Liberty open 2026 season on Friday vs Sun

DeMarco earns first win in preseason finale as NY preps for tip-off

By Noah Zimmerman

noah@queensledger.com

DOWNTOWN BROOKLYN – The 2026 WNBA season tips off on Friday at the Barclays Center when the New York Liberty host the Connecticut Sun.

New York split their preseason slate, falling to Indiana in Brooklyn before downing the Sun in Connecticut. The latter marked the first WNBA win for Chris DeMarco as he fine tuned his first pro roster.

A number of new faces and old fan favorites decorated New York’s preseason roster. Among them were players like Chinese center Han Xu, Turkish guard Derin Erdogan, and French prospect Pauline Astier.

In their late April game against Indiana, Xu led the Liberty with 20 points in 22 minutes of action. She added a pair of blocks but only managed two rebounds in the preseason loss. 

On Sunday in Connecticut, Jonquel Jones led the team with 15 points. Also scoring in double figures were the recently re-signed Marine Johannes with 12, Anneli Maley with 13 off the bench, and an impressive dozen points for Astier in her first taste of WNBA hoops.

New superstar signing Satou Sabally didn’t dress for either preseason matchup, continuing her conditioning as she prepares to return to play. She is likely to feature on Friday night for her Liberty debut.

This season will be Connecticut’s last year in the Northeast, as the team celebrates their “Sunset Season” ahead of their relocation to Houston in 2027. The Sun will likely take over the “Comets” moniker, reviving the historic WNBA franchise that folded in 2008.

Friday marks the Sun’s last trip to New York in their current capacity. The Liberty will make their final visits to Connecticut on Monday, June 8 and Saturday, August 15.

After the season opener, New York will hit the road for a trio of games. First they visit the Washington Mystics on May 10 before playing a pair of games against the Fire, their first matchups in Portland. The Liberty will return to Brooklyn 

Sabrina sidelined

New York will be without Sabrina Ionescu to start the year. The 6th year Liberty guard injured her ankle in the 3rd quarter of Sunday’s loss but luckily avoided significant injury. Still, Sabrina will be sidelined for at least two weeks before being evaluated again.

Ionescu missed significant time in her early WNBA days with an injury to the same ankle. It’s important for NY to be patient and cautious as last season was an injury-marred one.

New York Hoops, Nationwide Impact

How New York is headlining the hardwood

By Noah Zimmerman

noah@queensledger.com

New York City is balling out, but the impact of local hoops is being felt across the country. The Knicks are red hot, former Johnnies are playing big postseason roles, and Brooklyn’s past youngsters are forging paths forward.

Jose hoops at home

Brooklyn native and former Christ the King standout Jose Alvarado laced up his shoes at the Mecca for his first playoff series as a Knick. Jose played five of the six games against Atlanta, scoring 5 and picking up a steal on average in 9.6 minutes played.

While most of the heavy lifting was done by Jalen Brunson, OG Anunoby, Karl-Anthony Towns, and Mikal Bridges, the Puerto Rican point guard helped keep NY’s energy and effort with the rest of the Knick reserves.

On Monday night Jose picked up another 5 points as well as an assist, a rebound, and a steal as the Knicks trounced the Philadelphia 76ers by 39 points.

Daniss in Detroit

Daniss Jenkins went undrafted after a stellar senior year at St. John’s. The guard followed Rick Pitino from the Iona Gaels to the Red Storm for his final year, where he averaged 14.9 points and 5.4 assists.

Now with the Detroit Pistons in his second year as a pro, Jenkins is starting to make a name for himself. He knocked down a huge buzzer-beating three against Orlando to help Detroit overcome a 3-1 series deficit, leading all bench scorers with 16 in the Game 7 win.

Jenkins isn’t the only former Johnnie playing postseason ball this year. Julian Champagnie spent three years in Queens, standing out in his sophomore and junior seasons. While it took the sharpshooting guard some time to settle, he’s finally carved out a significant role for the San Antonio Spurs. Champagnie cemented his role over the past two seasons, playing all 164 regular season games with 68 starts this past year.

Pitino’s stars blossom

Pitino’s other stars are also starting to blossom on the NBA stage. In the 2nd round, Jenkins took on the Cavs, featuring one of Hall of Fame coach’s top performers at Louisville, Donovan Mitchell.

