1997 New York Liberty season explained

The 1997 WNBA season was the first season for the New York Liberty.

WNBA allocation draft

Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
Rebecca Lobo		UConn
Teresa Weatherspoon		Louisiana Tech

WNBA elite draft

See also: WNBA elite draft.

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	4			Arizona State
2	12	Vickie Johnson		Louisiana Tech

WNBA draft

See also: 1997 WNBA draft.

Round	Pick	Player	Nationality	School/Team/Country
1	6	Sue Wicks		Rutgers
2	11	Sophia Witherspoon		Florida
3	22	Trena Trice		NC State
4	27	Kisha Ford		Georgia Tech

Transactions

Date	Transaction
January 22, 1997	Drafted Rebecca Lobo and Teresa Weatherspoon in the 1997 WNBA Allocation Draft
February 27, 1997	Drafted Kym Hampton and Vickie Johnson in the 1997 WNBA Elite Draft
April 19, 1997	Hired Nancy Darsch as Head Coach^[1]
April 28, 1997	Drafted Sue Wicks, Sophia Witherspoon, Trena Trice and Kisha Ford in the 1997 WNBA Draft
August 11, 1997	Waived Jasmina Perazić-Gipe

Schedule

Regular season

|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 1| June 21| @ Los Angeles| W 67–57| Rebecca Lobo (16)| Vickie Johnson (8)| Teresa Weatherspoon (10)| Great Western Forum| 1–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 2| June 23| @ Sacramento| W 73–62| Sophia Witherspoon (15)| Rebecca Lobo (9)| Vickie Johnson (3)| ARCO Arena| 2–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 3| June 26| @ Houston| W 62–60 (OT)| Hampton
Johnson
Lobo (10)| Rebecca Lobo (8)| Kisha Ford (4)| The Summit| 3–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 4| June 29| Phoenix| W 65–57| Vickie Johnson (20)| Rebecca Lobo (9)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| Madison Square Garden| 4–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 5| July 2| Houston| W 72–67| Sophia Witherspoon (14)| Kym Hampton (9)| Teresa Weatherspoon (6)| Madison Square Garden| 5–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 6| July 4| @ Houston| W 65–58| Sophia Witherspoon (21)| Rebecca Lobo (11)| Teresa Weatherspoon (6)| The Summit| 6–0|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 7| July 5| @ Utah| W 66–53| Sophia Witherspoon (14)| Teresa Weatherspoon (11)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| Delta Center| 7–0|- style="background:#fcc;"| 8| July 7| @ Phoenix| L 50–69| Vickie Johnson (11)| Sophia Witherspoon (6)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| America West Arena| 7–1|- style="background:#fcc;"| 9| July 9| @ Charlotte| L 69–87| Vickie Johnson (14)| Rebecca Lobo (8)| Teresa Weatherspoon (7)| Charlotte Coliseum| 7–2|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 10| July 10| Charlotte| W 62–48| Rebecca Lobo (16)| Rebecca Lobo (11)| Teresa Weatherspoon (7)| Madison Square Garden| 8–2|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 11| July 14| @ Cleveland| W 68–57| Rebecca Lobo (18)| Rebecca Lobo (8)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| Gund Arena| 9–2|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 12| July 15| Cleveland| W 76–59| Sophia Witherspoon (16)| Lobo
Wicks (8)| Teresa Weatherspoon (8)| Madison Square Garden| 10–2|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 13| July 17| Utah| W 80–54| Rebecca Lobo (17)| Kym Hampton (9)| Teresa Weatherspoon (7)| Madison Square Garden| 11–2|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 14| July 19| Los Angeles| W 69–57| Sophia Witherspoon (24)| Kym Hampton (9)| Rebecca Lobo (5)| Madison Square Garden| 12–2|- style="background:#fcc;"| 15| July 22| Utah| L 71–78| Sophia Witherspoon (16)| Kym Hampton (7)| Teresa Weatherspoon (6)| Madison Square Garden| 12–3|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 16| July 23| @ Charlotte| W 65–63| Rebecca Lobo (17)| Rebecca Lobo (4)| Vickie Johnson (6)| Charlotte Coliseum| 13–3 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 17| July 26| Charlotte| L 61–64| Sophia Witherspoon (21)| Rebecca Lobo (11)| Teresa Weatherspoon (7)| Madison Square Garden| 13–4 |- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 18| July 30| Sacramento| W 73–68| Sophia Witherspoon (26)| Rebecca Lobo (12)| Teresa Weatherspoon (10)| Madison Square Garden| 14–4 | |- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 19| August 2| Phoenix| W 80–70| Sophia Witherspoon (20)| Kym Hampton (10)| Vickie Johnson (6)| Madison Square Garden| 15–4 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 20| August 5| Los Angeles| L 50–67| Hampton
Witherspoon (12)| Rebecca Lobo (10)| Johnson
Weatherspoon (3)| Madison Square Garden| 15–5 |- style="background:#fcc;"| 21| August 11| @ Sacramento| L 69–76| Kym Hampton (17)| Kym Hampton (6)| Teresa Weatherspoon (6)| ARCO Arena| 15–6|- style="background:#fcc;"| 22| August 12| @ Phoenix| L 67–77| Kym Hampton (14)| Kym Hampton (11)| Teresa Weatherspoon (8)| America West Arena| 15–7|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 23| August 15| Sacramento| W 79–63| Sophia Witherspoon (21)| Kym Hampton (8)| Teresa Weatherspoon (8)| Madison Square Garden| 16–7|- style="background:#fcc;"| 24| August 17| Houston| L 55–70| Rebecca Lobo (13)| Johnson
Lobo (6)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| Madison Square Garden| 16–8|- style="background:#fcc;"| 25| August 19| @ Utah| L 75–81| Rebecca Lobo (27)| Rebecca Lobo (9)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| Delta Center| 16–9|- style="background:#fcc;"| 26| August 20| @ Los Angeles| L 76–78| Sophia Witherspoon (27)| Johnson
Wicks (5)| Teresa Weatherspoon (12)| Great Western Forum| 16–10|- style="background:#fcc;"| 27| August 23| @ Cleveland| L 71–72| Trena Trice (17)| Kym Hampton (9)| Johnson
Weatherspoon (5)| Gund Arena| 16–11|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 28| August 24| Cleveland| W 79–72 (OT)| Kym Hampton (21)| Rebecca Lobo (7)| Teresa Weatherspoon (8)| Madison Square Garden| 17–11

