CHICAGO — On the final day of the WNBA regular season, New York’s Emma Meesseman laughed as she ran through warmups with teammate Natasha Cloud at Wintrust Arena, joking around as she posted up against her coaches.
Her journey to this spot was part of a long, successful year that included winning the EuroLeague MVP, the EuroLeague Final Four, EuroBasket and the EuroBasket MVP. Now, she’s focused on helping the New York Liberty win a second consecutive championship when the playoffs begin on Sunday.
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After leading Belgium to the EuroBasket title in July, Meesseman joined the Liberty in a surprise move and played in her first game on August 3. New York was playing without former MVP Breanna Stewart, who was dealing with a knee injury. They needed Meesseman to play right away, and she needed to learn her new team.
“The one thing that ironically made it easier was all the injuries, so I got playing time,” Meesseman told Yahoo Sports before the Liberty’s 91-86 win over the Sky. “Because we don’t really practice that much, so it made it easier for me. I get the chance to go out there. I still made mistakes, but I played my own game. So it was because of that, a reason that we didn’t want, but it made it easier for me.”
Meesseman started her career in the WNBA in 2013, winning a title with Cloud and the Washington Mystics in 2019, but left the league after the 2022 season to focus on her responsibilities with the Belgian national team. She’s also played for some of the best teams in EuroLeague, so between these different teams, she’d already been on the court with several of her current teammates. That experience has helped her find quick chemistry with the Liberty.
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“It helped that, on a personal level, I knew the people on the team,” she said. “Like, how to speak to them? What kind of person are they? What kind of character are they? And the ones that I didn’t know, for example, Sabrina [Ionescu], we talked a lot, you know, on the core of the court, like, just basketball. ‘What do you like? How do you see this?’”
In 17 games with the Liberty, Meesseman averaged 13.4 points, 5.1 rebounds and 3.2 assists per game. She started 12 games, but with Stewart healthy again after missing 14 games with her knee injury, Meesseman is coming off the bench.
Liberty coach Sandy Brondello said she’s been impressed with the way Meesseman hit the ground running.
“She’s a great player, and it’s always hard to come to a team halfway through, especially when we had a very busy schedule. We had so many players in and out, and we just kind of threw her in there, basically,” Brondello said. “And that’s the best way, you got to learn by doing. She’s a very, very smart player. But you see, she’s getting more and more comfortable, not just with what we run, but also obviously getting her understanding of where and how the players [are] and how she can play off them as well.”
The Liberty were already somewhat of a superteam before Emma Meesseman signed midseason. But they face an uphill battle against the Mercury in the first round of the playoffs. (Photo by Erica Denhoff/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
(Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Brondello will need everyone to contribute as New York heads to Phoenix for the first round of the playoffs. With a 27-17 record, the Liberty earned the fifth seed in the playoffs, just missing out on home-court advantage. They started the season with nine straight wins, but then struggled as injuries hit Jonquel Jones, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu, and posted a 12-11 record after the All-Star break. Trying to defend a title from the fifth seed isn’t easy.
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“Sometimes, you know, just don’t get [the high seed], but you just got to build momentum at the right time,” Brondello said. “We got a healthy group, and that’s what we got to lean into. We got to believe that we can do it and I think we do. But it’s a lot of hard work to get it done.”
Without home-court, the Liberty will need to take at least one game from Phoenix on the road, which won’t be easy — the Mercury won the season series over the Liberty, 1-3. Phoenix also boasts MVP candidate Alyssa Thomas, who leads the league in assists per game with 9.2 and ranks third in rebounds (8.8 per game). Kahleah Copper and Satou Sabally complete a formidable trio that’s led the Mercury to the No. 4 seed.
“It’s like a whole new season now in the playoffs, and it’s about who comes back out and executes at the highest level and can handle everything that all the challenges that go with it, physicality, the moment, everything,” Brondello said. “And now we’re going on the road and have to win, but we’ve been in this situation before. We just got to, you know, stay together and control the momentum changes as much as we can.”
One of the biggest advantages Brondello’s team has is experience. Stewart had two titles with the Seattle Storm before coming to New York. Cloud and Meesseman won a ring in Washington. Jones played on Connecticut Sun teams that went deep into the playoffs every season she was there. When you consider how the Liberty’s players have also excelled in big games overseas and when playing for national teams, experience is the well they will have to revisit to make a deep run.
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“Experience is the thing that you fall back on. You know, when the going gets tough and things aren’t going your way. It’s kind of what brings the team back together, just because you have a sense of, just an awareness of what’s coming,” Stewart said. “You know, the playoffs are a roller coaster, emotionally, physically, things like that. So for this team to have that experience, whether championships have been won or not, is really important for us going forward.”
For Meesseman, being in the playoffs with the Liberty means she gets another chance to add to her already impressive trophy collection.
“I’m just trying to win, you know?” she said. “I think I have to try to be myself. Yeah, I’m trying to adapt to the team still, but I can’t forget. They brought me here because they want me, and I have to take responsibility and bring my experience, too.”