For the upcoming NBA draft, Pitino’s recent senior standouts have been invited to the combine this month. BIG EAST Player of the Year Zuby Ejiofor will be hunting a first round selection, accompanied by Dillon Mitchell, who hopes to impress with his defense, athleticism, and potential.

A first round selection would be the first out of St. John’s since Philadelphia drafted Moe Harkless 15th overall in 2012 (Dom Pointer was a 2nd round pick in 2015, but only played in the NBA Development League and abroad).

BK’s past powers Cavs

The Brooklyn Nets of years past have their fingerprints all over Cleveland’s Game 7 win against Toronto. Leading the charge was Kenny Atkinson, who coached Brooklyn during some pivotal years. Atkinson picked up his second playoff series win, also advancing out of the first round last season.

The difference-maker in the winner-take-all game was Jarrett Allen. The former Nets 1st round draft pick recorded a monster double-double with 22 points and 19 rebounds. Allen averaged 11.4 points, 8.3 rebounds, 2.3 blocks, and 1.3 steals per game in the series.

A few other former Nets filled out the Cavs roster. James Harden averaged a hair over 20 points per game with 6 assists and 5.3 rebounds. Dennis Shroder also added some minutes off the bench for Cleveland, 

Cloudy skies ahead

After what seemed like an eternity, Natasha Cloud has put pen to paper. The veteran guard will be with the Chicago Sky for the 2026 season, joining another former NY fan favorite in Courtney Vandersloot.

Cloud averaged about 10 points and 5 assists in her one year with the Liberty. Between her contagious energy and unshakable passion to speak on social issues, Natasha stands out despite joining New York after their championship season and playing just over 40 games.

JJ: “How to Save Sinking 2026 Mets”

New York, New York

By John Jastremski

sports@queensledger.com

A week ago on Sports Nite on SNY, I was asked if the 12 game losing streak was going to be rock bottom for the 2026 Mets. I hesitated and wondered, because with the way the team was playing and performing, in theory of course it could get worse. 

This past weekend, my feelings were affirmed. The Mets were swept 3 straight by the Colorado Rockies, not exactly the 98 Yankees or 2025 Dodgers. 

The Mets in a doubleheader on Sunday scored 1 run in 18 innings of baseball to fall double digit games under the .500 mark. 

Yes, after Sunday’s game. All bets were off when it comes to the job security of Mets manager Carlos Mendoza especially with the shocking firing of Red Sox manager Alex Cora on Saturday night. 

As of Tuesday morning, the Mets have not made a managerial change and the pipe dream of Alex Cora in the Mets dugout in 2026 seems exactly that. 

After all, if you were paid 7.5 million dollars to do nothing the rest of the year, you’d probably prefer that as opposed to coming in and taking over a baseball team midseason. 

So, history is without a doubt not on the side of the 2026 Mets. No team in the history of baseball has lost 12 consecutive games and has made the postseason. 

The start for the 2026 Mets rivals some of the worst teams in the history of the franchise including the infamous 1962 Inaugural Mets. 

I won’t sugar coat, on April 28th, the season does not exactly look promising. So, let’s be glass half full for a second. There is a lot of baseball left to be played. How do the Mets turn their season around? I’ll give you three keys. 

  1. Can the team remember how to hit the ball out of the ballpark? 

If you want to score runs, you have to hit some home runs. The long ball has been non existent for this group, that has to change. 

  1. Can the 2 best starters on the team go deeper into games? 

On a team that has been dreadful, I know it’s tough to nitpick Freddy Peralta and Nolan McLean. I think both guys are tremendous pitchers, but they have to take their game to another level to help out the rest of the group. Both starters need to give the team more length. 5 inning starts are simply not enough. 

  1. Can the team be more fundamentally sound? 

The entire offseason all I heard about was run prevention, run prevention, run prevention! The Mets made massive changes to the roster because they wanted to become more athletic, better defensively and more fundamentally sound. 

A month in. The defense has been suspect, the mental mistakes have been off the charts and the brand of baseball has been atrocious. 

Carlos Mendoza is fighting to save his job, he must tighten up the ship on so many different levels or he will be working somewhere else in 2027. 

