September and the summer went out with a bang this year. The Fire Department of NY held their annual fishing tournament the first Monday after 9/11. I’ve been blessed to fish with the FDNY in their tournament in past years. I’ll never forget leaving the harbor with a bagpiper playing one year. This year on Monday September 16th, Captain Steve and I had Al, Brian, Pat, Pat and Todd out to fish in the 3rd annual Steven Pollard fishing tournament held by the Fight for Firefighters Foundation.
Fightforfirefightersfoundation.com has been running the FDNY tournament the last few years. This year’s crew were from Rescue Company 4 in Woodside Queens. It was an amazing day with true heroes and the guys caught some nice fluke and black sea bass to take home.
Three days later on Thursday 9/19 I drove up island to cover the final regular season game between the NY Liberty and the Atlanta Dream. Atlanta needed a win to get NY in the opening quarterfinal round of the WNBA playoffs which would start Sunday September 22nd. The Dream jumped out to a 21-15 1st quarter lead with an 11-0 run from 6:39 to 4:07 minutes left in the quarter. They led 43-30 at halftime with an 8-0 run from 7:50 to 6:06 of the first half. After three quarters it was 66-49 with Atlanta having a 10-0 run from 8:16 to 5:56 left in the third. The Liberty went on an 8-0 run in the fourth quarter to lose by eleven 78-67. The story of the night was Atlanta’s WNBA legend Tina Charles from Jamaica, Queens and Christ the King High School breaking TWO WNBA records! Tina set the all-time WNBA career rebounds and double/doubles records with her 10 points and 10 rebounds. After the game I asked Tina about continuing the ride to the playoffs with the win. She answered, “we came here with our bags packed… We knew we were going to take care of business.. For us honestly, playoffs have started maybe a week ago because of the situation we’ve been in… The toughness that we have.. growing before each other’s eyes.” Her leadership was impressive. Tina was the number one pick in the 2010 WNBA draft. Sitting next to her was Naz Hillmon who was picked in the 2nd round of the 2022 draft.
On Sunday September 22nd the 115 mile drive up island to the Barclays Center wasn’t bad. I left the east end around 8:25am and found a great parking spot close to the Barclays a little over two hours later. I knew right away it was going to be a different Liberty team facing Atlanta. Liberty coach Sandy Brondello wouldn’t tell us her starting lineup in the pregame press conference so I asked her about the role 6 foot 4 inch German, Leonie Fiebich would play after having limited minutes in Thursday’s loss to Atlanta. Sandy answered, “it’s a big role…she had limited minutes these last games…she’s a very important player for us…she’ll be heavily involved in the game.”
Later in the press room I noticed a lineup alert posted by Underdog WNBA on X at 12:17pm. Leonie Fiebich would start ahead of Courtney Vandersloot. I had asked Sandy about gamesmanship when playing a team 3 times in 5 days. She had given me my answer by shuffling the starting lineup and not announcing it from Thursday 9/19 to Sunday 9/22. Leonie Fiebich was the star of Sunday’s game. She scored 21 points on 7 for 8 shooting. She went 4 for 4 on her 3 point shots. The Liberty won 83-69.
It was do or die for Atlanta on Tuesday September 24th. Down 1-0 in the best of 3 quarterfinal series with the Liberty the Dream had to win to keep their season alive. When I had asked Atlanta Coach Tanisha Wright about the importance of three point shooting before game 1 she explained 3 pointers were important for the Liberty but the Dream needed to get out in transition to win. In the first quarter of game 2 it was the Dream’s Allisha Gray who went off from three in the opening quarter. Scoring 14 points on 5 for 5 shooting with 4 for 4 from the 3 point arc. Atlanta jumped out to a 28-19 first quarter lead. NY had a 20-6 run in the 2nd quarter from the 9:23 to the 5:07 mark and the score was 48-43 at halftime. In the 3rd quarter Sabrina Ionescu was 5 for 6 and scored 11 points as the Liberty outscored Atlanta 22-16 to lead 65-64 after 3. Ionescu continued her onslaught scoring 12 points in the 4th quarter and leading NY to a 91-82 series clinching win. Ionescu’s 36 points tied the NY Liberty franchise record for most points in a playoff game. As we go to press the Liberty are set to start their semifinal series against archrival Las Vegas Aces on Sunday September 29th at the Barclays Center.
