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    New York Liberty Fans Get Creative With Jerseys, Art and Cross Stitches

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    As their favorite team in the W.N.B.A. experiences a surge in popularity, fans are expressing their love creatively.Eric Trude walked into Barclays Center on Sunday afternoon wearing one of the custom jerseys that he had designed to honor two of his great loves — hockey and the New York Liberty. Nobody was as surprised as he was.Trude, originally from Northern Virginia, grew up hating New York sports teams. Basketball was never his thing.Now, he’s collecting signatures from his favorite Liberty players on the back of his seafoam-green jersey that bears the name of one of the team’s star players, Sabrina Ionescu, on the nameplate. Call him a convert.As new fans of the W.N.BA. find their way to the game, they are expressing love for their favorite teams creatively — with homemade apparel, crochet, embroidery, painting and even crop art (or creating art out of seeds). No group is as thrilled as Liberty fans, who are hoping the team will win its first championship in the franchise’s nearly 30-year history against the Minnesota Lynx this week.The boom in creative pursuits and art based on the players is dovetailing with the W.N.B.A.’s surge in popularity.The hype wall in Eric Trude’s home.Eric Trude

    @samwojart Game Day 🏀 Let’s go @nyliberty 👏 . . . . #wnba @WNBA #newyorkliberty #ellie #newyork #art #basketball ♬ Welcome To New York – Taylor Swift We are having trouble retrieving the article content.Please enable JavaScript in your browser settings.Thank you for your patience while we verify access. If you are in Reader mode please exit and log into your Times account, or subscribe for all of The Times.Thank you for your patience while we verify access.Already a subscriber? Log in.Want all of The Times? Subscribe. More

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      How Ellie the Elephant, NY Liberty’s Twerking Mascot, Electrifies Barclays Center

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      Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the New York Liberty, has danced her way into the hearts of fans as the team has played its way into the W.N.B.A. finals.Every mascot has its thing. Some dunk. Others flip. As for Ellie the Elephant, the mascot for the New York Liberty women’s basketball team? She twerks.Amelia Bane, 33, said she was blown away the first time she saw Ellie at a Liberty game in 2021. Ms. Bane, a video editor and a host of “Let the Girls Play!,” a comedic W.N.B.A. podcast, said she recorded a video of the elephant, who has often performed alongside the Liberty’s dance troupe, the Torch Patrol, and sent it to a friend.“You’re not going to believe this elephant that’s just absolutely throwing ass,” Ms. Bane recalled telling her friend. (While recounting the story, she excused herself for her colorful language.)“I don’t ever want to go to the bathroom during a game,” said Ms. Bane, who lives in Brooklyn and is planning to dress her infant as the mascot for Halloween. “Because even if the game isn’t on, Ellie is on.”The author Fran Lebowitz said she was surprised to see the mascot when she and a friend went to see the Liberty — who are playing the Las Vegas Aces in Game 3 of the W.N.B.A. finals on Sunday — at Barclays Center in Brooklyn this summer.“I fail to understand what the elephant has to do with Brooklyn,” Ms. Lebowitz said. “Because to me, it’s the Republicans that are symbolized by an elephant.”Of Ellie’s dance skills, she added: “She did seem to be, I guess, very good for an elephant.”Ellie dancing with the Timeless Torches, a Liberty dance troupe whose members are over 40-years-old.Monique Jaques for The New York TimesThe Ellie EffectEllie has been a fixture at Liberty home games since 2021, a year after the team relocated to Barclays Center from its previous home, the Westchester County Center in White Plains, N.Y., a smaller arena where they had been playing since 2018. Before that the Liberty, who have been a part of the W.N.B.A. since the league debuted in 1997, played home games at Madison Square Garden.But this year, after a series of trades and draft picks resulted in the Liberty becoming a so-called superteam, Ellie’s fame has grown as the team has played its way into the W.N.B.A.’s championship round for the first time since 2002.Jillian Steinhauer, 38, a journalist in Brooklyn, compared Ellie to members of the Fly Girls, the in-house dance troupe from “In Living Color,” a sitcom from the early 1990s.