OK 2026 Mets. Nowhere to go, but up right? 

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on Spotify/Apple Podcasts every Sunday/Thursday & following every Knicks playoff game. You can watch me on Sports Nite nightly following Mets Postgame on SNY.

JJ: “New Year’s Resolutions – Four Mistakes NY Teams Need to Learn From in 2026”

New York New York

By John Jastremski

Last week, I looked back on the year in New York Sports for 2025, a year unfulfilled for a majority of our teams in town. The calendar is over and done with and now 2026 awaits.

Look, we all may have some resolutions we want to tackle for 2026. Some of them may be more realistic than others, but in the spirit of the new year, I figured I would offer some advice to our teams.

David Stearns must change approach when it comes to handling starting pitchers.

Mets GM David Stearns hit the lottery in 2024 with the way he built his pitching staff. His buy low guys panned out brilliantly. A year later, Stearns did not come anywhere close to the same success.

The Mets collapse in 2025 in many ways was triggered by atrocious starting pitching. Yes, Stearns is right to be confident in youngster Nolan McLean as a major part of the puzzle.

However, he needs to be aggressive in targeting a legitimate front of the line arm to help McLean.

Will Stearns properly pivot?

Will Yankees Adjust Approach For October success?

The Yankees properly pivoted last offseason after losing Juan Soto to the Mets.

Max Fried & Cody Bellinger were a big part of the success of the 2025 regular season.

However, in the postseason, the result remained the same. Another year without a World Series title.

Will Brian Cashman acknowledge the need for balance and an a contact approach up and down the lineup? Or will it be a lineup with automatic outs at the bottom like we saw a year ago in the ALDS?

Will Giants ownership learn from past mistakes in Head Coach Hiring Process?

The Giants once again will be in the market for a head coach in January. 

It’s a franchise that hasn’t gotten it right with their head man since the days of Tom Coughlin.

Can they find the proper leader equipped to handle the battleground that is New York?

Don’t make the same mistake of years past. Try to find a leader with experience as a head coach who can go and hit the ground running.

Will Aaron Glenn learn from his mistakes from his nightmarish first season?

It’s tough to have a more miserable first season than Jets Head Coach Aaron Glenn.

From non competitive football to dust ups with the media, it’s been as bad as it gets.

Will Glenn acknowledge the mistakes of year 1 on and off the field and grow from them?

Or will he join a long list of failed Jets head coaches…

Hopefully 2025 will bring a lot of reflection and learning for the power brokers of NY Sports and 2026 will be a year of upward mobility!

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York on The Ringer Podcast Network every Sunday/Thursday on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sportsnite at 11 PM on SNY. 

JJ: “The Year in NY Sports for 2025. Not Good Enough…”

New York New York

By John Jastremski

Believe it or not, next week is the final full week of 2025. 

In NY Sports, I think many of us went into the calendar year with high hopes for our teams and prospects for success. 

Looking back on the year, it’s hard to not have a feeling of disappointment. 

I think the best way to look at NY Sports in 2025 is to say the year wasn’t good enough. 

Our baseball teams were fresh off a trip to the World Series and the NLCS a year ago at this time. 

Life was good for Mets fans, Juan Soto was the new conquering hero and the sky was the limit… Until it wasn’t. 

The Mets inexplicably missed the playoffs in 2025 and it was no fluke. 

They were a terrible baseball team for the final 4 months of the season and the ramifications of that poor play is the wholesale change we are witnessing within the team heading into 2026. 

In Yankees land, it was another year of coming up short in October. 

Yes, the Yankees pivoted brilliantly away from Juan Soto. 

Yes, they tied the Blue Jays for the most wins in the American League, but another year slips through the hourglass of Aaron Judge’s career without a ring. 

The pressure continues to mount and yet the team continues to be content with where they stand. 

Good enough to be in the dance, sure they have a chance, but it hasn’t been good enough to win. 

The football teams. Par for the course. And not in a good way. A collective 5 wins by 2 teams is a special sort of ineptitude. 

One would argue the New York Knicks would buck this trend of not being good enough. 

And compared to the other teams in town, it makes perfect sense. 

