# 1997 New York Liberty season

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

## WNBA allocation draft

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

## WNBA elite draft

| Round | Pick | Player | Nationality | School/Team/Country |
| 1 | 4 | Kym Hampton | United States | Arizona State |
| 2 | 12 | Vickie Johnson | United States | Louisiana Tech |

## WNBA draft

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

1997 game log Total: 17–11 (Home: 10–5; Road: 7–6) :
June: 4–0 (Home: 1–0; Road: 3–0)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
1
June 21
@ Los Angeles
W 67–57
Rebecca Lobo (16)
Vickie Johnson (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (10)
Great Western Forum
1–0
2
June 23
@ Sacramento
W 73–62
Sophia Witherspoon (15)
Rebecca Lobo (9)
Vickie Johnson (3)
ARCO Arena
2–0
3
June 26
@ Houston
W 62–60 (OT)
Hampton Johnson Lobo (10)
Rebecca Lobo (8)
Kisha Ford (4)
The Summit
3–0
4
June 29
Phoenix
W 65–57
Vickie Johnson (20)
Rebecca Lobo (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Madison Square Garden
4–0 :
July
: 10–4 (Home: 6–2; Road: 4–2)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
5
July 2
Houston
W 72–67
Sophia Witherspoon (14)
Kym Hampton (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
5–0
6
July 4
@ Houston
W 65–58
Sophia Witherspoon (21)
Rebecca Lobo (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
The Summit
6–0
7
July 5
@ Utah
W 66–53
Sophia Witherspoon (14)
Teresa Weatherspoon (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Delta Center
7–0
8
July 7
@ Phoenix
L 50–69
Vickie Johnson (11)
Sophia Witherspoon (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
America West Arena
7–1
9
July 9
@ Charlotte
L 69–87
Vickie Johnson (14)
Rebecca Lobo (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Charlotte Coliseum
7–2
10
July 10
Charlotte
W 62–48
Rebecca Lobo (16)
Rebecca Lobo (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
8–2
11
July 14
@ Cleveland
W 68–57
Rebecca Lobo (18)
Rebecca Lobo (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Gund Arena
9–2
12
July 15
Cleveland
W 76–59
Sophia Witherspoon (16)
Lobo Wicks (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Madison Square Garden
10–2
13
July 17
Utah
W 80–54
Rebecca Lobo (17)
Kym Hampton (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
11–2
14
July 19
Los Angeles
W 69–57
Sophia Witherspoon (24)
Kym Hampton (9)
Rebecca Lobo (5)
Madison Square Garden
12–2
15
July 22
Utah
L 71–78
Sophia Witherspoon (16)
Kym Hampton (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
Madison Square Garden
12–3
16
July 23
@ Charlotte
W 65–63
Rebecca Lobo (17)
Rebecca Lobo (4)
Vickie Johnson (6)
Charlotte Coliseum
13–3
17
July 26
Charlotte
L 61–64
Sophia Witherspoon (21)
Rebecca Lobo (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (7)
Madison Square Garden
13–4
18
July 30
Sacramento
W 73–68
Sophia Witherspoon (26)
Rebecca Lobo (12)
Teresa Weatherspoon (10)
Madison Square Garden
14–4 :
August
: 3–7 (Home: 3–3; Road: 0–4)
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceRecord
19
August 2
Phoenix
W 80–70
Sophia Witherspoon (20)
Kym Hampton (10)
Vickie Johnson (6)
Madison Square Garden
15–4
20
August 5
Los Angeles
L 50–67
Hampton Witherspoon (12)
Rebecca Lobo (10)
Johnson Weatherspoon (3)
Madison Square Garden
15–5
21
August 11
@ Sacramento
L 69–76
Kym Hampton (17)
Kym Hampton (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (6)
ARCO Arena
15–6
22
August 12
@ Phoenix
L 67–77
Kym Hampton (14)
Kym Hampton (11)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
America West Arena
15–7
23
August 15
Sacramento
W 79–63
Sophia Witherspoon (21)
Kym Hampton (8)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Madison Square Garden
16–7
24
August 17
Houston
L 55–70
Rebecca Lobo (13)
Johnson Lobo (6)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Madison Square Garden
16–8
25
August 19
@ Utah
L 75–81
Rebecca Lobo (27)
Rebecca Lobo (9)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
Delta Center
16–9
26
August 20
@ Los Angeles
L 76–78
Sophia Witherspoon (27)
Johnson Wicks (5)
Teresa Weatherspoon (12)
Great Western Forum
16–10
27
August 23
@ Cleveland
L 71–72
Trena Trice (17)
Kym Hampton (9)
Johnson Weatherspoon (5)
Gund Arena
16–11
28
August 24
Cleveland
W 79–72 (OT)
Kym Hampton (21)
Rebecca Lobo (7)
Teresa Weatherspoon (8)
Madison Square Garden
17–11 :
1997 season schedule :

### Playoffs

1997 playoff game log :
Semifinal vs. Phoenix Mercury
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 28
@ Phoenix
W 59–41
Rebecca Lobo (16)
Kym Hampton (14)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
America West Arena
1–0 :
Championship vs. Houston Comets
GameDateTeamScoreHigh pointsHigh reboundsHigh assistsLocation AttendanceSeries
1
August 30
New York
L 51–65
Kym Hampton (13)
Kym Hampton (13)
Teresa Weatherspoon (5)
The Summit
1–0 :
1997 playoff schedule :

### Season standings

| Eastern Conference | W | L | PCT | Conf. | GB |
| Houston Comets $^x$ | 18 | 10 | .643 | 6–6 | – |
| New York Liberty $^x$ | 17 | 11 | .607 | 8–4 | 1.0 |
| Charlotte Sting $^x$ | 15 | 13 | .536 | 5–7 | 3.0 |
| Cleveland Rockers $^o$ | 15 | 13 | .536 | 5–7 | 3.0 |

## 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