A German player has never won the title in the WNBA – now two basketball players have the chance. Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally are in the final with the New York Liberty.
dpa
October 7, 2024 – 5:13 a.m
Las Vegas – Leonie Fiebich’s dream basketball season has a great chance of a happy ending. With another extremely strong performance yesterday, the national player played a major role in the New York Liberty’s necessary third win in the fourth game against the Las Vegas Aces. The Liberty are now in the final series of the best women’s basketball league in the world. Together with teammate Nyara Sabally, Fiebich can win the WNBA title a good two months after her Olympic debut – no German basketball player has ever achieved that.
Last season, both teams faced each other in the final, with Las Vegas coming out on top, winning the title for the second time in a row. Fiebich wasn’t there yet. She only moved from Spain to New York at the beginning of this season and is now the X-factor for the Liberty, who finished the main round as the best team in the league and will have home advantage in the final series against either the Minnesota Lynx or the Connecticut Sun. The score between the Lynx and the Sun is 2-2, and whoever makes it to the final will be decided on the German night on Wednesday.
Fiebich, who was recently elected to the NBA’s All-Rookie team and is therefore officially one of the best rookies in the league, had a strong shooting rate of 66.7 percent against Las Vegas and scored eleven points. Difficult to measure, but particularly valuable is their contribution to the defense. With her on the field, the Liberty had an increase in points of 28, by far the best value of all players on both teams. Fiebich also recorded seven rebounds and four assists, both personal bests in his short playoff career.
“We haven’t achieved anything yet”
Sabrina Ionescu scored the most points for the Liberty with 22 points, while teammate Breanna Stewart had 19. “We won, so it was pretty good,” said Ionescu. “We haven’t achieved anything yet. We all know that. We have to keep coming out and striking, we haven’t achieved anything yet.”
Inonescu knows as well as Stewart: New York has been in the final six times, and the others always celebrated the title. “We haven’t achieved anything yet,” said Stewart. “It was an emotional series, a tough series for many reasons. But now we’re in the final and hosting games one and two. We’re ready. We’re just not satisfied yet.” Fiebich and Sabally – Satou Sabally’s younger sister – will see it similarly.