Playoffs

|- style="background:#bbffbb;"| 1| August 28| @ Phoenix| W 59–41| Rebecca Lobo (16)| Kym Hampton (14)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| America West Arena| 1–0|- style="background:#fcc;"| 1| August 30| New York| L 51–65| Kym Hampton (13)| Kym Hampton (13)| Teresa Weatherspoon (5)| The Summit| 1–0

Season standings

Statistics

Regular Season

Player	GP	GS	MPG	FG%	3P%	FT%	RPG	APG	SPG	BPG	PPG
Rebecca Lobo	28	28	33.5	.376	.286	.610	7.3	1.9	0.9	1.8	12.4
Teresa Weatherspoon	28	28	33.0	.467	.086	.650	4.1	6.2	3.0	0.1	7.0
Sophia Witherspoon	28	28	31.0	.406	.349	.748	3.0	2.3	1.8	0.3	14.5
Vickie Johnson	26	25	30.3	.404	.190	.771	4.2	2.5	0.7	0.2	9.6
Kym Hampton	28	28	23.7	.474	.000	.640	5.8	1.4	1.4	0.7	9.8
Kisha Ford	28	3	16.9	.377	.150	.614	1.7	0.9	1.0	0.2	4.1
Trena Trice	28	0	12.1	.554	.250	.667	2.4	0.1	0.3	0.3	4.8
Sue Wicks	28	0	11.9	.355	.286	.667	3.4	1.0	0.6	0.6	3.6
Rhonda Blades	28	0	10.4	.357	.315	.650	0.8	1.1	0.5	0.0	2.9
Cassandra Crumpton-Moorer	2	0	5.5	.250	.000	N/A	1.0	0.5	0.0	0.0	1.0
Jasmina Perazić-Gipe	9	0	5.2	.385	.000	N/A	1.2	0.4	0.3	0.0	1.1

^‡Waived/Released during the season
^†Traded during the season
^≠Acquired during the season

Kym Hampton ranked tenth in the WNBA in total rebounds with 163
Kym Hampton ranked tenth in the WNBA in blocks with 19.
Kym Hampton ranked fifth in the WNBA in Field Goal Percentage (.471)
Rebecca Lobo ranked fourth in the WNBA in blocks with 51.
Rebecca Lobo ranked fourth in the WNBA in total rebounds with 203.
Rebecca Lobo ranked eighth in the WNBA in minutes per game with 33.5 minutes per game.
Sophia Witherspoon ranked seventh in the WNBA in points with 407 points.
Sophia Witherspoon ranked ninth in the WNBA in field goals with 140.
Sophia Witherspoon ranked seventh in the WNBA in points per game with 14.5
Sophia Witherspoon was tied for tenth in the WNBA in steals with 49.
Teresa Weatherspoon ranked tenth in the WNBA in minutes per game with 33.0 minutes.

Awards and honors

Rebecca Lobo, Forward, All-WNBA Second Team
Teresa Weatherspoon, Guard, All-WNBA Second Team

Teresa Weatherspoon: Led WNBA, Assists, 172
Teresa Weatherspoon: Led WNBA, Steals, 85
Teresa Weatherspoon: Led WNBA, Assists per game, 6.1
Teresa Weatherspoon: Led WNBA, Steals per game, 3.0 ^[2]

Notes and References

Web site: 1997 New York Liberty Transactions . 2024-05-22 . Basketball-Reference.com . en.
Web site: 1997 WNBA Season Summary.
Web site: Postseason Awards: 1997 . WNBA.com . 2022-09-04.