a costly turnover in the fourth quarter. It wasn’t her best just like this season hasn’t been her best.
When the Liberty players and staff got back to their team’s home locker room, the message was that although the team missed getting to the WNBA Finals for the second season in a row, there was a sense of pride in how the team handled a turbulent season. Stewart explained to reporters that she made it clear to her team to acknowledge the fact that the team had a lot going on during the 2026 season. There was a whole new coaching staff, and there were key injuries and absences from players who were expected to be large parts of their roster.
“Everybody showed up and was professional, and every time we were gonna be here, we were gonna fight and fight together,” Stewart said. “So that was my message, is obviously remembering how this feels, but don’t forget what we were able to do. And every year is hard, and this year was just a different type of hard.”
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Bench guard Rebekah Gardner co-signed Stewart’s message later during players’ exit interview scrums that followed the game, but then zoomed out, putting the disappointment of their season ending alongside the collective challenges the team faced all season long.
“We handled it as best as we could when there was challenges and adversity,” Garnder told reporters after the game. “Today was the perfect example. Everyone fought till the very end. I feel like today was the story of how the whole season went.”
On Friday the Liberty lost just by two points. They were competing but weren’t performing well enough to win the last three games. This could be said of the regular season as well. There were moments when the team was competing but still couldn’t find a way to win games that were well within reach.
Let’s shift to Ionescu. She was asked the first question of the players’ postgame presser, and it was one that made her pause.
What was the million dollar question? Verbatim it was asking Ionescu to evaluate head coach Chris DeMarco’s system and if it maximized the players, along with if Liberty General Manager Jonathan Kolb put together a roster that had enough to win a title.
What did Ionescu make of it? She had her right hand over her entire mouth, and her eyes glazed sideways while she listened to the question in full. She looked down at the box score and then raised her head up before answering. Jones turned to look at Ionescu with her eyebrows raised through her sunglasses. Stewart kept studying the only white paper in front of her, the box score.
First she stated the obvious: this was a very difficult question for her to answer after getting swept in a playoff series to the Atlanta Dream less than an hour prior. (But unfortunately exit interviews weren’t guaranteed to reporters which was why these types of questions had to be asked at 10:30 pm on Friday night.)
Then Ionescu’s mind went to Stewart’s locker room message, acknowledging how the newness of the coaching staff coupled with roster fluctuations which included Satou Sabally missing most of the season due to battling her second concussion in less than a year, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton‘s unceremonious departure, Leonie Fiebich missing seven weeks and Ionescu herself missing a good month to start the season. She brought up the team’s professionalism throughout, but then came the uncertainty.
“Other than that I’m not really sure what anything’s going to look like, but obviously, like the group that we have, us three up here poured our hearts into trying to make this work for this for this organization and this fan base that showed up for us through all the highs and lows of this season.”
For a moment Ionescu could relax although she did wince again while sitting next to her teammates. But she couldn’t relax for long as the elephant in the room–––not named Ellie––was about to come up again but in a more straight forward way.
The Liberty’s star trio was asked point blank: is it your hope and belief that DeMarco returns next season? With blank stares on their faces, Jones, Ionescu and Stewart took a beat before what felt like the longest pause ever. Jones jumped in to break the silence.
“That’s not our thing,” Jones pipped in. “Our job is to go out and play good basketball and represent our organization well, represent the fan base well, and our families. And I think we do a good job of focusing on that. And you know, it is what it is.”
Ionescu and Stewart co-signed what Jones said and noted that whether or not DeMarco’s job is safe isn’t their decision. But regardless of how true that statement is or not, there wasn’t one player in Jones, Ionescu or Stewart who gave him a clear vote of confidence. There was no mention of having his back, something that happened for former head coach Sandy Brondello once the team was bounced in the first round last season.
Their answers did not match the certainty that DeMarco expressed just moments before when he appeared for questions alone, something that didn’t happen at all postgame this season. He answered questions for almost 11 minutes where he spoke about the game itself, and reflected on his first full consecutive multi-month season as a head coach.
DeMarco praised how hard his team fought in game 3 and also in the series against the Dream. He didn’t have many catch phrases throughout the season, but he uttered the phrase “our players fought like hell” multiple times in this single presser.
He spoke about how hard he was going to work reviewing everything that happened throughout the 2026 season. When he was asked about his future and if he’d return in 2027, he answered without the hesitation that his players had. “Yes,” he said.
