The reeling New York Liberty have lost another starter for the foreseeable future.
BROOKLYN-The New York Liberty are slowly putting together a solid starting five…alas, its formation comes on the long-term injury report rather than the Barclays Center hardwood.
New York All-Star Betnijah Laney is set to miss the next eight weeks of WNBA action after undergoing a successful arthroscopic partial meniscectomy on her right knee. The procedure was performed at the Hospital for Special Surgery and over seen by team surgeons Drs. Gabriella Ode and Riley Williams, according to a team statement.
Laney, a Rutgers alumna, is one of the new faces of the Liberty’s Brooklyn-based endeavors after coming over as a free agent in 2021, shortly after she won the WNBA’s Most Improved Player Award with Atlanta in the Bradenton bubble season. She led the team with 16.8 points and also earned a career-best five assists en route to the WNBA playoffs last season. The aforementioned right knee injury limited her to only four games so far this season, during which she averaged 14.3 points and 4.3 assists.
The Laney departure is one of several long-term injuries the Liberty (2-7) have had to endure in the early portions of the 2022 WNBA season. Her fellow starter Jocelyn Willoughby (partial tear of her left quadriceps tendon) is out for at least the next four weeks and DiDi Richards has been limited to only four minutes with a right hamstring injury. Richards is not expected back until “mid-June”, per head coach Sandy Brondello. The injuries have partly caused the Liberty to stumble out of the season’s opening gate, though the team was able to end a seven-game losing streak on Wednesday night at Barclays with an 87-74 win over the Indiana Fever.
“It’s unfortunate, and it’s part of the sport. We just hope that she has a speedy recovery and get back to us at some stage,” Brondello said of the Laney injury before the game. “In the meantime, we’ve just got to dig deep. We’re not playing the way that we know that we’re capable of, regardless of the injuries.”
While Brondello said that she expected a committe-approach to replacing Laney’s play in the perimeter, she acknowledged that her leadership and in-game ingenuity will be impossible to replicate until she returns.
“No one can replace B. She’s a pretty special player. We’re in this spot where we are, and we’ve just got to find a way,” Brondello said. “She’s a great leader, I mean, that’s what she brings. It’s not just what she does on the court, it’s off the court too. Obviously, she’s a huge loss for us. everyone was looks to them. When you see your best player out, it’s always tough. But she’s not with us. She won’t be with us for a few weeks, most likely. So we’ve just got to find a way.”
The Liberty will return to action on Friday night, when they hit the road to battle the Washington Mystics (7 p.m. ET, YES).
Geoff Magliocchetti is on Twitter @GeoffJMags
Baseline Sports NY is on Twitter @Baseline_NY
