Despite being one of the WNBA's original franchises and making the WNBA Finals three times in the first four years of the league, New York Liberty history isn't necessarily filled with the biggest names in WNBA history.
The team never had an MVP or won a championship until recently, and for a long time, it almost looked like the team was cursed, somehow. I mean, it took until the team's sixth WNBA Finals appearance for it to get over the hump and win a title.
There have been some very good players to don the skyfoam uniforms, though, including a current legend as well as multiple players who went into coaching after their careers ended.
Here are the top five players in New York Liberty history, but first, a quick shout-out to two legends who just barely missed this list despite being first and second all-time for New York in win shares: Vickie Johnson and Crystal Robinson. Both were in contention for the No. 5 spot, as was current Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu, but ultimately they didn't quite make the cut.
5. Cappie Pondexter
One of the players who made the WNBA's Top 15@15 and Top20@20 lists highlighting the all-time greats in the league, Cappie Pondexter spent five seasons with the Liberty, playing for the team from 2010 to 2015.
Pondexter was an All-WNBA First Team selection twice during her time with the Liberty and finished a career-best third in MVP voting in her first season with the team.
Over those five seasons, Pondexter averaged 17.9 points, 4.2 rebounds, 4.3 assists and 1.1 steals per game. She was arguably the league's best two-way guard of the late 2000s and early 2010s and would certainly rank higher on this list had she not spent her first four seasons in Phoenix.
4. Becky Hammon
Before she was the head coach of the Las Vegas Aces, Becky Hammon was a Hall of Fame basketball player who spent eight seasons with the Liberty.
She wasn't one of the league's best players during the first four of those seasons, but Hammon broke out in 2023, making her first All-Star appearance and finishing fifth in the Most Improved Player. One year later, she finished 10th in the MVP voting.
As her career went on, Hammon became both a top scorer and a top playmaker in the WNBA. It's a shame that her best season came right afer she was traded to San Antonio, a year led the league in assists while averaging a then-career-high 18.8 points per game. If that season had been in New York, it might have been the deciding factor that moved Hammon to third on this list.
3. Tina Charles
The Tina Charles years weren't the brightest in Liberty history. Charles played for the team from 2014 to 2019, and during that stretch, the team either missed the playoffs or lost in the first single-elimination game all but one time. Her final season with the team was especially bad as the Liberty went just 10-24.
But much of the blame for those struggles lies with external factors. New York was dealing with ownership woes at the time, as the Knicks had moved the team out to Westchester and the Nets had yet to purchase the team, a move that ushered in the current era of the team.
Charles did her best in New York, and it resulted in a pair of runner-up results in the MVP voting and three All-WNBA First Team selections. She was an All-Star every year that the All-Star Game happened over that time, only missing out on the designation in 2016 when there was no All-Star Game because of the Olympics.
2. Breanna Stewart
Is second too high for a player who is only just now in her third season with the Liberty? Not when that player has already done two things that no one else has done in New York: won MVP and led the Liberty to a Finals win.
So far, Stewart has finished top three in MVP voting in both of her seasons with New York and was First Team All-WNBA and First Team All-Defense in both of those years.
In her 2023 MVP season, Stewart averaged 23.0 points per game, the most by a player in franchise history. She's also well on her way to another huge season in 2025, as at the time of writing this, she'd led New York to a 9-0 start to the season.
1. Teresa Weatherspoon
Was there any doubt about who'd be No. 1 on this list?
No, Teresa Weatherspoon didn't win a championship in New York, but in her seven seasons with New York, the team made it to the Finals four times. If it wasn't for those pesky Houston Comets, Weatherspoon might have been in the GOAT conversation at one point.
Weatherspoon was responsible for arguably the most memorable moment in the WNBA history:
Her half-court, game-winner in Game 2 of the 1999 Finals forced a deciding Game 3. New York lost that final game, but Weatherspoon's heroics gave the team a shot at the title, even if it came up short.
Beyond that, Weatherspoon was the best defensive guard of her generation, winning Defensive Player of the Year in the first two seasons that the WNBA existed. She led the league in steals per game in both of those seasons, and her 1998 average of 3.33 steals per game is still the best mark in WNBA history, with her 1997 mark of 3.04 not far behind as the third-best number in league history.