Elle Duncan’s Exit Sets Off ‘Stampede’ Inside ESPN
In the WNBA, signing the league’s best players is not just about salaries. In a league with a hard salary cap and a veteran supermax salary of $249,244, it can’t be.
Over the last four years, teams have made off-court investments in order to help construct a championship roster. Some players believe none are doing a better job than the Liberty.
“I think some people forget, while there’s a lot of other big teams, New York really started talk ‘of ‘let’s progress us forward,’” the Liberty’s newest guard Natasha Cloud said at training camp Monday. “Let’s invest. Let’s make sure that our players have everything that they need.”
That reputation for the Liberty began following the sale of the franchise to Brooklyn Nets owners Joe and Clara Wu Tsai in 2019.
When the Tsais purchased the franchise, the team was playing in the Westchester County Center. They averaged a league-worst 2,239 fans per home game, according to Across the Timeline. Prior to the sale, the team—previously owned by Knicks owner James Dolan—took a yearly loss since its inception, with losses exceeding $100 million.
One of the first things the Tsais did was move the franchise to Brooklyn. In the nearly six years since the sale, the Tsai’s have moved the franchise into the league’s upper echelon. They were the last original WNBA franchise without a title, until last year.
The Tsais, though popular with players, have skirted league rules.
In 2022 the Liberty were fined $500,000 for chartering flights to away games during the second half of the previous WNBA season. The fine was also due to other violations including a team trip to Napa, California. (The league has since started spending $25 million a year to fly teams on charters.)
The Las Vegas Aces have come under fire, too, for circumventing the salary cap. Following an investigation, the Aces were found in violation of league rules regarding impermissible player benefits and workplace policies. Coach Becky Hammon was suspended two games and the team was forced to give up its 2025 first-round pick. The league is currently investigating the Aces for the $100,000 sponsorship payments from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority for each player.
The Aces became the first WNBA team to win back-to-back titles in 2023 and 2024 since the Sparks did it in 2001 and 2002. Last year, the Liberty beat them 3-1 in the league semifinals.
A day after those payments were announced by the LVCVA last season, the WNBA opened an investigation. At the draft earlier this month, commissioner Cathy Engelbert said she had no update.
One of the player unions’ priorities in CBA negotiations is establishing professional standards across the league. Under the current CBA, ratified in 2020, there are staffing standards requiring employees to have certain credentials pertaining to experience. The CBA also requires teams to provide housing and a car to players. The union is permitted to inspect team facilities including the arena, practice facility and team housing.
However, there is no requirement for franchises when it comes to the caliber of those facilities or even things like post-practice meals and recovery equipment; it also means that there is no limitation on team spending in those categories. (The same goes for coaches and staff; Las Vegas made Becky Hammon the league’s first $1 million salary coach.)
Since the pandemic, the space between the have and the have nots in the WNBA has widened, giving franchises like the Liberty a leg-up in roster building. Last month the Liberty announced plans to open an $80 million, 75,000 square foot dedicated practice facility in Greenpoint, Brooklyn.
“Jonathan [Kolb] puts it in the best words,” Liberty forward Isabelle Harrison said of her new team’s GM. “He was like, ‘You guys just worry about basketball and we’ll worry about everything else.’ This is the first place where I’ve truly not only heard that, but seen it. Actions speak way louder than words.”
Both Cloud and Harrison were offseason additions for the Liberty. Harrison signed with the Liberty as an unrestricted free agent. After being dealt to the Connecticut Sun by the Phoenix Mercury in a four-team trade for Satou Sabally, Cloud forced her way to New York. Cloud has been forthcoming that her desire to play for the Liberty was in large part due to the franchise’s high-caliber operation after the amenities she experienced elsew.
Harrison, meanwhile, arrived in New York after two seasons in Chicago. She said the difference between the two franchises was stark.
“When I walk off the court, there’s a smoothie waiting for me,” Harrison said. “Those type of things, I forget about what’s hurting me. I forget about any injury that I have. I’m out here, ready to play my hardest because they pour so much into us.”
The Liberty retained most of their championship core with the exception of point guard Courtney Vandersloot. Filling the hole left by Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s injury will be arguably their biggest challenge early on this season.
But with their offseason additions, especially Cloud, the Liberty are primed to repeat. Acquiring her doesn’t happen without the off-court spending that has separated the Liberty as a preferred destination.
“I come and just get to be a basketball player,” Cloud said. “I just get to be Tash. I’m thankful for where god allowed my journey to go and I’m really thankful for this organization coming in and saving me in a lot of ways.”