The Knicks advanced to the Eastern Conference Final for the first time in 25 seasons. 

They had an epic 2nd round series win against the Boston Celtics. 

Yet, they can join the club of disappointment. Why? The Game 1 collapse against the Indiana Pacers will be a game that lives forever in infamy. 

It flat out cost the Knicks the series and will haunt this team until of course they reach the NBA Finals. 

2025 was eventful. There were some monster moments, promising debuts & plenty of interesting subplots. 

At the end of the day, it wasn’t good enough for our fair city. Let’s hope 2026 can be better…

You can listen to my podcast New York, New York every Sunday & Thursday on The Ringer Podcast Network on Spotify/Apple Podcasts. You can watch me nightly on Honda Sports Nite at 11 PM on SNY.

Political Whisperer: New York’s Threat to Re-Redraw Congressional Lines

By Robert Hornak

One of the great traditions of American politics is for both political parties to try their best to gerrymander the lines of the political districts in their states. There is nothing new about this or unique to either party. 

There has been recent attention brought to this process, sparked by two recent Supreme Court decisions. In 2019, the court ruled that issues related to partisan gerrymandering – the process where district lines are drawn to favor one party over the other – are “beyond the reach of the federal courts” changing how past voting rights cases, that advantaged democrats over republicans, would be considered by the court. 

Then in 2024, the SCOTUS ruled in favor of a South Carolina district that was challenged as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. Writing for the majority, Justice Alito stated, “inferring bad faith based on the racial effects of a political gerrymander in a jurisdiction in which race and partisan preference are very closely correlated” would no longer be accepted as a basis for challenge by the court, recognizing the difference between political and racial gerrymandering.

Now there is talk about drawing new lines in certain red states where partisan gerrymandering in the past had been thwarted by the courts as being racially, not politically based. Texas is leading the charge, looking to redraw their congressional lines to increase partisan advantage, as democrats have already done in many states, looking to fight fire with fire. 

Democrats, naturally, are up in arms, screaming about how unethical this effort is, while trying to cover their Cheshire cat grin for having done it themselves so successfully in states like Illinois, California, and Massachusetts. 

But nowhere were they more blatant about this than in New York. In 2014, NY voters approved a referendum to make the redistricting process “a fair and readily transparent process by which to redraw the lines of state legislative and congressional districts” according to the NYC Independent Redistricting Commission. The newly created IRC would draw the lines of new districts with strict constitutional limitations on gerrymandering to advantage either political party. However, the legislature must approve the final maps, a legislature now dominated by democrats. 

Unlike Texas, the NY Constitution mandates that district lines be redrawn once and only once a decade. The IRC submitted their constitutionally required plan for redistricting for the 2022 elections, but they were not gerrymandered enough for the Democrats in Albany. 

Unable to get the 2/3 vote required to pass their own gerrymandered lines, the process was handed to the courts. A non-partisan expert was engaged and the court set the new lines. Lines that were generally seen as fair by just about everyone – except the Democrats in power who were highly displeased that Republicans gained three seats that election. 

So, committed to finding a better way to gerrymander within constitutional boundaries, Democrats pledged to draw new lines for the 2024 election. And they did. Republicans, who had 11 seats after the 2022 election but lost one in the special election to replace George Santos, went from 10 seats to 7 after 2024.

So now Texas is effectively doing what NY did just a year ago. But not to be outdone, NY Democrats are declaring themselves the masters of gerrymandering and telling Texas Republicans you ain’t seen nothing yet. 

While Democrats around the country yell foul and claim that Texas is violating the constitution (although without challenging Texas’ authority in court and with Texas creating three new majority Hispanic districts), NY Democrats are threatening action and pledging to once again redraw NY’s lines and gerrymander them even more with the explicit goal of eliminating five more NY Republicans. 

Democratic Senate Deputy Majority Leader Michael Gianaris said very bluntly, “We can come up with lines that comply with constitutional criteria that still accomplish our goal” just as they did in 2024. Only one thing stands in their way, the NYS Constitution. They need to change the state constitution to allow mid-decade redistricting. All this depends on a positive outcome for their referendum in a future election with an electorate that has already expressed their disapproval of partisan gerrymandering.

