There are 40 minutes between Liberty and NYC basketball's return to glory

You're setting yourself up for a lot of trouble when you say that New York went title-free from the moment the Giants walked off the field at Lucas Oil Stadium with a 21-17 loss to the Patriots on Feb. 5. 2012.

There is a good reason for this. Even if you call the parameters “zero championships in the four major sports,” you're just begging to be swatted like a fly by soccer fans who would respond with the rationale, “Four major sports, after who?”

Therefore, it is right and it is fair to remember that NYCFC won the MLS championship in 2021 and that Gothan FC is the reigning champion in the National Women's Soccer League with a good chance of going 15-4 this year. 5 to repeat.

So perhaps it's not entirely true that the Liberty have a chance to return New York to a long-abandoned championship pedigree Friday night at the Target Center in Minneapolis when they attempt to knock off the Lynx in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals.

But this much is undisputed and undeniable:

If the Liberty can do that, they will bring a professional basketball championship to New York City for the first time in 18,790 days. This was Game 5 at the old Fabulous Forum in LA: Knicks 102, Lakers 93. Bill Bradley jumped into Willis Reed's arms at the buzzer and the Knicks flew home with New York's second pro hoops banner.

It has been gathering dust ever since.

It's time, high time for something new.

“There hasn't been a basketball championship there in over 50 years,” says Breanna Stewart, whose free agent signing from the Storm in February 2023 began a two-year quest that is now 40 minutes away from another victory.

“Just the way the city has kind of embraced us, and I really think from a Liberty and WNBA perspective, it would just be an incredible moment for the sport to be in Manhattan and go to Brooklyn, to New York's To be a team.”

It would be. And it's believed New York could be the place where a historic year for women's basketball reaches its final act. Caitlin Clark's greatness took the college game to heights that seemed impossible just a few years ago, and her rookie season with the Indiana Fever packed arenas and sparked glowing TV ratings.

Then the women's Olympic team won its eighth consecutive gold medal in Paris and stormed through the tournament before edging out hosts France by one point in the final.

And now the Liberty, born when the league was founded in 1997, can bring basketball brilliance back to the city, back to the City Game, back to a place that takes basketball as seriously as any basketball haven you've ever visited can name.

“The people in New York don’t let you stop thinking about it,” says Jonquel Jones. “Every time you walk around or do something, they're always talking, 'Okay, we gotta play one more game and then we'll have the Aces.' “Oh, we're in the championship now.” You know what I'm saying? It's constant. There’s no escaping it.”

You can't do that. Not now. Not that close. For all the disappointment caused by the loss of Game 1, the comeback of Game 3, capped by Sabrina Ionescu's game-winning dagger, caused that memory to evaporate in a hazy fog of joy.

Now all that's missing is a win. New York is a hive of activity these days, keeping up with the latest football disasters and waiting for the Knicks to follow the same path the Liberty have already taken on the doorstep of their doom, while the Yankees and the… Mets keep everyone on their toes Both try to sneak their way to the Canyon of Heroes.

The Liberty can beat them all there. They can reclaim basketball supremacy from New York for the first time in 18,790 days and join the football teams as champions. It's time. It's high time.