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New York Liberty superstar Sabrina Ionescu is not holding back ahead of the Liberty's 2023 playoff push. Ionescu and the Liberty enjoyed great success throughout this season, recording a 32-8 record in the regular season, good for second in the entire WNBA behind only the Las Vegas Aces.
Now, as the Liberty prepare for postseason basketball, Sabrina Ionescu appears to be calling out the New York Knicks (and possibly also the Brooklyn Nets) for their perceived shortcomings.
“As far as I'm concerned, we've been playing the best basketball that's been played in New York City for a very long time,” said Ionescu, per SNYtv.
If the Liberty are able to follow up their dominant regular season with a strong performance in this year's postseason, it would be hard to argue with Ionescu's assessment.
The New York metropolitan area has not seen postseason NBA basketball past the second round since the 2003 NBA Finals, when the then-New Jersey Nets lost to the San Antonio Spurs. The Nets hoped to change this by adding superstars Kevin Durant and Kyrie Irving in 2019, but a combination of injuries and ineptitude kept that duo from reaching anywhere near its potential.
The Knicks enjoyed relative success in 2022-23 but were unable to overcome the second-round hurdle, losing to the Miami Heat in six games. As for the Liberty, they aren't exactly an iconic franchise in their own right, having zero WNBA championships to their name since their inception in 1997.
Still, Ionescu has a chance to make her comments come true with a strong performance in the coming weeks.