Robert Hornak is a veteran political consultant who has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Republican Assembly Leader’s NYC office and as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.

Liberty Catching Fire Ahead of All-Star Break

Wins over Aces, Dream give NY some much-needed momentum

The Liberty picked up a big win over the Las Vegas Aces last Tuesday. They entered the All-Star Break with two more wins vs Atlanta and Indiana. (Photo: NY Liberty, Brandon Todd)

Noah Zimmerman

noah@queensledger.com

With the WNBA All Star Break coming up this weekend, the Liberty are starting to catch fire again. In their two matchups last week New York pulled off a big win over the Las Vegas Aces before staging a miraculous comeback against the Atlanta Dream. On the heels of a rough stretch, the wins ensured New York would remain atop the East heading into the break.

With Jonquel Jones injured and other Liberty players hurt, New York had a very short bench last Tuesday against Las Vegas. With Isabelle Harrison suffering a knee injury and Natasha Cloud nursing a hip problem, the Liberty only had eight players in their rotation. Marquesha Davis did not play, eventually waived by the team on Sunday.

Despite the thin reserves, New York came out on fire, knocking down early buckets for a strong start. New York supplemented their scoring with strong defense, getting a hand on as many Aces passes as possible.

In the 2nd quarter Aces star and 3x MVP A’ja Wilson took a heavy hit on a layup attempt and went down, drawing concern and an eerie silence over the Barclays Center crowd. The Aces bench rushed to check on her, and the fans applauded their former nemesis as she stayed in the game and hit her free throws. Wilson would sit out the entire second half and miss the Aces next game, a loss to the Mystics. She returned over the weekend for a tight win against the Valkyries.

Without their star, Jackie Young and Chelsea Gray helped keep Las Vegas in the game. After shooting 28.6% (20% from three) in the 1st quarter, the Aces shot at a 55.8% clip (60% from three) in the 2nd. They were able to seize a 42-40 lead at the half.

The Liberty kept the ball flying around with phenomenal passing and movement in the second half. They only turned the ball over four times in the final two quarters, out-assisting Las Vegas 9-5 and 21-13 overall.

The Aces lead evaporated in an instant, with the home crowd roaring to life as New York hit clutch buckets, including an and-1 to tie the game.

It was Sabrina Ionescu who paved the way to victory for New York, finishing with 28 points, 8 rebounds, and 8 assists. It was her third consecutive game with 20+ points and 5+ rebounds and assists and 6th career showing with 25+ points and 5+ rebounds/assists, a WNBA record.

With Wilson out, New York were able to stay in control of the rebound battle, something they’ve had trouble with even before the injury to Jonquel Jones. In addition to Ionescu’s eight, four other players recorded four or more boards. It was only the third time New York out-rebounded opponents in the 12 games without Jones.

“Rebounding was an issue before [Jonquel] went down,” said the Liberty head coach. “We can’t always rely on JJ, so it’s good to see a full team performance on rebounding”

Leonie Fiebich matched her career high with nine rebounds, leading all players. Her impact has been vital since returning from EuroBasket, especially with the short bench.

Leionie Fiebich made her long-awaited return to the Liberty lineup. She matched a career-high with 9 rebounds against Las Vegas and set a career-best with 21 points vs Atlanta. (Photo: NY Liberty, Brandon Todd)

“I’ve focused more on attacking the rebounds,” said Fiebich postgame. “I noticed I was doing a lot of boxing out but waiting for other players to go for the rebound, so I’m just trying to attack the ball more.”

It looked like the Liberty were in serious trouble against the Dream on Sunday as they found themselves outscored 26-13 after the first quarter. New York shot a miserable 28.9% from the floor in the first half, but were able to keep the deficit within 11 at the break.

In the second half, New York tried to claw their way back. They previously overcame a 17-point deficit to Atlanta earlier this season, and they staged another remarkable run in the 3rd quarter. This time New York doubled Atlanta’s points in the quarter, entering the 4th with a 55-53 lead. They would go on to win 79-72.

This time Fiebich dominated on the offensive end, setting a career high with 21 points, 4 rebounds, and 4 assists. Just like against the Aces, New York were able to win the assist battle. Their 24-18 edge over Atlanta was their 8th time out-assisting opponents, and they are 8-0 in those games.

