More than 2,000 fans packed a mile-long route through Brooklyn Bridge Park this weekend for the New York Liberty's 3rd annual Brooklyn Dribble, a celebration that brought together franchise legends, a samba reggae drumline, and a mascot named after an elephant that once crossed the Brooklyn Bridge. The event marked 30 years since the WNBA's 1996 founding, with the league's inaugural season tipping off in 1997 — a milestone that gave this year's gathering extra weight as fans mingled with the very players who built the Liberty from the ground up.
According to amNewYork, the celebration honored Liberty players, fans, and defining moments across the franchise's history, with the parade route winding through Brooklyn Bridge Park before culminating at the Liberty Fan Fest at Pier 2. Fogo Azul, a women-led samba reggae drumline marching band, led the procession, while Torch Patrol, Timeless Torches, and Lil Torches also performed along the way. The fan fest itself offered interactive activations, games, prizes, refreshments, giveaways of basketballs and commemorative t-shirts, and autograph sessions with Liberty legends.
Weatherspoon and Robinson Reunite With the Fans Who Built the League
Among the legends signing autographs was Teresa Weatherspoon, who joined the Liberty for the WNBA's inaugural 1997 season and remained on the roster through 2003. A two-time Defensive Player of the Year and five-time All-Star, Weatherspoon is remembered in franchise lore for hitting a 50-foot half-court buzzer-beater — known simply as “The Shot” — in Game 2 of the 1999 WNBA Finals against the Houston Comets, according to the Texas Sports Hall of Fame. She was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2019 and retired as the Liberty's all-time leader in assists with 1,338 and steals with 465, having started 220 consecutive games for New York. At the Brooklyn Dribble, Weatherspoon credited the Liberty's success to its devoted fan base, saying New York became home for the franchise's former players.
Crystal Robinson, who played for the Liberty for seven seasons beginning in 1999 through 2005, also took part in the festivities. Per amNewYork, Robinson said the Brooklyn Dribble reminded her of the WNBA's early grassroots outreach events, and she credited that same grassroots marketing with helping build the league in its formative years. She praised Liberty fans as the best fan base in the WNBA, calling them extremely dedicated. Carolyn Swords, who signed with the Liberty in 2015 and played for the team across two seasons, rounded out the group of alumni in attendance, telling amNewYork that watching the league's first players showed her she could become a professional basketball player herself.
Longtime Fans Say the Movement Has Grown Up Around Them
The crowd at Pier 2 included fans who trace their Liberty loyalty back to the team's earliest days. Lolita Beckwith has been a Liberty season subscriber since 1997 and told amNewYork that support for women's sports, including the WNBA, has been incredible. Lavonnia Manning, a Queens native and lifelong Liberty fan since childhood, was attending the Brooklyn Dribble fan festivities for the first time and named Weatherspoon as her favorite player. Jacaria Moore, who lives in New Jersey and has followed the WNBA since its founding, said the Liberty inspired her to play both basketball and softball growing up, and added that female athletes now serve as role models for a new generation of players.
The Liberty enter this anniversary season as one of only three remaining original WNBA franchises, alongside the Los Angeles Sparks and Phoenix Mercury, according to BKReader. That founding-franchise status carries new resonance after the team won its first WNBA championship in October 2024, defeating the Minnesota Lynx 67-62 in overtime during Game 5 of the Finals at Barclays Center — a breakthrough that ended a 28-year title drought following five previous Finals losses in 1997, 1999, 2000, 2002, and 2023, per the WNBA.
A Mascot Born From Brooklyn's Own Bridge History
Ellie the Elephant, the Liberty's mascot since 2021, also made an appearance at the Brooklyn Dribble. The elephant costume nods to a Brooklyn legend: in May 1884, showman P.T. Barnum marched 21 elephants across the newly opened Brooklyn Bridge to prove its structural safety, according to Wikipedia. Ellie's popularity has extended well beyond the arena — in November 2024, the mascot became the first professional sports mascot to receive a dedicated float in the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade following the Liberty's championship win.
The Brooklyn Dribble arrives amid a period of rapid growth and change for the franchise off the court. Groundbreaking took place in May on an $80 million, 75,000-square-foot training facility on the Greenpoint waterfront, funded by parent company BSE Global to give the Liberty a year-round home, as Hoodline previously reported. A separate financial evaluation by Sportico in May placed the Liberty's franchise valuation near $600 million, among the highest in the league. Billionaire Julia Koch and the Koch family also acquired a 15% minority stake in BSE Global — which controls the Nets, Liberty, and Barclays Center — in 2024.
Brooklyn Bridge Park itself, bordered by the East River and the Manhattan skyline, provided the backdrop for the celebration. The parade route's finish line at Pier 2 sits on a five-acre active recreation pier featuring five basketball courts sheltered beneath a canopy repurposed from the site's historic industrial storage shed, according to the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation. For a franchise built on grassroots outreach three decades ago, the setting offered a fitting stage for legends and lifelong fans alike to mark how far the league has come.
