Liberty Forward Fought Through Serious Injury vs. Mercury

As painful as watching the final game of the WNBA's opening playoff round might have been for fans of the New York Liberty — at least from a mental perspective — it was infinitely more ailing for forward Leonie Fiebich.

While addressing the recent monumental change in his organization, Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb brought about a story of perseverance and strength that could help maintain his faith in the current metropolitan core.

Kolb began by confirming that Fiebich, the Liberty's sterling sophomore, played the Game 3 finale against the Phoenix Mercury with a fractured rib, one endured in the contest's opening stanzas when she was unintentionally kneed on a drive by Kahleah Copper. Fiebich had fallen to the PHX Arena floor and required assistance from teammate Natasha Cloud and the staff of head athletic trainer Terri Acosta to get to the locker room.

"When Leonie went down, it was like, of course she did. She was the one that hadn't," Kolb said in reference to the Liberty's injury-riddled season. "The toughness that she she persevered through: Leonie had a fractured rib and I went back in the training room with her during that process and Leo just looks at me, she's like, I'm fine."

Fiebich's injury was perhaps a poetic, if not macabre, way for the Liberty's season to end: Fiebich's fellow starters Natasha Cloud, Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart all endured medically-induced multi-game absences while a EuroBasket sabbatical was the only thing that kept her off the metropolitan hardwood.

Despite his player's insistence, Kolb braced himself for a call or text from the training staff informing him that Fiebich indeed endured a fractured rib and would be unable to return. That info eventually made its way to his phone — just as Fiebich was re-entering the game before the period let out.

Fiebich's impact on paper from there on out was hard to detect (three rebounds and an assist, though she was a plus-7 in the Liberty's eventual 79-73 defeat) but it was a reminder to Kolb that his franchise's future is in solid hands, even if the team opted to make a change in the head coaching spot so as to better adapt with the modern innovations that the modern WNBA had to offer.

"I'm watching on TV, and Leo, she's checking into the basketball game, because that's who she is," Kolb said of Fiebich. "I learned a tremendous amount about this group, but also what we learned is where this league is and where it's going, and that was that's crucial for us."