Following Wednesday’s matchup with Caitlin Clark and the Fever, a few members of the Liberty are heading to Indianapolis for the All-Star festivities. Sabrina Ionescu will be playing alongside Clark, while she’ll face off against NY teammate Breanna Stewart.

The WNBA All-Star draft also featured the first ever head coach trade, meaning the Liberty’s Sandy Brondello will be leading Team Clark while Cheryl Reeve takes over on team Collier.

The 2025 WNBA All Star Game tips off on Saturday, July 19 at 8:30pm. New York returns to regular season action on Tuesday the 22 for another matchup against Indiana.

The Nuclear Power Revolution Reaches New York

Politcal Whisperer

By Robert Hornak

You know an important election is approaching when elected representatives abandon the long-standing political ideology of their party and actually take actions that many people consider long overdue. 

That very thing just happened. Gov. Kathy Hochul, despite generally strong opposition from democrats, just announced that she has directed The New York Power Authority, the utility owned by the state, to build a new nuclear reactor in upstate NY. This new facility will provide approximately half the energy that the 2.0 GW Indian Point facility provided before it was closed.

The closing of Indian Point is considered by most people to be the perfect storm of policy failure. It was ordered by the Cuomo-Hochul administration with no plan to make up for the loss of 25% of the supply being provided by Indian Point to NYC. The fallout was the loss of 1,000 good-paying jobs at the facility and economic activity at surrounding local businesses. 

Ultimately, three new natural gas fired power plants were built that replaced 1.8 GW of the energy lost. Nevertheless, energy costs in NY have been skyrocketing as demand grows. Rolling blackouts have become a constant summer concern as we just witnessed in south Queens where 300,000 homes lost power during a summer heatwave. 

Meanwhile, other states have embraced the new nuclear revolution and the new technologies that have been created in recent decades that are far superior to the tech used when most of our current nuclear facilities were built over 50 years ago. Just as we’ve witnessed with the space program, nobody is looking to use the old 1950’s tech that Indian Point was created with.

Hochul made sure to drive that point home in her announcement, proclaiming, “This is not your grandparents’ nuclear reactor. You’re not going to see this in a movie starring Jane Fonda,” in a reference to Fonda’s 1970’s movie The China Syndrome that nearly killed the nuclear power industry by fantastically fictionalizing the worst case scenario of a nuclear reactor meltdown. This was in spite of the reality that we never had a nuclear plant failure or a single death associated with nuclear energy in the U.S.

In recent years many states have realized the insanity of denying the potential of nuclear power to meet future energy needs and have overturned bans on new nuclear plants. Texas, struggling with its recent self-inflicted energy shortfall from a reliance on new, unreliable wind and solar plants, has just approved a $350 million fund to build new nuclear plants. 

Some of our largest tech companies, including Amazon and Google, who have incredible energy needs to power server farms have also begun investing in nuclear energy to power their operations.

And, of course, there were the recent Executive Orders signed by President Trump to speed up the process for the Nuclear Regulatory Agency to approve new permits and generally make building new nuclear reactors much faster. 

All this is welcome news to most New Yorkers who have been hit with massive electricity bills in recent years that are making living in NY unaffordable for many people. Crushingly high energy bills are just one more reason that there has been an exodus of people from New York to lower cost of living, low tax states like Florida.

But while welcome news, this just scratches the surface of the problem and the need. Many areas upstate are anxious to be the site for this new plant and the many good paying jobs and economic activity it will bring. Unemployment upstate has been abysmal and the exodus out of NY has hit upstate the hardest. 

This, however, should be a first step to making NY a leader in building a nuclear powered future. Communities all across upstate would be thrilled to get a reactor that would revive their local economy while providing desperately needed, reliable and affordable energy for downstate. 

This would be a win-win for everyone. Will Hochul embrace this long overdue win for New Yorkers and build on it or will this just be a one-time election season stunt? Maybe the pressure of reelection will make this more than just a gimmick. Time will tell.

Robert Hornak is a professional political consultant who has previously served as the Deputy Director of the Republican Assembly Leader’s NYC office and as Executive Director of the Queens Republican Party. He can be reached at rahornak@gmail.com and @roberthornak on X.

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