“She’s just so good,” she said, “and she’s wearing a freaking elephant costume.”During a halftime performance on the opening night of the Liberty’s 2023 season in May, Ellie danced to a medley of hits by the rapper Lil’ Kim, who grew up in Brooklyn. She was wearing a black caped leotard, black thigh-high boots, sparkly sunglasses and a luminous, golden-brown wig tucked behind her giant ears.At a performance the year before, Ellie channeled Mary J. Blige while grooving to a supercut of Ms. Blige’s most popular songs in a brown wig with crimped, 48-inch-long locks that flew through the air whenever Ellie snapped and shook her head.Criscia Long, the senior director of entertainment for the Liberty and the Brooklyn Nets, said those wigs were such a hit that they inspired a new hairstyle that Ellie debuted this season: a 72-inch-long braid that falls to her feet.Ms. Long added that, each season, Ellie has received a new pair of customized Nike sneakers for her Barclays Center performances.This season Ellie debuted a new hairstyle: a 72-inch-long braid that falls to her feet.The New York Liberty“We had to step it up with Ellie’s foot game,” she said.Ellie has shown off her footwear while performing her signature dance move: the Ellie stomp.During the fourth quarter at home games, the arena’s lights go dark and a spotlight appears on a huddle of other dancers. “Headsprung” by LL Cool J starts booming through the arena’s speakers, and then Ellie leaps over the dancers and lands on one foot with a thunderous stomp. The Jumbotron camera somersaults and shakes as the dancers fall to the ground, seemingly knocked unconscious by the aftershock.“The Ellie stomp totally brings the crowd together,” said Rachel Kaly, a 28-year-old comedian in Brooklyn.She added that Ellie’s braid, custom sneakers and costumes — which have included a pink bikini worn at a Barbie-themed game — have made the elephant “kind of a fashion icon.”Keia Clarke, chief executive of the Liberty, said that the W.N.B.A. has traditionally targeted families as the league’s primary audience. Ellie, she added, “opened up a different lane that I think we weren’t completely expecting from a fandom standpoint.”The Evolution of EllieMs. Clarke said that choosing an elephant to replace the Liberty’s former mascot — a scruffy blond dog named Maddy, after Madison Square Garden — had nothing to do with the Republican Party.Ellie, she said, is a homage to the elephants that the circus founder P.T. Barnum paraded across the Brooklyn Bridge, in 1884, to demonstrate its stability after its completion a year earlier. Her name is a nod to Ellis Island.An elephant, an animal that can symbolize power and resilience, also seemed fitting because the Liberty arrived in Brooklyn after its two worst seasons on record, Ms. Clarke said. (The team is owned by Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai, a married couple who also own the Brooklyn Nets; Mr. Tsai is a founder and the chairman of the Chinese tech conglomerate Alibaba.)“For Brooklyn,” Ms. Clarke added, “We knew Ellie needed to be able to dance.”During a Liberty game in September, Ellie pumped up the crowd by doing a split.Mike Lawrence/NBAE via Getty ImagesFans said Ellie’s personality is as memorable as her dancing.Calla Kessler for The New York Times“When we thought about Brooklyn and its music and its culture, dancing absolutely had to be a part of it,” she said.Ellie was chosen after auditions were conducted with the help of a mascot consultant. Ever since, Ms. Clarke said, she has continued to surprise audiences with her ability. Ellie is “an extremely talented dancer in many, many different genres,” she said.Ms. Long, who was a captain of the New York Knicks’ dance troupe before she started working with the Liberty and the Nets, said she has been surprised by Ellie’s moves at “every single game.”“We just keep trying and throwing more things” at her, she added. (Ellie is paid for performing with the Liberty.)Watching Ellie dance is only part of her appeal, according to fans, lots of whom said they have also been charmed by her personality. In interviews for this article, Ellie was described as “welcoming,” “hilarious,” “joyful,” “fierce,” “fly,” “mischievous” and “the life of the party.”Mike Zakarian, 38, who hosts Team Hold!, a comedic sports-video series on YouTube, said that the way Ellie walks is almost more eye-catching than her dancing. “She stomps around like something is about to happen,” he said. “It draws your attention.”Ellie wore a rainbow tutu and matching hair bows while performing at a game in June.Mitchell Leff/Getty ImagesAll the attention he has paid to Ellie, though, has not helped Mr. Zakarian identify the person inside the mascot’s costume. And he is not alone.