Liberty announce date to raise WNBA championship banner before facing Las Vegas Aces in 2025 home opener

It took 27 years for the Liberty to secure a WNBA championship — the league’s last existing original franchise to do so.

And now they’ll see the championship banner ascend to the Barclays Center rafters before taking on the Las Vegas Aces in a home-opener on May 17, the Liberty announced Monday.

Here’s the full 2025 schedule for the NY Liberty

– New York will open its 2025 campaign at Barclays Center against the Las Vegas Aces on Saturday, May 17 where the team will commemorate its first title in franchise history. pic.twitter.com/cQfSoPXrp8

— Fiifi Frimpong (@FiifiFrimpong) December 2, 2024

The 2024 semifinals rematch will be the first game for the Liberty in a record-breaking 44-game regular season schedule. The shift comes after the league expanded to 40 games during the 2023-24 seasons. In 2025, each team will split the 44-game schedule with 22 home and away games.

Opening night for the 2025 WNBA season will take place a day prior on May 16, with the Golden State Valkyries, the league’s newest franchise, set to host the Los Angeles Sparks. Also, the 2024 WNBA Finals runner-up Minnesota Lynx will head to Dallas to face the Wings, who own the No. 1 overall pick in the upcoming draft, on opening night.

The Washington Mystics will host the Atlanta Dream for the first matchup between the two teams on opening night.

WNBA All-Star Weekend is set to take place from July 18-19 in Indianapolis. The Liberty will have five days of rest between regular-season games during the break, which is a huge difference from the 29-day break between regular-season games in 2024 due to the Olympic Break.

Additionally, the Libs, who have been featured in both Commissioner’s Cup Finals games, hope to make it back to the in-season tournament title game that takes place on July 1.

Here are more key dates for the Liberty during the historic 2025 season:

 NEW TEAM IN TOWN

Sandy Brondello’s squad will get their first looks at the WNBA’s 13th franchise — the Valkyries — on May 27 and May 29 at Barclays Center. With the new franchise set to pick in the expansion draft this Friday, there’s a chance a familiar face that once donned Liberty seafoam could be wearing Valkyrie violet next spring. 

The May matchups in Barclays Center will also be a homecoming for Valkyries GM Ohemaa Nyanin, who served as Liberty assistant GM under Jonathan Kolb from 2022-24.

FIRST CUP GAME

The Liberty’s road back to a third in-season tournament final begins on June 1, a Cup Game matchup against the Connecticut Sun at Barclays Center.

It’s the first of five games against Eastern Conference opponents. While each Eastern Conference team plays five, Western Conference teams will play six with the addition of Golden State.

Eastern Conference teams will play either three Commissioner’s Cup games at home and two on the road, or two at home and three on the road. Western Conference teams will play three games each at home and on the road. All intraconference Cup games will count toward a team’s regular-season win-loss record.

The team from each conference with the top record in Commissioner’s Cup games will compete for a $500,000 prize pool in the Commissioner’s Cup Championship. In addition, $120,000 in cryptocurrency will be added to the prize pool, which includes $5,000 for each player in the championship game.

In 2023, Jonquel Jones won Commissioner’s Cup Game MVP after helping the Liberty defeat the Las Vegas Aces at Michelob Ultra Arena. Last season, the Liberty — who had to play the title game at Long Island’s UBS Arena following a puzzling schedule conflict — missed out on the extra cash after losing to Napheesa Collier and the Lynx. 

VISITING PAIGE BUECKERS?

The Dallas Wings will host the Liberty on July 28, giving the defending champs a possible first glance at presumptive No.1 overall pick Paige Bueckers. Bueckers, who still has one year of NCAA eligibility remaining, could form a dynamic backcourt alongside star Arike Ogunbowale if she decides to forgo a final season at UConn.

In six games this collegiate season, Bueckers is averaging personal-bests in points (22.0), field-goal percentage (62.7) and three-point percentage (46.4) to go along with 4.5 assists, 4.5 rebounds and 2.5 steals per game.

FINALS REMATCH

Two days after a possible matchup against Bueckers, the Libs will finally meet the Lynx on the road on July 30. The first 2025 matchup will be nearly 10 months after the Liberty eliminated the Lynx in Game 5 of a thrilling WNBA Finals series.

The Liberty will then face off against the Lynx three more times the following month: Aug. 10 (home), Aug. 16 (away) and Aug. 19 (home).

LAST GAME

Brondello and her team conclude the 2025 season on the road against Angel Reese and the Chicago Sky on Sept. 11.