Sabrina Ionescu and the Liberty are doing what New York has not seen in a long time – a ticker tape parade celebrating a local sports team. It’s even more novel because it’s basketball this time, which hasn’t been done in 50 years. The WNBA championship almost went to the West in Minnesota, and if the Lynx team and head coach are to be believed, it rightfully should have. But shedding comments of a “stolen” championship in a rigged game, Ionescu is ready for today’s parade.

The official Instagram WNBA account just posted a clip of the 26-year-old out and about with wind blowing in her face presumably somewhere in NYC. Repping team colors, she sports a black and seafoam green Nike Destroyer jacket and breaks down the various patches on it. One arm shows the teams they defeated (Atlanta, Las Vegas, Minnesota) along with the scorelines. “You know, just the series,” Ionescu describes.

Then she points to the top right of her torso that has Nike’s swoosh and reads out the words below, “Liberty has a nice ring to it.” The clever slogan was used by the sports athleisure mogul in one of their advertisements where Ellie the Elephant wore the ring and stood as the Statue of Liberty. The top of her left arm has a huge S on it, “My logo.” The left forearm has a big patch with the word ‘victory’ on it and Ionescu points to it as “Nike.” The last is the lower left side of the torso that reads, “Yerrrnescuuu,” a new moniker that the guard has recently acquired.

Her left pocket area has a round patch with the Liberty logo and the words ‘2024 Champions New York Liberty’ around it. The lower right torso reads ‘Est. 1997’, in regards to the team. The victory jacket makes a clear statement against the naysayers and those who questioned the officiating at Barclays Center, echoing Ionescu’s own words.

No. 20 got honest in a recent interview, “I mean, we’re champions. I think [officating] is part of the playoffs. If you’ve watched any series, officiating never goes the way that you want it. We could have said the same thing about Game 4. And that’s kind of part of winning. Like, a lot of things have to go right. We’re thankful for the opportunity to call ourselves champions, and nobody is going to remember what call was made when. All we know is we’re in the history books forever.”

Although Cheryl Reeve took a dig at the Liberty for finally winning their first championship in almost three decades of existence while the Lynx have 4 in lesser time, the Liberty seem unconcerned by the accusations. For them, it was a victory won fair and square.

But it’s not just the Lynx who have an issue with this year’s winners.

“Refs had to come in and hand them the series”: Former ESPN columnist calls out Sabrina Ionescu and Liberty

The officiating was a big part of the criticism from the Lynx and others around the basketball community who did not agree with the victory. In Game 5 at least, Stewart and Sabrina Ionescu certainly showed no signs of the potential ‘all-time great’ they’re usually labeled as. And Jason Whitlock criticized exactly this idea.

Calling out the league for how they’ve treated Caitlin Clark and how the W finally has the attention it wants, Whitlock thought the Liberty folded under that pressure rather than rising up to the occasion. “That spotlight came, the WNBA finally has some attention, and Sabrina Ionescu goes 1 for 19 from the field. It’s one of the worst, if not the worst performances we’ve ever seen from a so-called ‘elite athlete’ in a championship game.”

Whitlock goes on to condemn, “Breanna Stewart gets the spotlight and looks like hot garbage. Four of 15 from the field, and took six steps before getting off that junk shot that the referees bailed her out from. It was a choke job and the refs had to come in and hand them the series.”

While Whitlock’s censure is not limited to the Liberty and he criticizes the Lynx as well, his point is more toward how Ionescu and the team could have played well under pressure. While No. 20 didn’t throw up in a trashcan this time and ended up winning, many think it could have gone better. However, seems like the freshly-minted champion does not care for now as ‘Everything is well that ends well!’