“From as far as I know, every communication I’ve had, dialog I’ve had, the answer is yes.”
When DeMarco was asked a follow up about how the make up of his coaching staff could change, the question was cut off. “I have no idea man,” DeMarco said.…”We just lost an emotional game.”
Player leadership came into focus
The Liberty’s on court play was consistently inconsistent for the majority of the regular season. Initially that could be blamed on injured players including Sabally, Ionescu and Fiebich. As a result the Liberty began the 2026 season with 15 different starting lineups, but at some point this stabilized.
But, there were multiple head scratching moments throughout the season in addition to the playoffs where the team wasn’t on the same page. Throughout the mud of the 2026 season one constant was that the Liberty’s players emerged as the most public and private form of leadership with DeMarco often pointing to them each time when asked about how he contributed leadership to the team he was coaching.
This became quite noticeable and as a result the Liberty’s big three in Ionescu, Jones and Stewart were all asked about the how they’ve each taken accountability this season and what leadership lessons resulted.
All three answers were different but revealed the different roles that Stewart, Jones and Ionescu all had to have.
Stewart began by laying out what her three-pronged leadership approach has been this season. “I have three things that I’ve really been trying to like focus on this year, and it’s being present, controlling what I can control, and detaching from judgment.”
The last element of Stewart’s three-pronged leadership approach, detaching from judgement, is a common element of the evidence based psychotherapy Dialectical Behavior Therapy or most commonly known as DBT. This is a practice that helps with emotional regulation and emphasizes “non-judgmental thinking” which leads to mindfulness.
What came to Ionescu’s mind was how different the season was for her. She had previously missed a lot of time, specifically in 2020 and then some in 2021, but she hadn’t missed the first full month of the season in a style of basketball that she hadn’t played in before.
“I think a leadership role really tested me because normally you’re able to come in and you’re able to play,” she said. “And I think there’s a different type of leadership that you need to have when you’re not out there playing, and you see the game differently. And I think for me, it was learning how I can continue to like pour into my teammates and find ways to to help them even when I wasn’t playing.”
Ionescu alluded in this moment to not being fully 100% when she returned but wanting to show up for her team regardless. This has been a theme throughout Ionscu’s entire professional career, feeling a responsibility to the franchise even when she’s not at her best.
And now that the season had ended, Ionescu could speak a bit more honestly about what she had been going through. While there was a lot of speculation about the fact that her back that she injured earlier this season handicapped her entire 2026 season, Ionescu could finally admit that it was the case. She was asked point blank how much her back had been bothering her throughout the past many months.
“I mean, a lot,” she said. “It was not a an easy year for me. Physically, mentally, all the above. And I mean, I’m thankful for my teammates. Everyone that kind of poured into me and kept me up, but obviously I’m looking forward to the off season to be able to get right.”
Now it was Jones’ turn. When the question was asked, she deliberately asked to go last. She needed to think about this.
Jones explained that while Stewart and Ionescu are the vocal leaders that are much more verbal in huddles and in the locker room, she found her place as the person who people can come to with issues and concerns and who can simultaneously provide support.
“I just try to find a space where I can continue to help everybody else and and pull everybody else along,” she said. “And for me, it’s just about personal relationships, checking in on people, making sure everybody’s good, making sure everybody feels like they’re a part of what we have going on as a team and as an organization.”
Rebecca Allen––who officially enters retirement and told reporters that her next steps are to do some broadcasting and become a women’s basketball agent––co-signed this and said that Jones is the person that provides the “kind words” when teammates need them the most.
But the Liberty’s player leadership was also quite collaborative with one another. Ionescu told The IX Sports in Atlanta prior to Game 2 of the semifinals that the Liberty’s big three in addition to Fiebich established a new group chat this season of just the four of them toward the end of the regular season during the ramp up into the postseason.
“There’s just a level of leadership that we have to have, and I think us four definitely have to be on the same page to be able to lead everyone else,” Ionescu said on October 6. “And so we lean in on that kind of thread and conversation as well, just to make sure that we’re all on the same page to be able to lead the greater whole.”
The Liberty’s four remaining players from their 2024 championship team took on a lot of the heavy lifting leadership wise in order to compensate for how much new 2026 presented them.
The second season in a row not meeting expectations and time is ticking
Speaking of Fiebich and the 2024 championship team, she was asked specifically about if this roster as it had been constructed was enough to win a tittle. Fiebich was blunt at first in her answer and said “obviously we don’t [have enough]because we didn’t make it,” but then she reminded reporters about how there were so many roster changes between late April and now mid October.
