WNBA FINALS: MINNESOTA VS. NEW YORK

October 20, 2024

Sandy Brondello

Breanna Stewart

Jonquel Jones

Nyara Sabally

New York Liberty

Game 5: Postgame

New York Liberty 67, Minnesota Lynx 62 (OT)

Q. What does it mean to bring New York its first championship ever?

BREANNA STEWART: I've been like manifesting this moment for a while. And there's no feeling like it. You know, this game, and credit to Minnesota, because they gave us a tough series. The fans have been amazing everywhere we've gone. But to be able to bring a championship to New York, first ever in franchise history, it's an incredible feeling. I literally can't wait to continue to celebrate with the city because I know it's going to like, be bonkers. Bonkers. Fact, right.

Q. First of all, when the shots are not falling, as they were not for you tonight, to be able to contribute in so many other ways, what was going through your mind? And, Sandy, what was going through your mind in watching Breanna do all those things tonight?

BREANNA STEWART: I came in with a game plan of like, it doesn't matter. I want to play defense. I want to rebound. I want to do the little things, and I'll continue to be aggressive and shoot my shots.

But if they are not falling, they are not falling. I'm not going to let that affect the way I do things. So continuing to be there for my team. I didn't talk about this, but before I made the free throws, I missed two free throws. I was like, no, I can't do this again, I can't. I have to be here. Olaf (Lange), him and I have talked about being a python, where it's like you know your moment when to strike. At that moment, I was just thinking about being a python.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Good job. You were. Like it.

BREANNA STEWART: Be a python.

SANDY BRONDELLO: JJ can come sit up here, JJ. Let's go, MVP.

Q. Cheryl came in earlier and said that she felt this championship had been stolen from them because of the officiating. I'm wondering if you had any thoughts on the reffing tonight?

SANDY BRONDELLO: I thought they were pretty fair (laughter). I mean, the last game, that's where you get give and take. Game No. 1, we should have won that game.

I have so much respect for Cheryl, and I have so much respect for that Minnesota Lynx team, because man, that was ugly. But we found a way to win. I'm really proud of our team, how resilient we were, how we stuck together and how we continue to trust each other. That was our word today, just trust the process. We found a way to win. Then going back to Stewie, she did miss two free throws, which is rare for her. But in that five seconds to go, she said, "I'm going to make 'em." I'm like, good. I was praying (laughter), but it worked.

Q. Sandy, I'm hoping you can talk a little bit about how this one felt the same or different than the championship that you won in Phoenix. Nyara, can you talk about what it means to have bragging rights over your sister? And JJ for you, especially, having worked so hard and been in four Finals, to finally have this moment, just take me through what's going through your mind in the final seconds?

SANDY BRONDELLO: I'll start here. It's been 10 years, so a decade. I was due one. The last three or four, been runners-up, bridesmaid.

It feels good. Now, it's a little bit different, because back then we were so dominant in Phoenix. We got through Minnesota Lynx in the semifinals and then it was 3-0 against Chicago and only the last game was tight when BG was out.

This has been a grind every single game. There's things we could have done better, too. But we never strayed away from who we are as a team. I never strayed away from who I am as a coach.

I think I just love these ladies here. They are amazing humans. They are fun to coach. But it's the same feeling. That was a great team, a very connected team, and so is this team. That's what I've said in the media a lot, haven't I. I said this feels like the 2014 team that I have coached. I'm just so happy, for everyone, this organization, but particularly these players, that we win today.

Q. What about the bragging rights?

NYARA SABALLY: I don't know if they are bragging rights. It's for my whole family, basically, specifically Satou. She's been with me every step of the way and has been in my corner through my ups and downs, and I've had a lot of downs in my career. This ring is for her as much as it is for me.

JONQUEL JONES: For me, I'm happy. Just really happy and trying to take in the moment and enjoy every aspect of it. I'm just up here smiling and thanking Jesus and thanking my teammates. Yeah, just enjoying the moment.

Q. Nyara played incredible today. How can a performance like that like lift a young player like her going forward? And on press row, we were like, wow, holy Nyara Sabally. Were you having the same reaction on the bench?

SANDY BRONDELLO: No, I prepared her at halftime. I just felt, going with a bigger lineup, I said, okay, be ready, we may go for a big lineup. So Nyara, you're coming in.

