Summer in the City, Vol. 2

You may recall from Volume 1 that five New York Liberty players are blogging for Slamonline this summer. Three of them, finally recovered from their marathon game against Indiana, checked back with updates over the long holiday weekend. Check ’em out…

Jessica Davenport: Hey Liberty Fans!!!

So far the season has been going ok. We have had some really great games and then some games that we didn’t play our best, but this is all a learning process and I think we are coming along well. As for me, I am still waiting to get back onto the court (Injuries suck!!!), but I’ve gotten to watch some greats games such as the 3-ot game against Indiana. For one I thought that was the longest game that I had been involved in. I was sooo hungry toward the end of the game and we continuted to go into overtime after overtime….after overtime lol, but im sooo proud of my teammates they did a great job. Tiff definitely had a great game, and I love to see our posts do well. I’m biased lol.

As of now I’m sitting in my air-conditioned hotel room in Phx. The west coast trip has had a lot of fun times off the court but on the court we had a few hiccups so hopefully we can win these last two games on the road and leave on a positive note. I know we can do it because we play so hard and everyone is focused on one common goal so we should be good.

I have to give a big shout out to my OSU Buckeye taken in the draft Kosta Kufus (I might of butchered the spelling of his name) but it’s always nice to see another Buckeye alum make the leaps to the pros. I also figured who was going 1 and 2 so after that was when the draft got interesting. NY seemed to have gotten a good Italian player so hopefully I’ll get a chance to see him working out at the practice gym sometimes.

Also, I was asked a few weeks back about how I felt about going to speak at the Special Olympics in NY and I was like, sure, no problem. I’ve been to a few events back in college (participated in running the torch in opening ceremonies) and I enjoyed watching the athletes compete in everything from basketball to weightlifting. I was really nervous about speaking at first because going in I didn’t know what I was going to say. It was kind of last minute when I got the invite to come, so I had no kind of speaking points or direction to my speech but once they gave me some points to touch on I think I did an alright job. I don’t mind public speaking but sometimes I forget all that I wanted to say:(

During the event (which Tiffany came to as well; that’s us in the photo), I got to meet a lot of the organizers of the event and other prominent sponsors and people of New York. Also the lady from the New York lottery was there (I wouldn’t mind hitting the mega millions) and she was definitely full of life and excited to meet Tiff and I. I love to meet new people and hear their experiences in life, and it is also good for networking.

Overall I had a great experience (except walking back to the car in the rain for 10 minutes without an umbrella). I got to meet a lot of new people but the best part was watching the athletes compete in the sports that they loved doing and having a blast while doing it.

Happy 4th y’all!—jd50

Tiffany Jackson: Hey you guys. A lot has happened since the last time we chatted. Our Liberty season is up and down, I had a career high against the defending champions, and who can forget the NBA draft. We (the Liberty) are one game above .500 and just recently beat the #1 team in the league, the Los Angeles Sparks. We are working on our consistency and trying to string some good games together. I had the best game of my WNBA career the other night against Phoenix. I scored 21 points.

Also, the NBA Draft was held in New York since the last time we chatted. The Knicks picked Danilo Gallinari a young athletic foward from Italy, and a fellow University of Texas alum, D.J Augustine went #9 to Charlotte. Expect him to make a lot of noise there. HOOK EM’!—Tiffany

Essence Carson: Since I wrote my last blog we had a thrilling triple overtime victory over a solid Indiana Fever team at the Garden. Never in Liberty history had there been a triple overtime game. Well, at least that’s what I was told. Anyway, I had a career high of 18 points that game, as did Nelly, who scored 31. I slept soundly after that win lol. Then it was off to the west coast. Our first game out here didn’t go the way we would’ve liked it to go, but we rebounded and got a great win against LA. First off, LA is beautiful…well where we stayed was really nice. Since I’m a Jersey girl I don’t get to see palm trees and yachts on a consistent basis. The win just topped off the beautiful scenery.

It would’ve been really cool if we were able to spend a couple days out there, but we had to quickly fly out to Seattle. Sooooooo…..Seattle is a nice city, but ummm…we had a quite disappointing loss there. No worries though, the Liberty always bounce back! Now I’m writing from Phoenix, which has to have the HOTTEST weather I’ve ever been in before. Thought I’d just through that in there, lol. Ok, signing out from Phoenix, Arizona.—NYL #17, Essence Carson