New York Liberty GM Pumped Up For Another WNBA Title Run

Originally posted on Athlon Sports | By Joe Rutland | Last updated May 10, 2025 10:39 AM ET

It takes a lot of hard work and effort to put together a title-winning team. Jonathan Kolb put in the hours and his work as general manager for the New York Liberty produced a WNBA Championship in the 2024 season.

As the Liberty tune things up with preseason games, Kolb knows that more work still needs to be done. Yet he can look back at those lessons from last season and take notes.

"I learned to win at the highest of levels," Kolb said in an interview with Sports Illustrated. "You need top end talent with depth, those are the ingredients. You need health. You need all those things to go your way, but that's what I learned, mostly as a basketball decision maker."

But Kolb is definitely no dummy and found what might be called a silver lining in watching the Liberty beat the Minnesota Lynx in the 2024 WNBA Finals.

“We did not anticipate that Tasha Cloud would be avail…We’ve had [her] circled for a long time” -Jonathan Kolb on the addition of @T_Cloud4 to the @nyliberty

Leader. Giver. Connector. Vet. pic.twitter.com/eW4cYUS3t0
— Arielle (Ari) Chambers (@ariivory) May 3, 2025

"I think I learned, also as a person, [about] patience," he said. "You're not going to win a title in game one or game 30 but you do start to win it from those habits, and you start to form a snowball effect, where it gets faster and faster and faster towards the end. You just want to make sure doing it right along the way, so that I'd say that's what I learned."

The Liberty will celebrate last season's success as they open the WNBA regular season on May 17 at Barclays Center against the Las Vegas Aces. Players will get their championship rings and a title banner will be raised to the arena's rafters.

Kolb has been the Liberty's general manager since 2019. He will keep looking to make sure the team gets back to the WNBA Finals one more time.

This article first appeared on Athlon Sports and was syndicated with permission.

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