I just thought what she brings, she has that X-factor. Her ability to make one-on-one plays, to rebound the ball, to play great defense. I mean, all of it. And then to finish plays. Finish plays.

So I prepared her. Really, really proud of her. I know she's had a lot of adversity over here career, but the biggest game of her career, and she really rose to the occasion. For a young player, that says a lot about her. I mean, the future is pretty bright.

BREANNA STEWART: Can I say something? Thank you.

I think what's incredible about Ny is if you look back at the semifinal series, she didn't really play. Then she stayed ready and knew that in the Finals, her time will come and she continued to stick with it. When we needed her most, because you were the X-factor tonight, Ny.

Listen, we were tired. We were trying to do whatever we could. We needed, like a spark and she was that. She continued to trust the process and we are so proud of Ny. So proud.

Q. JJ and Stewie, you were the first to hug each other. JJ, you were the first domino to fall that got this whole super team going. Can you talk about that moment and what that was like for each other and how you were able to fulfill the goal you set out to when you decided to come to nuclear?

JONQUEL JONES: When I hugged Stewie, I was sobbing in her ear. I didn't say one word. I was just crying the whole time. I'm so happy to win and do it with her. We talked about it so much, about coming together and what we envisioned of what we wanted to do in New York, and what we could do, to be able to pull it off and accomplish a dream. It's so freaking hard to do. It just means a lot. It means a lot.

I told her this before, but I've watched Stewie be great for so long, in high school and then in college and then in the WNBA. For a long time, she was that person that I was kind of like chasing in college; I want my game to be at her level and play against her in the WNBA and to ultimately be teammates.

It really just means a lot to be able to win with her and to watch the way that she approaches the game every day. The way that she leads our team, because she is our leader and we look to her in tough moments. So it just really means a lot to have everything come together and to be able to win together.

BREANNA STEWART: I think that first I had to bring the ball over half court because I didn't want to get an eight-second violation.

But then I think it was picture perfect to be able to embrace JJ. Really what I was saying was like, she led us. Her dominance in the paint, on the boards, help-side defense. Everything that we needed, she was there.

She had to wait awhile to get to this point, to get to the Finals to win a championship. But the wait was worth it.

JONQUEL JONES: Definitely was.

BREANNA STEWART: The wait was so, so, so worth it. We talked about it two years ago when it was free agency, and we wanted to come together. You look back and me, JJ, Sloot, we all came together to win a championship. Last year we lost in the Finals. But look at us, now we're here.

Can't wait to celebrate. I don't know, see me at the parade. How much longer we got to do this?

THE MODERATOR: There's no practice tomorrow, so....

SANDY BRONDELLO: No practice.

Q. Thinking back to the 2022-2023 offseason, what do you remember about when JJ got traded to New York and Stewie decided to sign and Sloot decided to sign? How rewarding is to have those conversations manifest in this moment right now?

SANDY BRONDELLO: I was like, let's go. You know, I've won one championship. I've been in many Finals and competed for so long. It's hard to win because this league is so good. You need a little bit of luck on your side, but you also need talent. You also need talent, the right talent to put together.

I think Jonathan (Kolb) did a really great job of getting these players to come to New York and sell the vision that we had here. We wanted to win. New York has never won before.

Now we are going to go in the history books as the first ever. That makes me very proud. Because it's hard. People think it's easy.

Look, I was excited just to coach great talent. I didn't really know them that well. I knew Stewie probably a little bit more than JJ because I coached her wife, Marta, in Phoenix. Hopefully that helped a little bit to get her here.

It's a journey. So it's getting to know each other. I think it's been fun. Hey, let's not stop at one, though. Let's go for two.

Q. JJ, for you, there were moments during this game, especially in the first half, where it looked a little bit similar to Game 4. The team was tight. You guys wanted this so badly, and things were really hard to come by. I'm just curious when did you flip the switch and how would you say you flipped the switch?

JONQUEL JONES: I'm not really sure exactly when we flipped the switch. I just remember just like weathering the storm and us really talking about making sure we kept our emotions in check and that we just kept executing and that it was going to be a grind. I think obviously we came out with the win, but I don't really remember an exact moment where the switch was flipped.

Do you remember a moment?

SANDY BRONDELLO: How big was Leo's three in the corner? I'm going to tell you this as a fact: Whoever scores first in overtime usually wins. I was confident after that.

