When I talk with Betnijah Laney-Hamilton on Zoom, it’s five days after the New York Liberty’s historic WNBA Championship win and one day after their parade through downtown Manhattan. She’s wearing her usual chic minimal makeup look, with fresh blonde boho braids cascading down her head, so you can hardly tell that she’s been popping bottles for nearly a week straight.
“It’s been crazy,” she says of the past few days. “As soon as we won, we started celebrating and didn’t get home until about 4:30 a.m. We’ve pretty much been celebrating ever since.”
As they should! The win—which came after a wildly stress-inducing and competitive five-game series against the Minnesota Lynx—marks the Liberty’s first-ever championship and the first basketball championship win to New York City in over 50 years. Add that to a record-breaking season for the WNBA as a whole, thanks to a new fan base, and it’s the perfect reason to, well, party non-stop for at least a week straight. Especially for Laney-Hamilton, who was a part of the Liberty before any of this.
“I was in Barclays from the beginning, so I remember when we were trying to pull people in due to a lot of different circumstances, COVID being one,” says the Adidas athlete. “It’s been so rewarding to start from where I started in 2021 and then be here now on a championship team and be an intricate part of that.”
Below, we get into the celebration vibes from her POV, her thoughts on the league’s growth, how she’s planning to spend some of her off-season, and her IRL Love & Basketball storyline with her husband.
There have been so many celebrations, rightfully so. What will stick with you the most of them all?
The parade and seeing just the amount of fans that showed up to celebrate with us as we brought the first WNBA championship to New York. Our thing was to have the littest float at the parade and get everybody going, and I think we successfully did that. We were the first float coming through and we were turned up. We jumped off the float, went into the crowd a little bit, and walked the parade to give back some of the energy the fans have been given to us. We had a large crowd on the streets cheering us on as we made our way to City Hall, and then for so many others to turn around and show up again for the fan celebration?! You would have thought last night at Barclays was a game.
I bet! Liberty games are my happy place; They’re entire events now. I went to a few last year and remember the top bowl being covered. How has the growth of the game this year shifted the atmosphere and team morale?
It gives you that extra momentum. When you walk out, people are just screaming. You see the towels going. We have Ellie. It’s hard to get into these games sometimes because tickets are selling out. We went to the finals last year and we fell short. But people rallied behind us, just kind of standing on this unfinished business that we had. They continued to bring that energy and then some into this year. None of this was easy. We have the best fans, hands down. The energy that you receive in Barclays is second to none.
What are your offseason plans? Anything you’re looking forward to?
Right now, I’m just trying to embrace everything that’s happening because this is a big moment. I’ve just been spending time with my loved ones as they continue to celebrate me. Pretty soon, I’ll be heading over to be with my husband, who is in Taiwan right now. He plays basketball professionally as well. I haven’t seen him in a while due to our schedules.
How did you two meet? I’m living for this Love & Basketball plot IRL.
We met during COVID while we both were playing abroad. We ended up quarantined in Vegas. We found this basketball court that was a part of a church, and they were like, ‘As long as y’all don’t mess anything up, y’all can be here.’ So me, him, and a few of his friends would just be working out all day. We were very intentional about the work that we were putting in as we geared up for the bubble season. Then we would go home and play games. We just had an amazing time.
How has he influenced your game at all, and vice versa?
He has been an intricate part, especially in the transition from me being out of the league to me being in and establishing myself and making my mark. I ended up getting waived from Indiana [right before the 2020 bubble season], and he just poured into me and was supportive and encouraging so that I was able to feel good about who I was as a player and move forward. It’s not easy dealing with all of those emotions and being in that place when you’re being waived—you start to question things. But he remained positive through it all, and continued to push me through my journey. Now, we work out together in the off season. I don’t play overseas anymore, so I’m usually with him where he is. So the past few seasons, I’ve spent in Japan with him when he was there. He’s always made it a point to be available for me and provide me with the things that I need so that I’m ready going into my next season.
What are some of the little things you guys do to support each other during your respective seasons that are actually big things?
For me, it doesn’t take a whole lot. He’ll wake up 3 a.m. to watch a game, message me throughout, and just sending me encouragement. I love flowers. If there’s any place in my heart, it’s flowers. So he’ll randomly send me flowers knowing that’s a big deal for me. When we were getting ready for playoffs he sent me my favorite pink roses. His season is about to start tomorrow, actually. So I have the links and everything prepared for that, as well as his team’s paraphernalia.
Speaking of merch, I want to hear a little bit more about your ongoing partnership with Adidas. It was always so fun to see what shoes you’d wear.
What Adidas has been able to do to support me and this sport and where we are has been great. They really rallied behind me to help me get to this moment and celebrate it. I love that they’re always like, ‘What color shoes do you want?’ And I’m like, ‘Anything pink! If it’s pink, send it my way.’ Adidas sent me and my family a championship shirt that has my name and number on it in our colors. I had it on in my celebration pictures after the game. They’re super cute.
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