“I’ve had so many conversations like, ‘Is Ellie a man? Is Ellie a woman? Is Ellie in their 30s or in their 20s?’” said Mr. Zakarian, who lives in Queens. “‘Is there is a world in which Ellie was a running back in college? Or maybe a Division 1 cheerleader?”He has had conversations with multiple people in his YouTube videos about Ellie’s identity, he said, and whether there is “a crew of Ellies” that rotate performing at games.“I need a podcast,” he said. “A ‘Serial’-esque breakdown of who is Ellie?”Who Is Ellie?In an interview on Monday afternoon at Barclays Center, Ellie, who was accompanied by Ms. Long, did not speak. (Ms. Long had previously declined to comment on Ellie’s identity.)But Ellie, who was wearing a white Liberty jersey and a pair of white-and-turquoise sneakers, one of which had “equality” painted across its toe box, did answer some questions by gesturing.Is she the best dancer in the W.N.B.A.? She shrugged bashfully.Does she feel the love from the crowd when she comes out? She vigorously nodded yes.Is the Liberty going to win the championship? Another vigorous nod. (At the time of publication, the team was down 0-2 in the best-of-five finals.)Is she single? Ellie threw her head back as if she was laughing, then opened her arms wide.Ms. Long offered to interpret her answer. “She’s for the fans,” she said.During the interview, Ms. Long also addressed one rumor about the mascot.“There’s only one Ellie,” she said in response to speculation that multiple people might rotate wearing the elephant costume. “There will only ever be one Ellie.” More

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      No Chiefs, Braves, Blackhawks and Seminoles. Remove Indigenous Names Now.

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      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }Race and PolicingFacts on Walter Wallace Jr. CaseFacts on Breonna Taylor CaseFacts on Daniel Prude CaseFacts on George Floyd CaseAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storySPORTS OF THE TIMESIt’s 2020. Indigenous Team Names in Sports Have to Go.The Chiefs, Braves, Blackhawks and Seminoles need to follow the Cleveland baseball team in dropping their offensive names.Kansas City Chiefs fans in January, before the team banned headdresses and face paint.Credit…Charlie Neibergall/Associated PressDec. 21, 2020, 3:00 a.m. ETBefore the Kansas City Chiefs play, Rhonda LeValdo does not feel excitement and joy. She feels outrage.LeValdo, a Native American activist, has protested outside Chiefs home games since 2005. Kansas City still allows fans at the unfortunately named Arrowhead Stadium.She opposes traditions that have long been staples at Kansas City games. The horse called Warpaint prancing on the sideline. The beating drums. The battle cries filling the air as thousands of fans pantomime tomahawk chops.She wants the team to change its nickname: No more Chiefs.“Every single game brings trauma for me,” says LeValdo, who teaches communications at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan. The tired customs force her to remember massacres and stolen land. Then there are the glares and taunts from fans as she and the others in her group pass by.“I worry for my life every time we go out there.”The protests seemed hopeless for years. Then came this spring, after George Floyd’s death while in the custody of the Minneapolis police. Amid the nationwide push to re-examine racial discrimination, a clamor from the public and sponsors forced Washington’s N.F.L. team to abandon its racist name.Last week, Cleveland’s baseball team decided that starting in 2022, it would no longer call itself the Indians.For the first time, LeValdo is feeling optimistic. “We’re trying to ride a wave,” she says. “Trying to keep pushing and keep holding teams accountable. The fight for justice has to be addressed with all races, which means it must include the Indigenous people of this land. We are part of this conversation, as well.”Many Native American groups have long opposed sports teams’ using Indigenous names and imagery.Credit…Richard Tsong-Taatarii/Star Tribune, via Associated PressMy recent conversations with several influential Native American educators and activists revealed a shared optimism with LeValdo. They are buoyed not only by the changes in Washington and Cleveland, but also by the Canadian Football League’s Edmonton Eskimos, who announced a name change, too. And by professional hockey in Sweden, where the Frolunda Indians say they will soon have a new moniker.Activists now say it is time to increase the pressure on big-time American professional and college teams whose insolent mascots, and nicknames have too often escaped scrutiny.Agreed.The Chiefs need a