Q. Breanna, you talked about wanting to celebrate with New York. It has been 51 years since the Knicks won. I know you're the native New Yorker on this team. Can you put in perspective what it means to you as a New Yorker? And then Nyara, if you could just talk about, you went through so many injuries when you were in college, and just how much you've had to battle to get to where you are now. I wonder if you could talk about that as well.

BREANNA STEWART: Am I really the only New Yorker on this team? That is incredible.

Honestly, winning in Seattle was amazing and nothing takes away from that. But to be able to bring the first ever to the Liberty and the first in 51 years -- like you guys know, my first WNBA game I ever went to was at MSG, was the Liberty. And to have that be full circle was amazing.

Today throughout my whole day, everybody was texting me, like, "How are you? Are you ready?" All these things. "Do your thing."

And I was calm. I was ready because I knew that no matter what, the city was going to have our back. They showed up and they showed out, and they continued to be there for us when we needed. I'm so proud of this team but so happy to be able to bring the first championship here because the city deserves it.

Listen, I don't know what's going to happen. I don't know what's going to happen this next week, but I'm sure s--- is going to be crazy.

Q. Talk about JJ's overall play throughout the entire series. And JJ, for you, how do we get more JJs or more girls from the Bahamas to the WNBA to win a championship after you've done what you've done today?

NYARA SABALLY: Parade in the Bahamas.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Definitely. I think we need to have a parade in the Bahamas. Let's go!

Really, really proud of JJ. I love coaching her. I just love her personality, how she brings it every single day. She was big for us. It wasn't a pretty game today. But we were trying to establish her early. At both ends, she worked her butt off. Usually I don't like to play her 42 minutes, but she just stayed competing because that's how important it was. She knew how she needed to help us. She's been big for us. She's been big for us all season long but particularly these playoffs. She's amazing. We love you, JJ. So proud of you, mate. You deserve this. Your first one, baby.

BREANNA STEWART: We want to have an exhibition game in the Bahamas next year.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Parade.

NYARA SABALLY: Parade, too.

JONQUEL JONES: Parade, too.

For me, just trying to get the infrastructure of the Bahamas to be a little bit better for sports and especially girls sports in the Bahamas to be a little bit better. I think you need more investment in sports in the Bahamas, to give the kids more games and to allow them to be able to have more developmental camps and different things going on. Just to have more people invested in it.

I want to make it my mission to help just grow the game in the Bahamas because we have so much natural talent. So many people that come out of the Bahamas go to the U.S. and go to school, end and up be being really successful. I would like the kids to be able to stay home in the Bahamas and stay with their families and then still be able to come to the U.S. to play professionally. That's the next step we have to take.

Q. JJ, thinking about your journey here the last two years, I believe you had a foot injury and you were hurt last year and I believe the team and coaches talked over the years of you being the X-factor for the team. Seeing how you played today, getting the Finals MVP and being the X-factor in the end, how proud are you of your journey over the last two years to get to this point?

JONQUEL JONES: I'm really proud of my journey. I was talking to Rebecca Lobo earlier after shootaround and just basically telling her, I was doing this thing where we are about to run out after our theme or whatever and they would have the theme music playing. I would look up and be just taking everything in and just really being appreciative of the moment and just having a moment of gratitude without -- with all the chaos that was going on in the Finals, just a moment to just exhale, to breathe and just look around at all the things that we've been able to do, and all the people that are in the gym watching women's sports and the city, like Stewie said, really supporting us.

That really helped keep things in perspective. I went out there to play to win and not to lose. The experience that I had, even though it wasn't the best experience and we lost in the past, it allowed me to be a little bit more relaxed in the situation and just understand that these moments aren't guarantees. It's not a given. You have to kind of just take advantage of it but also live in the moment and really appreciate what it took to get here, too.

Q. Sandy put out the lineup, the three of you along with Leo and Sabrina, and that was the first time the five of you have shared the court this season. What did that mean to you specifically to have Sandy have that faith in you, especially with such a physical game?

NYARA SABALLY: That's a big lineup right there. But I mean, it means a lot, obviously. She did say something at halftime. But I feel like throughout the whole season, it's been unwavering support, whether from Sandy or my teammates and in general, everybody in this organization has always kind of believed in me, which means so much. They drafted me knowing I had to sit out a year. That just shows how much trust they have in me.

