Satou Sabally was born in New York, and her mom always told her that both she and her sister, Nyara, would play in the city one day.
They missed each other, with Satou signing a two-year deal with the Liberty after Nyara was selected by Toronto in the expansion draft. But it turned out Mom knew what she was talking about.
“The way that people talk about Nyara just makes me so proud. I’m continuing a legacy here,” Satou said Friday at her introductory press conference with the Liberty. “She started it and I’m just continuing something my little sister started. She won a championship, she won a ring for the city and I wanted to follow her footsteps.”
That was one of a myriad of reasons Sabally took a discount to sign with the Liberty, inking a two-year deal for a total of $1.67 million, per noti.group’s Madeline Kenney.
There was her desire to be on the East Coast, with a more manageable time difference to talk to family back home in Germany.
There was her love for New York, a city in which she’s spent plenty of time.
She wanted an organization with high standards that catered to player needs, something she didn’t have at the start of her career in Dallas and which players fought for in CBA negotiations.
There was also “unfinished business” with Sabrina Ionescu after the duo couldn’t bring a national title to Oregon, and there was a feeling that the Liberty were her best shot at winning a championship.
She got close last year with the Mercury, beating the Liberty along the way before Phoenix lost to the Aces in the finals. This year, it’s about getting over the hump. Sabally will have a superteam around her, with Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones forming one of the league’s best foursomes.
“I would love to win with [Ionescu]. It’s been such a long time since Oregon but that is something we still talk about,” Sabally said. “… I love playing alongside Stewie, so that was a good decision for me playing-wise too. I’ve never played with her but she’s just such a force. Really having other people around me.
“I know I can be a superstar and single myself out on a different team and get that $1.2 or $1.4 [million]. But what I really wanted to do is win a championship. I think that is missing on my résumé.
“I am an All-Star, I know who I am, I know I’m a great player. But I do want that ring.”
Conventional wisdom is, there’s a good chance she’ll get it. The Liberty became title favorites after Sabally signed, and anything less would be viewed as a disappointment.
Coach Chris DeMarco, a first-year head coach, is contending with those expectations, along with the heavily condensed WNBA calendar, which sees the regular season tip off just a few weeks from now after a rapid-fire training camp and preseason.
Integrating another superstar into a group that already knows how to win, though, is a pretty good problem to have.
“We have championship pedigree,” DeMarco said. “I think some of those challenges of getting over the hump are for teams that haven’t had players that have felt it before. I’m very much gonna lean into the championship pedigree.”
So will Sabally.
“I felt like I was just getting going in Game 3 [of the Finals],” she said. “And I had so much fun. During tipoff playing against A’ja [Wilson], such a good player, was like, ‘Oh, this is it. This is why I compete.’ Just having that feeling and knowing you made it to the top — not quite the top but this is the final game, right?
“And it almost thrills me to not have that yet because it’s still something to go for, still something to chase. I’m so passionate about the game of basketball. I have a lot of time to think about everything and my values, my priorities in life and where I want to be in the future. I just truly feel like I wanted to come here, like I have been saying today, to fuse everything together in my life.
“[Because] New York is just so big. I am big. It’s the perfect match.”
[Notigroup Newsroom in collaboration with other media outlets, with information from the following sources]
