Aces focused on execution — not history — entering opener at Liberty
NEW YORK — The Aces are no strangers to ring nights. They’ve opened two of their past three seasons hanging banners of their own.
But on Saturday at Barclays Center, they’ll watch as the New York Liberty celebrate the franchise’s first WNBA championship.
It’s one of the league’s marquee matchups to start the new campaign for a reason: The history between the two teams is endless.
To become back-to-back champions in 2023, the Aces had to defeat the Liberty in New York with point guard Chelsea Gray and Kiah Stokes sidelined due to foot injuries.
En route to the 2024 title, the Liberty dethroned the Aces on their own court in Las Vegas, ending their season in the semifinals.
With that in mind, it would stand to reason that this season opener would come with some added emotion for the visiting team. But after a spirited practice, three-time WNBA MVP A’ja Wilson and point guard Chelsea Gray indicated otherwise.
“It doesn’t feel any different than any other time,” Wilson said of how the Liberty’s celebration’s might motivate her. “I get fuel just by the start of the season. I don’t really care what anyone got going on. Just with our locker room, I get fueled by walking in every single day and seeing them. … It’s gonna be a lot of fun for us just to get this thing going.”
Entering her eighth year in the league, Wilson said she can’t recall ever having played on anyone else’s ring night. But she’s been on the other end of it, and described it as a “distraction” the Liberty will have to deal with, not the Aces.
Buzzer-beating Gray
On the other end of the spectrum, Gray has played after another team’s championship celebration — and she’s shown she knows how to spoil it.
With the Los Angeles Sparks in 2018, Gray scored 18 points and the buzzer-beating layup to steal the win on the Minnesota Lynx’s ring night. The fun wrinkle: The Lynx had beaten the Sparks in the 2017 Finals, dethroning Los Angeles a year after the Sparks beat Minnesota in the 2016 Finals.
“It’s kind of more incentive. You know the away team always tries to ruin the ring night. That’s always the key to everything. That’s kind of the mantra of the game,” Gray said. “But we’re gonna handle it like any other game and stay focused on the little things.”
History for Hammon
Hammon’s young sons were there while the Aces practiced, a result of Hammon and her spouse having family in the area. Hammon’s ties with New York go much deeper, as she spent the first eight years of her WNBA career with the Liberty as an undrafted rookie.
“I think I’ll get in trouble with my team. I do have some mixed emotions. I have a lot of respect for this organization,” Hammon said when asked about the celebratory occasion. “I mean, they gave me my first chance. So I keep my personal opinions out of it. We’re about winning the game.”
Hammon said the Aces are on the “basic end of the spectrum” with the plays they’ll be able to run in the opener but that the Liberty are the ideal baseline test for the progress of the new-look team.
“Last year, honestly, I thought they were the best team. The best team gets rings,” she said. “We’ll see where we’re at. They’re the defending champs until someone knocks them off.”
While the group might still be learning schemes, Hammon emphasized that her expectations for the Aces are still high:
“First day, last day, it doesn’t affect your effort,” she said. “We want to play at a high level of execution, high-level focus.”
Regardless of her ties to the franchise, she’s poised for a battle.
“Ring night, not a ring night, it’s gonna be a dogfight. So we want to just be prepared. Let them have their moment. They earned their moment,” Hammon said. “Our moment is going to come when the 40 minutes gets up on the clock.”
Contact Callie Fin at cfin@reviewjournal.com. Follow @CallieJLaw on X.