Sabrina Ionescu will be out for a couple of weeks after hurting her left foot Sunday in a preseason game against the Connecticut Sun, and the Liberty opened their regular season Friday without her, Rebecca Allen and Satou Sabally.
The team signed Julie Vanloo and Aubrey Griffin to hardship contracts hours before tipoff because it had only seven players available. Chris DeMarco said of Ionescu’s injury, “It’s going to be day to day.”
Vanloo caught a flight from Los Angeles after the Sparks waived her and landed at 1 a.m., then used the six-hour trip to New York to study the playbook. Griffin, drafted by the Minnesota Lynx in the third round in 2025, missed the 2025 season after surgery on her left knee. “Super relieved to have this chance. I'm super thankful for that,” Vanloo said. “I’m very excited to play in Barclays. It’s always been my favorite road trip. So happy to be in the home court and the home locker.”
Griffin said, “Super grateful that I get to come back home and I'm here around family. It feels nice,” and added, “It’s been such a crazy 24 hours.” She said, “When I heard the news, I was just very excited to be given this opportunity and just come here and just play honestly.”
The Liberty began their 30th season stretched thin on Friday, with Raquel Carrera and Leonie Fiebich also unavailable because of overseas commitments. Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, meanwhile, was playing her first game in more than a year after missing last season with an acute meniscus tear in her left knee and surgery in March 2025. Sabally’s absence left New York without one of its key offseason additions, turning the opener into a test of depth before the roster can get healthy enough to look anything like the team it expected to be.
The immediate question is how long the Liberty can keep their footing while waiting for Ionescu and the others to return, because Friday showed just how fast a championship-caliber roster can be reduced to patchwork.
