The New York Liberty finally got over the hump and won the WNBA championship in 2025 after falling short in the finals the year prior.
With star power like Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and Jonquel Jones, it was difficult to imagine that they would fail to bring home a title again, and their championship hopes came to fruition in a winner-take-all game against the Minnesota Lynx.
Another key contributor to this roster was forward Betnijah Laney-Hamilton, who was both a strong producer and a leader for the Liberty over the last several seasons. Unfortunately, a knee injury she suffered this offseason has caused New York to suspend her contract for the upcoming season.
Liberty will suspend Betnijah Laney-Hamilton's contract
General manager Jonathan Kolb expressed his sympathy for Laney-Hamilton and made it known that this move was simply procedural and should not be viewed as a punishment.
“In terms of the season, I think it’s fair to assume we will be suspending that contract,” Kolb said, per the NY Post. “We want to get to camp and to really understand what we have and make sure things are playing out the way we envisioned. We’re navigating a lot this year. In addition to the things that we spoke on earlier with expansion and things like that, we’ve got EuroBasket. And we need to be really mindful and practical about not putting too much wear and tear on our existing players. That’s really important, and we need to be fully formed come September. That’s where we need to be and we need to be hitting our stride.”
Laney-Hamilton tore her meniscus while playing for the Laces Basketball Club in the Unrivaled league this offseason, and she is expected to miss a majority of the season.
Instead of keeping her on the roster, however, the Liberty will suspend her contract and free up almost $200,000 in cap space. This will allow them to potentially add another veteran, or pay another in-house player more money this season.
The free agent market is thin right now, but New York can afford to make a trade for an expensive player now that they have the extra cap space.
Regardless of how you slice it, this is disappointing for both Laney-Hamilton and the Liberty, who were looking to win back-to-back championships this season.