I feel like this whole season, every time I'm on the floor, my teammates have my back and tell me just to keep going, work hard. It means the world to be able to have players like Stewie and JJ, who I've looked up to my whole career, be my teammates, and now win a championship with them. That's something that I will remember forever.

Q. Curious, three months ago, you just won a gold medal. Curious if you can contrast how you felt, the emotions then and now.

BREANNA STEWART: It's really hard to compare the Olympics to this moment. Especially with Team USA, because at the Olympics, we were going for eight straight gold medals. The pressure is insane, but also the pressure bringing a championship to a city that has never had one, especially in the WNBA, has been a lot.

I don't know, this is something that I think I'll be remembering forever, and each Olympics I also remember forever. But the time together is so short. Like, it's three weeks.

But like, this is my team. This is my squad. We continue to go to battles together. With the Olympics, you come together for a few days. You have practice and then you go and you play exhibition games against Germany in London, and it's hard to build that chemistry and stuff. But you just know you're Team USA and here now, we're New York Liberty.

I don't think I answered your question, but each one is really special, and they are not comparable.

Q. Personal?

BREANNA STEWART: Yeah, this one? This is more personal. This is more personal because I'm from New York. I'm from upstate. I came here for a reason, and that's to win a championship.

NYARA SABALLY: Thank you for that (shaking Breanna's hand).

Q. You were one point away from scoring your season high in the biggest game of your life to date. Discuss how this experience so early in your career will help shape you into an even better player and how do you mentally stay ready when your number is called?

NYARA SABALLY: Yeah, I mean, it's really just the -- thinking in German, sorry.

SANDY BRONDELLO: You speak German? Go for it.

NYARA SABALLY: Really it's just the mental preparation of staying ready and being locked in, knowing that whenever you have -- like whatever minutes you get, that's what you get and you need to be ready to go on the floor. Because our team has such a high standard, and really, to be able to live up to that, you have to be mentally ready. Otherwise, you'll just kind of hurt the team in the long run.

But with great teammates like that, it's kind of easy to just get on the floor and leave it all out there. Because my role is pretty simple: Run the floor, get rebounds and maybe shoot some buckets. But they make it really easy. They make it really easy for me. It's just like I always said, there's so much talent on the floor, and just being able to bring something to that is just something everybody dreams of.

Q. If there is, in fact, a parade tomorrow, is it possible for Coach to write me a letter for school?

BREANNA STEWART: Pepper, we got you. We got you. But it's not tomorrow.

Q. In all seriousness, I want to thank you for bringing a championship to New York City. Four generations of my family have been fans of the Liberty and going to games. I've been going to games since I'm 2. That's a big reason of why I'm in this room today. So thank you for making it happen. My question is about halftime because it seems like a switch was flipped. What was said?

SANDY BRONDELLO: I just went in and told them what I saw and what we needed to do, the adjustments. Obviously I didn't think we were playing with the right amount of urgency. Things were a little too easy for them, and so I just encouraged them. Hey, let's go, 20 more minutes. Then I talked about the big lineup. Be ready for the big lineup. I just thought, I was thinking that all day today, and if things are going hard, we're fatigued. It's been a grueling schedule, five games, and that's a tough team, just the way that they make us work really hard.

So I kind of prepared Nyara in that regard and I'm very thankful that it worked well for us.

BREANNA STEWART: I'll talk for the players.

NYARA SABALLY: Yes, please.

BREANNA STEWART: I think what we said was Minnesota, they had 34 points at halftime. Our offense wasn't coming easy, but eventually it was going to come through. Continue to shoot your shots with confidence. But if it's going to be an ugly game, we will win ugly. We've talked about first five minutes, first five minutes, whatever. No. Third quarter. Third quarter is going to be our quarter, especially with the city behind us and the fans behind us. We came out and continued to execute. I think throughout the entire game, we talked about coming together. Huddling, talking about schemes, making sure everybody is calm and confident. And we did that.

SANDY BRONDELLO: Yes, we did.

BREANNA STEWART: Whether we were down at half, the score was so low. The WNBA needs to figure out rest days in between all these games, I'm just saying (laughter).

NYARA SABALLY: Seven games next year.

BREANNA STEWART: Seven, nice. Hopefully we have more time.

Basically we knew we had more in the tank to give and 20 more minutes for the end of the season.

I felt like, because I was just thinking about today, and it's like whether we win or lose, we want to put it all on the line. Because last year when we lost, there was more in the tank. And this year, that wasn't happening.