‘It means everything’: Breanna Stewart seals win to deliver New York Liberty first WNBA championship

The New York Liberty finally have a WNBA championship after beating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime of a decisive Game 5 on Sunday night.
Jonquel Jones scored 17 points to lead New York, which was one of the original franchises in the league. The Liberty made the WNBA Finals five times before, losing each one, including last season. This time they wouldn’t be denied, although it took an extra five minutes.
The win gave the city of New York its first basketball title since 1973 when the Knicks won the NBA championship.
With stars such as Cicero-North Syracuse graduate Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu struggling on offense, other players stepped up. Leonie Fiebich started off OT with a 3-pointer, and then Nyara Sabally had a steal for a layup to make it 65-60 and bring the sellout crowd to a frenzied state.
Minnesota didn’t score in OT until Kayla McBride hit two free throws with 1:51 left. The Lynx missed all six of their field goal attempts in overtime. After Ionescu missed a shot with 21 seconds left, her 18th miss on 19 shot attempts, the Lynx had one last chance, but Bridget Carleton missed a 3-pointer with 16 seconds left.
Stewart, who missed a free throw with 0.8 seconds left in Game 1, hit two free throws with 10.1 seconds left to seal the victory.
“This is incredible,” Stewart told ESPN on the court after the game. “I missed it earlier in the series, and I knew I was going to make it. I knew I was going to make it for this city. This is something special right here, and I’m trying not to cry.”
As the final seconds ticked off the clock the players hugged and streamers fell from the rafters.
Stewart, who grew up in North Syracuse, won her third WNBA championship after titles in 2018 and 2020 with the Seattle Storm. She finished with 13 points and 15 rebounds.
It caps a wondrous year for Stewart, who also won her third Olympic gold medal in Paris earlier this summer.
Stewart signed with the Liberty in 2023 and won her third WNBA MVP award that season before losing to the Las Vegas Aces in the WNBA Finals.
She re-signed with the Liberty earlier this year, finishing the job with a thrilling victory.
“It means everything. I wanted to come here. I wanted to be the first,” Stewart told ESPN.
“I wouldn’t be here without my teammates. We had some ups and downs. This series was tough, but we fought through because we wanted to bring it home to this city and this crowd.”
New York trailed by two in regulation when Stewart was fouled with 5.2 seconds left. After a lengthy video review, Stewart calmly hit two free throws to tie the game at 60.
Napheesa Collier scored 22 points to lead Minnesota before fouling out with 13 seconds left in OT.
The Lynx were trying for a record fifth WNBA title, breaking a tie with the Seattle Storm and Houston Comets. Minnesota won four titles from 2011-17 behind the core group of Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus, Rebekkah Brunson, Sylvia Fowles and Maya Moore. That was the team’s last appearance in the WNBA Finals until this year.
This is the first time since 2019 that the WNBA Finals have gone the distance. Since the league switched to a best-of-five format in 2005, seven other series have gone to a Game 5 and the home team has won five of those contests, including in 2019.
This series has been a fitting conclusion to a record-breaking season for the league. All five games came down to the last few possessions and have included two overtime games and a last-second shot, which have led to record ratings.
The first three games each had over a million viewers on average, with the audience growing for each contest. They also have had huge crowds in attendance.
Liberty fan Spike Lee was courtside over an hour before tipoff chatting with the media while wearing his Ionescu jersey. Once Ionescu finished warming up pregame, the pair had a brief exchange and hugged. Lee was part of a sellout crowd of 18,090 that helped this series set both the overall attendance record for a WNBA Finals as well as the average attendance mark.