An appropriately timed motherly message helped Julie Vanloo become the New York Liberty’s latest metropolitan heroine.
BROOKLYN—For at least 22 minutes on Friday night, the New York Liberty became a JV squad.
Julie Vanloo was a hardship in name only for the Liberty in its 2026 debut, as the last minute signee broke loose for 12 points, 11 assists, and seven rebounds in New York’s 106-75 clobbering of the Connecticut Sun at Barclays Center. Vanloo proved to be the literal difference: New York (1-0) was a plus-31 on the scoreboard when Vanloo was on the floor, the second-best single-game tally for a bench player in franchise history behind only a 2010 outing from Plenette Pierson.
“I played with Julie when I was younger and I played against her a lot overseas and with our national teams. I know she’s this kind of player,” fellow Liberty international rep Marine Johannes said. “When she’s aggressive and playing with confidence, she can shoot a tree, she can pass the ball. I think she’s a great point guard and, of course, she’s fitting with our style of play. I know she was tired, but great game for her.”
The Liberty’s attempt at redemption after its first postseason championship defense ended in first-round heartbreak brought in several hardwood headliners, including Satou Sabally and new head coach Chris DeMarco.
But with Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu injured and several depth stars also missing, Vanloo took over to the tune of what probably goes down as one of the best efforts on a hardship on recent WNBA memory. The 33-year-old fell but three rebounds short of posting the first triple-double in relief in WNBA history.
WELCOME TO BROOKLYN, JULIE VANLOO
pic.twitter.com/qla1LIB2MD
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) May 8, 2026
Mom’s the Word
Only adding to the storybook nature of Vanloo’s Friday breakout was the fact that she came in on a Thursday-into-Friday red eye flight that crossed coasts. Her sneakers touching the Brooklyn hardwood was perhaps enough of a shock as is. Her more comfortable shoes touching the floor of a Los Angeles jetway, however, was perhaps the hardest part.
Vanloo’s WNBA passport has picked up several stamps since entering the league in 2024. She spent her debut campaign with the Washington Mystics and split last year with expansion Golden State and the Los Angeles Sparks. She seemed set to reprise her role in SoCal gold before she was one of the Sparks’ final training camp cuts.
That was literal trouble in paradise for Vanloo, who admitted that the Sparks severing was enough to make her question whether she wanted to continue the WNBA journey. Traversing the idyllic courts in Venice Beach, a 20-minute drive from the Sparks’ home of Crypto.com Arena, did nothing to settle her spirits, proving not to be therapeutic but only further muddling the professional outlook for Vanloo.
“I really wanted to give up and go home because I was exhausted from from a long season overseas and from giving everything I had in training camp,” Vanloo recalled. “I was just like, am I going to give up or no? Do I need some time at home, just to reset?”
“It was dark days. I was playing basketball outside in these past few days to stay in shape. On hardwood, in Venice Beach, I was trying to [get to] every court outside. I was trying to play basketball, just to try to find the joy again and stay in shape and and see how I felt.”
The Belgian breakout has perhaps served as an unfortunate face of the trials of WNBA roster movement: last summer, for example, she unintentionally went viral for showing up to Barclays Center mere hours before a Liberty-Sparks game with her away luggage in tow on Atlantic Avenue. That was mere hours after she returned to the United States following a successful EuroBasket title run with the Belgian national team, only to learn online that the Valkyries had waived her.
The ultimate assists came not on the floor but through an appropriate holiday haul: her mother.
Visibly emotional from the whirlwind of the last 96 hours, Vanloo said she was reminded by her mother, stationed back in Europe, that among the many labels she has amassed in her professional career, “quitter” was far from one. News of the New York hardship, brought about about by injuries to Ionescu, Sabally, and Rebecca Allen and the international absences of Raquel Carrera and Leonie Fiebich, came shortly after.
“I said no [to going back home] and my mom said, also, you’re not a quitter, so I didn’t do it,” Vanloo emphatically said. “When my agent told me New York is interested, that’s when I didn’t really know what I was going to do … That’s when I felt like, oh, I don’t know if I am ready mentally.”
“My mom told me don’t quit. My mom lost her parents when she was 18 in a car accident, so she’s resilient. So she taught me that you can just never give up, like nothing is [permanent], everything passes. You’ll be okay.”
The Cat’s Where It’s At
Vanloo took the floor just about 12 hours after the Liberty announced her signing, as well as that of Empire State native Aubrey Griffin. It didn’t take long for her to enter the official Liberty ledger.
Grabbing a rebound off a Saniya Rivers misfire, Vanloo immediately got to run point and found a streaking Breanna Stewart for two of her game-best 31 points. Before most of those gathered at Barclays Center could check their programs to see who No. 53 was, Vanloo then sank a three-pointer that increased an already-sizable Liberty lead. By the time the first period let out, Vanloo had a role in 15 Liberty points, scoring seven of her own while generating eight more through assists and possessions created via rebound.
Vanloo humorously admitted she knew she wasn’t joining Ionescu in the triple-double sisterhood, convinced of that after enduring friendly fire from Betnijah Laney-Hamilton on a rebound attempt. But even she was impressed by what she accomplished over her first five minutes and admitted to feeling indescribable euphoria upon sinking her first shot.
“I don’t even know. The first shot I made was like a full relief,” Vanloo said of her three earned off the feed from fellow newcomer Pauline Astier. “I couldn’t be myself before that. I’m an emotional player. Everybody knows that. I think many players and people say, like, why is that one day she can be great, the other day she can’t be. It’s not even that. I’m really a consistent player. It’s just all about the right fit, the right confidence, and the freedom that I get to play with. I totally felt that today.”
“I just said that I needed to leave my backpack from like the pain and the doubts and all that in LA or wherever it is. I need to come here without anything,” Vanloo continued. “That’s what I did and I’m incredibly proud of myself, because, trust me, two years in a row where you get waived, it’s not easy. I just kept my confidence.”
While there were some mistakes of aggression registered in her box score (such as two first period fouls), sterling performances from Liberty regulars Stewart, Laney-Hamilton, Johannes, and Jonquel Jones allowed Vanloo’s pursuit of a double-double as the only form of drama as things closed out. She earned it in the penultimate minute, setting up a three-pointer for Han Xu and the final couple from Rebekah Gardner that created the final tally.
Vanloo had to make sure that her effort was worthwhile in more ways than one: not only would film from a strong effort obviously look on the desks of scouting departments in Brooklyn and beyond but her mother was watching the overseas broadcast. By the time Vanloo made her postgame comments, the clock was approaching 5 a.m. back home. But she liked to believe that she was giving her mother perhaps the one acceptable form of a sleepless night.
“She watched everything. She’s always up middle of the night,” Vanloo said. “It doesn’t matter if it’s 1, 3, 5 a.m. She texted me seven voice notes of how proud she is … She’s like, enjoy the moment, she’s like, I’m going to try to go to sleep, and I don’t think I can. She’s living the same excitement, she’s probably waiting until dad wakes up so she she can tell him everything.”
Appropriately enough, Vanloo and the Liberty will return to action Sunday amidst nationwide Mother’s Day festivities against the aforementioned Washington Mystics (3 p.m. ET, WWOR). Fortunately for Mrs. Vanloo, an afternoon tip stateside will allow her to secure support and sleep, as the stage is set for a 9 p.m. tip locally.
Geoff Magliocchetti is on X @GeoffJMags
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