Fiebich pointed toward the differences between the current roster and the 2024 championship team. She noted how the two latest expansion drafts really took away some of their most important role players in Kayla Thornton and Nyara Sabally, two players who brought toughness, something that in addition to more wing and front court depth, those two in particular provided. “Toughness always helps,” Fiebich said.
“We won in 24 because we brought the toughness and we had the talent and we had the team chemistry,” she said. “I think we got to continue to find ways to get that back to compete at the highest level to make it to the finals. But overall, I think it’s really important that we have like good team chemistry.”
Stewart decided to get even more blunt, and proclaimed that defense still wins championships and that “it’s fucking true.” With so much talk about how offenses were up during the regular season due to a more spaced out game and freedom of movement rules, defending at a high level clearly still matters in the WNBA.
The Liberty outshot the Dream in two out of the three games played in the semifinals. That didn’t matter. The Liberty still lost all three. The two teams that will be competing in the 2026 WNBA Finals are two teams that during the regular season had two of the top three defenses.
Ionescu reaffirmed the Liberty’s mission for 2027 is the same as it was in 2026 and 2025, two straight years when the team couldn’t get to the WNBA Finals. “I mean it’s not just go there, it’s to win,” she said. “I think for us, the mission and goal is going to stay the same year in and year out, and obviously that’s continuing to represent this organization and fight for New York’s second championship.”
But there was a warning sign that Stewart made sure she mentioned about those expectations that the Liberty have. Having high standards is nothing to scoff at, but what cannot be lost is how much arduous work, focus, health and luck that winning a title takes. The Liberty have at times expected they are going to be doing something or playing in a certain situation. But Stewart seemed to hint at an arrogance or entitlement rather than a hunger to continue to strive for greatness.
She mentioned taking not only getting to the WNBA Finals as something not to take for granted, but also not to take the over 17,000 fans that the Liberty often get for granted either. Sue Bird, Stewart’s proverbial Yoda to Stewart’s Luke Skywalker, told Stewart this many times. There was a reason Stewart wanted to remind reporters, her teammates and the greater Liberty franchise publicly.
In other words, Stewart is saying that to maintain excellence, the franchise cannot assume that what it has accomplished will just be able to continue without the proper work being done. 2025 clearly had the recipe of a championship hangover, but in 2026 Stewart seemed to say that in order to get back to where she and the franchise both want to be, a lot of work and introspection must be done.
“I think that I don’t want to say we take them for granted,” Stewart said about Liberty fans. “Because I think the ones that have been here really know how much they mean to us. And of course, [Ionescu] got drafted to this franchise and seen it like really get built from the ground up. And they deserve more too, and that’s that’s how I felt.”
What makes Stewart one of the greatest winners of all time has been her ability to adjust to what challenges have been thrown at her. She fights complacency off like it’s the villan in her own comic book story. There are numerous examples of this.
She won a title the year after she ruptured her Achilles. She dealt with grief of her father-in-law dying while trying to get the Liberty their first championship in 2023. That following year she played a major role alongside Ionescu and Jones in securing it. When Team USA played short handed without a ton of experience at the World Cup in Germany last month, she adjusted, led and as a result won.
What also makes Stewart one of the greatest winners of all time is her unshakeable conviction about what she believes is possible. Even when the Liberty’s odds to make it back to the Finals as an No. 8 seed were so low, she still believed. In her own words she wanted “to make something spicy happen.”
“I plan on playing for I don’t know how many more years,” Stewart told a smaller group of reporters during a walk-and-talk that was her version of a Geno Aurriemma post presser media session.
Stewart couldn’t flat out say that she wasn’t pleased with how she felt the coaching staff wasted a season of her greatness, although she was close.
“I have like Olympics and World Cups that I want to win and stuff, but especially after being injured last season, I don’t take for granted a healthy season, and that’s what really pisses me off is not that it was wasted. Just like I couldn’t really fulfill my full opportunity.”
Clearly Stewart understands that this window for her to be winning at a high level in New York has at least two more seasons left, and that’s not a lot of time. She spoke about how the Liberty ran out of time this season.
Why was an organization that wants to be ahead of the curve in the WNBA so behind? Time cannot be underestimated moving forward, and that was the message Stewart sent as this franchise considers what is ahead in yet again a very contemplative offseason.
