Liberty adding another star with Courtney Vandersloot set to join superteam
Courtney Vandersloot dribbles during the second half in Game Five of the 2022 WNBA Playoffs semifinals at Wintrust Arena on September 08, 2022 in Chicago. Credit: Getty Images
When WNBA star Breanna Stewart revealed on Wednesday that she’d signed with the Liberty, she noted with a smile that “superteams are the new thing.”
She meant it. No, she really meant it.
Stewart got some company Thursday as Courtney Vandersloot announced on Twitter that she, too, had signed with the Liberty. The four-time All-Star point guard joins Stewart, arguably the best player in the league, and All-Stars Sabrina Ionescu and the recently acquired Jonquel Jones.
Vandersloot and Stewart were two of the top three free agents available. Candace Parker, the other big name on the list, joined another superteam in the Las Vegas Aces.
“#BREAKING Courtney Vandersloot is signing with the New York Liberty,” Vandersloot tweeted, along with the same Statue of Liberty emoji that marked Stewart’s announcement.
Vandersloot, who will turn 34 in a few days, averaged 11.8 points and 6.5 assists per game last season with the Chicago Sky, the team that drafted her out of Gonzaga in 2011. She, like Stewart, has a championship pedigree, having won the title with the Sky in 2021. The Liberty are the only remaining original WNBA franchise without a championship. They’ve been to the playoffs 17 times in 26 years — the most ever without winning it all — and went 16-20 before losing in the first round to Vandersloot’s Sky last year.
A big-time facilitator who will complement Stewart’s scoring ability, Vandersloot has led the WNBA in assists six times in her career and was second to Washington’s Natasha Cloud last year.
Vandersloot hinted at her new home in her goodbye letter to the Sky, posted on social media Tuesday, talking of a “new city.”
“As I look ahead to a new chapter, with a new team, in a new city, know that Chicago, its fans and the Sky organization will always hold a special place in my heart,” she wrote.
The Liberty already were among the favorites to win it all after signing Stewart. Having Vandersloot makes them even more of a threat.
“I think that this group has a ton of potential,” Stewart said on ESPN on Wednesday. “I think that there’s a lot of amazing players . . . The selflessness is what’s really going to help us set ourselves apart from everyone else. I’m ready to get to work.”
Laura Albanese is a reporter, feature writer and columnist covering local professional sports teams; she began at Newsday in 2007 as an intern.
