After grabbing gold in Paris, Breanna Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu will re-start the Liberty’s chase for the WNBA title in Los Angeles Thursday. AP Photo by Mary Altaffer
Two are draped in gold, one brought home a historic bronze and a pair took their national team further than it had ever gone at the 2024 Paris Games.
But now, Team USA’s Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart, coach Sandy Brondello of Team Australia and Team Germany’s Leonie Fiebich and Nyara Sabally are back together again on the same squad with one common goal.
Delivering the first WNBA title in New York Liberty history to Downtown Brooklyn.
The well-decorated quintet and the rest of the league-leading Liberty will re-start their season Thursday night against the struggling Los Angeles Sparks at crypto.com Arena.
Ionescu and Stewart were part of Team USA’s eighth consecutive gold medal-winning squad in Paris, though it took a one-point win over host France that wasn’t decided until the final buzzer on Sunday.
“This is a program that has always sort of made it look easy. But I always said it’s not,” said a relieved Ionescu after her first Olympic experience.
Brondello’s Opals grabbed third place from Belgium with another narrow victory Sunday, returning to the Olympic podium for the first time since 2012.
Two days earlier, Australia got drubbed by the Americans with a chance to play in the gold-medal game, giving Ionescu and Stewart bragging rights over their coach in Brooklyn.
Fiebich and Sabally helped spearhead the first-ever German squad to compete in women’s basketball at the Games, and used a 2-1 record in group play to reach the quarterfinals before bowing out to the French.
None of that will matter come Thursday at 9 p.m. ET, when the Liberty (21-4) and Sparks (6-18) clash for the third time this season.
New York entered the month-long Olympic break on a four-game winning streak and had won nine of their previous 10 contests to climb 2 1/2 games clear of second-place…
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