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CNN —
Just hours before the New York Liberty tip off Game 1 of the WNBA semifinals, cameras are rolling to capture the arrival of one of the city’s most celebrated athletes.
Sporting a black-and-white printed Nike jacket, black leather shorts, and silver bamboo hoops, she struts through Brooklyn’s Barclays Center on her “tunnel walk” — the basketball world’s equivalent of the red carpet.
With a $420 Jacquemus+Nike swoosh bag in hand, her hips sway with every step. She flirts with the camera, twirling playfully (twice!) before stopping, leg out, in a pose that would make Tyra Banks proud.
Even the rain outside can’t deter her. She uses her umbrella like a prop, pointing it at the camera like the season’s hottest accessory.
Some young fans are here to greet her. She’s bashful when one presents her with a beaded friendship bracelet in the Liberty’s colors, then does a little jig to show it off. After posing for a quick photo with the fan, she heads to the locker room to change into uniform.
The athlete in question isn’t Breanna Stewart, a perennial MVP candidate, or Sabrina Ionescu, one of the league’s most lethal shooters — both beloved starters on the Liberty squad.
It’s the team’s mascot: Ellie the Elephant.
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