makeover. Patrick Mahomes, are you listening?So, too, do baseball’s Atlanta Braves, hockey’s Chicago Blackhawks and the Florida State University Seminoles.True, there are Native Americans who say they don’t mind the caricatures and tired tropes. Like any ethnic group, Indigenous people hold a full range of views. Nor should it be surprising that a people so subjugated, brutalized and sidelined — who suffered through decades of forced assimilation — would include voices that back the status quo.But among the most important lessons of this year’s reckoning is this: Society had better start listening to those who have been shouting for years that enough is enough — and to the fresh calls for change coming from youth.Objectifying Native Americans, using them as props, failing to acknowledge their complexities, must stop. And in the sports world, that extends beyond the issue of team names and mascots.What do you know about Jim Thorpe? Were you taught his history in school?In 1951, when The Associated Press asked reporters to name the finest athlete of the 20th century’s first half, Babe Ruth came in second. The winner was Thorpe.Jim Thorpe, left, was a Native American and one of the greatest athletes in history, but a fight erupted over displaying his remains.Credit…Associated PressDid you know that Thorpe handily won the decathlon and pentathlon in the 1912 Olympics? That in the same year, he led the football team at Carlisle, his Native American boarding school, to a 27-6 demolition of a powerhouse Army team at West Point? Were you aware of how he was a pioneer in pro football and played six seasons in major league baseball?For all his greatness, Thorpe ended up being treated the same way Native Americans have for centuries: in too many corners, his legacy is either dimly remembered, recalled simplistically, or forgotten altogether.And when he died in 1953, he became a prop.His third wife, a white woman with no ties to Thorpe’s Sac and Fox Nation, barged into a sacred burial ceremony held on his native lands in Oklahoma. Despite protests from tribal leaders and his children from previous marriages, she snatched Thorpe’s body with the help of state troopers. Then she ended up shopping his remains to the highest bidder.That is how the bones of one of the greatest athletes in history ended up where they are today: in a roadside mausoleum on the outskirts of a Pennsylvania town that renamed itself Jim Thorpe, all in a bid to attract tourists and boost the local economy.For years, Thorpe’s tribe and his sons fought to have his remains sent back to Oklahoma. The town fought back. Thorpe is their commodity. Many who live there say they are giving him admiration and respect.You don’t have to look far to find major sports teams justifying their racism by claiming the same.This summer, the Atlanta Braves released a statement saying their team “honors, supports, and values the Native American community.”Native American groups have denounced the tomahawk chop performed by Atlanta Braves fans.Credit…Kevin Jairaj/USA Today Sports, via ReutersBut a name change does not appear in the works for the team. And though the club says it is considering whether to dump its ritual tomahawk chop, such a move is no sure bet.The Braves are said to have appropriated the chop and battle shouts from Florida State University, which still embraces that tradition. Florida State’s mascot is Osceola, a famed leader of the Seminole Indians who is played by a student. At football games, the mascot rides a horse to midfield and plants a burning spear in the turf.The university, by the way, claims on an official website that Osceola is not a mascot. Instead, Florida State calls its faux Native American warrior “a symbol that we respect and prize.”Ugh.The Chicago Blackhawks hold tight to the same rationalization. Since the team’s inception in the 1920s, its jerseys have featured a cartoonish image of the Native American warrior who is the team’s namesake.Like most teams that brand themselves with racist tropes, the Blackhawks have sought cover in the form of endorsements from Native American groups.The team once had a relationship with Chicago’s American Indian Center. Then an emboldened Indigenous youth group fought the connection. Its objections were backed by recent in-depth research showing a psychological toll on the Native community caused by caricatured mascots and team names.The center cut ties with the team. “Our youth said they’d had enough,” said Fawn Pochel, the center’s education director. “They represent the new guard, reimagining a future that many were taught could not exist.“New demands are going to be made.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More