It’s Tuesday night at the Barclays Center, and two men are escorting the New York Liberty’s main star through the crowded stands. Jason Sudeikis, Michael Imperioli and Amy Poehler are already sitting courtside; so is Fran Leibovitz in a seafoam-colored linen blazer, and tennis stars Taylor Townsend and Francis Tiafoe.
One of the men smiles shyly and asks a crowd of fans jostling for photos, “Has anyone seen the elephant in the room?!” Ellie the elephant, holding a seafoam-colored braid in one of her anatomically incorrect hand paws, extends a hip, bends her elbow and drops to dance to “Single Ladies.” The crowd around her erupts with delight. Forget Sudeikis and Leibovitz: The anthropomorphic dancing elephant, carrying a half-moon Karrica basketball purse and wearing a tight-fitting jersey dress, was the real star that Liberty fans came to see.
For many of the 11,455 fans in attendance for the Liberty’s August 20 game against the Dallas Wings, it’s high time. The week before, the Liberty clinched a playoff spot with a win over the Las Vegas Aces, the two-time defending WNBA champions. At this point in the season, there are only a handful of home games left before the playoffs begin, and with the best record in the league, the Liberty currently draw the most enthusiastic crowds in sports. Can the team, which has suffered only two home losses since the season began in May, ride this winning streak to a championship ring for the first time in 27 years?
After growing tremendously last year, enthusiasm for the team has grown even more this season. Between 2023 and 2024, home game attendance increased 64 percent, and season ticket holders increased 106 percent year-over-year. Backed by outsized support from New York’s most idiosyncratic crowds—young and old, diehard fans and newbies, every identity, every background, every borough, and a list of celebrity supporters that’s as mind-bogglingly random as it is spot-on—the Liberty seem unstoppable. Every bad refereeing call causes fans to jump to their feet; every basket is greeted with a tidal wave of cheers. The crowds are so excited at Liberty games that it’s hard to remember it wasn’t always this way.
Photo: Ashley Markle
“I saw them at Madison Square Garden many years ago when nobody cared about the WNBA,” Erica Ham told me as she walked through the arena during a timeout. What was the difference between those season games at Madison Square Garden and now? “It feels like a world without Trump right now,” Ham said. “And I’m excited because there’s a gold medalist on the court.” Breanna Stewart, who this year became the fastest player in franchise history to score 500 field goals, and Sabrina Ionescu had returned to New York from Paris after a thrilling women’s basketball final that ended with a 67-66 victory over France and the eighth consecutive gold medal for the U.S. women’s basketball team.
Ham’s girlfriend Heaven Vergara attended her first Liberty game: “Everyone wears one color. I feel like I’m missing out if I don’t wear the colors!” That’s because it’s #SeafoamSzn, or at least that’s what Liberty’s social media team labeled it—that particular shade of toothpaste green that’s all the rage at home games at Barclays. Whether you’re here to catch a glimpse of the meme-worthy #CeLIBERTYrow (the who’s who populating the courtside seats) or to see what shenanigans are planned for themed games like the Women’s Empowerment Game or Pride night, part of the Liberty’s appeal to less basketball-obsessed fans is their ability to transcend the sport and find the conversation in the culture. Phyllis Spencer, a dance instructor at the Harlem YMCA, is one of the captains of the Timeless Torches, the over-40 dance group that performed during the game in tasteful sequined costumes. While waiting in the tunnel to take a photo with Ellie, Spencer said it was incredible to perform with the Torches for three years. “It’s so much fun. We inspire the little ones and the adults. When they find out the team is over-40, they think, ‘What? I can do that.'” That night, the Torches performed a rousing rendition of Tina Turner’s “Proud Mary” before a raucous crowd. When was the last time you saw that kind of entertainment at an NBA game?
Kayla McGrail and her friend Meghan Braddock, wearing hoodies and high buns, watched just a few rows behind the Liberty bench, not far from Ionescu. McGrail took Braddock to a Liberty game “maybe too early” in their relationship, she told me with a laugh. “I hardly ever went to NBA games,” Braddock said. “I was very anti-men’s sports, and I realized I just needed women playing sports to get interested in it.” Braddock has found the Liberty games to be a welcoming place specifically for queer people. “When you go to a men’s NBA game, it’s not as prominent. But there are a lot of LGBTQ+ people here, and I feel welcome.”
Is it possible that the league’s expansion and growing appeal could erase that genie, that collective familiarity that makes Liberty games so unique? “I remember going to games when it was $25,” McGrail said. “Are they expensive now? Yes. Does that mean growth of the sport? Yes. So I’ll take it.”
Photo: Ashley Markle
Photo: Ashley Markle
Shopping for more Liberty merchandise in the gift shop, Safayi Altman remembered the first post-COVID season as a very special time for fans. “It was really small; there were just a few of us,” she said. “But it’s exciting to see the games sell out.” In the week following the Women’s Empowerment Game, season ticket holders began receiving notices of price increases — with posters on the New York Liberty’s active Reddit board expressing conflicting attitudes toward the increased attention on the team. On the one hand, the T-shirt reads, isn’t it cool that everyone watches women’s sports? On the other hand, if ticket prices go up, will everyone have the money to pay for them?
Gabe Stark, the designer behind Rare Breed BX, the custom jersey company responsible for Ellie the Elephant’s signature jersey, known as “Herzey,” has followed the Liberty for the team’s entire three decades of existence.
“The first couple of years were really cool. We had Teresa Weatherspoon, we were in the finals for a couple of years. Then there was kind of a lull in the middle. And, you know, last year we got it going again and we’re in a good rhythm now. It’s looking good,” Stark said. As a sports fan from New York, Stark knew that a win had its downsides. But a win is still a win.
“We talked about what happens if the price goes up,” said Carla Bautista, Stark’s girlfriend. “We’ll definitely come.”
No matter what is the whole atmosphere of a Liberty game right now. There’s the guy who buys 30 Liberty hats to give to his co-workers, who he also brought to the game. There’s the teenage girl with her mother in a nosebleed who remained transfixed even after the final whistle. There’s a group of 10-year-old girls posing in a photo booth at a NYX Professional Makeup pop-up, with two girls sitting on top of the others. The four girls play together on a basketball team in New York. When asked how many Liberty games they’ve been to, they all chanted in unison, “A lot!”
How does it feel to see the professional women’s basketball players play here?
“It’s so cool,” one of the four interjected. Why? “Because they’re older and they used to be like us.”
Photo: Ashley Markle
