What Betnijah Laney-Hamilton’s injury means for the New York Liberty

Per the team’s press release, Laney-Hamilton will begin her rehabilitation with the help of the Liberty’s performance team, and her estimated return to play is between a month and six weeks. 

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Laney-Hamilton began feeling discomfort in her right knee following the Liberty’s 99-93 loss on the road to the Phoenix Mercury on June 18. Upon returning to New York, the Liberty’s starting small forward felt discomfort and experienced knee swelling. With the Comissioner’s Cup Championship less than a week away, New York decided to keep Laney-Hamilton out from June 20 through June 23.

Laney-Hamilton returned for the June 25 Commissioner’s Cup Championship, played 34 minutes, scored 13 points and had three rebounds and six assists in the Liberty’s 94-88 loss to the Minnesota Lynx. Laney played in three more regular season games including one each against both the Dream and the Lynx. On June 30 it was Laney-Hamilton’s leadership that was key in the Liberty’s 81-75 comeback win against Atlanta at home. 

But then on July 6, Laney-Hamilton and the Liberty lost 83-78 to the Indiana Fever on the road, a game where the Liberty missed several shots and appeared lackadaisical defensively. Laney-Hamilton had 20 points, four rebounds, four assists and three turnovers in the loss. While the offensive output was substantial for New York, head coach Sandy Brondello noticed that Laney-Hamilton’s defense wasn’t as up to par. 

Brondello wasn’t very pleased with how Laney-Hamilton allowed a lot of Fever players to score on backcuts, including the less offensively potent Lexie Hull. Brondello told The Next on July 8 following the loss that she was honest with Laney-Hamilton telling her she just didn’t defend well. “I’m not rewarding anyone if they’re not good because they score,” she said. 

Clearly Laney-Hamilton wasn’t herself — she was injured. And since the loss to the Fever, she has missed three straight games including a camp day game in Connecticut and a home-and-away against the Chicago Sky. When the Liberty traveled on Friday July 12 to Chicago for a second straight game against the Sky, Laney-Hamilton didn’t travel with the team.

Bad knees have been something that Laney-Hamilton has dealt with multiple times during her WNBA career. She tore her left ACL just a month into her second season as a pro for the Chicago Sky, and she didn’t play again until 2018 for the Connecticut Sun. Three seasons later following Laney-Hamilton’s 2021 All-Star season where she helped lead the Liberty to its first playoff appearance in years, she got an arthroscopy on her left knee. Around six months later she got an arthroscopic partial meniscectomy on her right knee after injuring it in New York’s 2022 training camp, the first under current head coach Brondello. 

In 2022, Laney-Hamilton was out for two months — through June and July — and returned to the Liberty for its final regular season games in August and for the franchise’s first playoff series since 2015. 

How does this year compare to what transpired for New York two seasons ago? For starters, the Liberty had a completely different performance staff two years ago and this time Laney-Hamilton has four weeks without WNBA play to begin her rehab. If she returns six weeks following her surgery, the Liberty can have her back for their August 28 game in LA against the Sparks. 

She could miss just seven more games including Tuesday night’s home game against the Sun and then the first six games following the Olympic break. 

While the cadance of games due to the Paris Olympics has led to a large abundance of injuries and missed games, the Liberty can take advantage during the entire month the league is on break. 

Also what’s different in 2024 is the amount of depth that can pick up the slack while Laney-Hamilton remains out. Rookie Leonie Fiebich has filled in beautifully for Laney-Hamilton in the starting lineup, providing almost identical numbers to Laney-Hamilton’s season average in some games. Vet Kayla Thornton has made sure to dive for balls and create steals in her place. And guard Ivana Dojkić proved she could step up with both Laney-Hamilton and Breanna Stewart not playing on Saturday in Chicago. 

“In the offseason, how do we get better?” Brondello asked after defeating the Sky on the road on Saturday.  “And that was like with our bench, how can we get more versatile? Can we have a bit of everything: scoring, shooting, slashing, defending. And we did that and obviously when you get to a season, it’s a very compact season. … I really respect to see how they stay ready, the work they do behind the scenes and when their opportunity comes they step up.”

The Liberty’s bench this season is both built and meant for this moment and will hold down the fort until Laney-Hamilton returns in late August. 

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