NEW YORK — A roar from the Barclays Center crowd drowned out the final buzzer of the New York Liberty’s 67-62 win over the Minnesota Lynx on Sunday night, a collective release of “finally” from fans as one of the league’s original franchises won its first WNBA championship in a thrilling overtime Game 5.

As golden streamers burst from the rafters and Frank Sinatra’s ‘New York, New York’ began to play, Finals MVP Jonquel Jones practically collapsed into the joyfully-waiting arms of superstar Breanna Stewart. In that moment, all Jones could do was cry.

“When I hugged Stewie, I was just sobbing in her ear. I didn’t say not one word,” Jones said. “I was just so happy to be able to win and do it with her. We talked about it so much, about coming together and what we envisioned and what we wanted to do in New York, what we could do. To be able to pull it off and accomplish a dream — and it’s so freaking hard to do — it just means a lot.”

Stewart and Jones took parallel paths to New York: Both were first-round picks in the 2016 class — Stewart No. 1 to the Seattle Storm, Jones No. 6 to the Connecticut Sun. Stewart came into the league after leading UConn to four consecutive NCAA championships, while Jones never made it out of the first round of the tournament at George Washington. Both rose to stardom and made multiple WNBA Finals appearances with the teams that drafted them, but while Stewart became a two-time champion and Finals MVP in 2018 and 2020, Jones’ 2019 and 2022 postseason runs with the Sun both ended in heartbreak. Both joined the Liberty as former league MVPs, Stewart in 2018 and Jones in 2019.

Jones requested a trade from Connecticut to New York in January 2023, and Stewart made her free-agency signing official less than two weeks after the deal was finalized. Bringing the first title to New York was always the goal of the ‘superteam,’ and the emotional embrace was their celebration of a dream realized.

“It was picture-perfect to be able to embrace JJ,” Stewart said. “She had to wait a while to get to this point, to get to the Finals and to win a championship, but the wait was worth it. It was so so, so worth it. We talked about it two years ago when it was free agency. We wanted to come together. … We all came here to win a championship, and last year we lost in the Finals but look, we’re here. We’re here, and I can’t wait to celebrate.”

Stewart is a career winner: She won back-to-back state championships in last two years of high school before leading the Huskies to the four-peat, and both of her Finals wins with the Storm were three-game sweeps. But this title with the Liberty was special, in part because it came with struggle. The Las Vegas Aces were crowned WNBA champions on the Barclays Center court in 2023 after beating New York in Game 4, delivering Stewart her first championship-round loss in more than a decade. The Liberty beat the Aces in the 2024 semifinals and completed their redemption arc Sunday with a victory in front of 18,090 fans in Brooklyn.

“I’ve watched Stewie be great for so long in high school and then in college and in the WNBA. For a long time, she was that person that I was kind of chasing in college, like I want to get my game to her level,” Jones said. “To be able to play against her in the WNBA, and then to ultimately be teammates, it really just means a lot to be able to win with her and to watch the way that she approaches the game every day, the way that she leads our team. She is our leader and we look to her in tough moments, so it just really means a lot to have everything come together.”

Bringing the franchise its first championship after 28 seasons was particularly meaningful for Stewart as the only New Yorker on the roster. She grew up more than 200 miles from Brooklyn in Syracuse, but the first WNBA game she ever attended was the Liberty at Madison Square Garden. The city has embraced the upstate kid, nicknamed ‘Stew York,’ as one of its own, and they will celebrate the title alongside her and the team at a ticker-tape parade promised by mayor Eric Adams later this week.

“Throughout my whole day everybody was texting me like how are you, are you ready? And I was calm,” Stewart said. “I was ready, because I knew that no matter what the city was going to have our back. They showed up, and they showed out and they continue to be there for us when we need. I’m so proud of this team, but so happy to be able to bring the first championship here because the city deserves it. And listen, I don’t know what’s going to happen this next week, but I’m sure it’s going to be crazy.”

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