The franchise has been home to many well-known players such as Teresa Weatherspoon, Rebecca Lobo, Becky Hammon, Leilani Mitchell, Essence Carson, Cappie Pondexter, Tina Charles, the team's first-ever No.1 overall draft pick Sabrina Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, and Courtney Vandersloot.

They have played in the WNBA Finals six times— defeating the Minnesota Lynx in 2024, and losing to the Houston Comets in 1997, 1999, and 2000, the Los Angeles Sparks in 2002 and the Las Vegas Aces in 2023.

When the WNBA opened in 1997, the Liberty were one of the first teams to choose a player, and they signed college superstar Rebecca Lobo (UConn) to a contract.

Point guard Teresa Weatherspoon emerged as a star, and the Liberty made it to the 1997 championship game, where the team lost to the Houston Comets.

Teamed with Robinson, Phillips and an emerging Sue Wicks, who was once a back-up to Lobo at forward but made the 2000 All-Star game, Weatherspoon and the Liberty subsequently returned to the finals in 2000 and 2002, but lost once again to the Comets and to the Los Angeles Sparks, respectively.

The 2003 season marked a transition for the Liberty and with team leader Teresa Weatherspoon's WNBA career winding down, fan favorite Becky Hammon emerged as a star player.

The Liberty played six of their home games during the 2004 season at Radio City Music Hall as Madison Square Garden was hosting the 2004 Republican National Convention.

[5] These games marked the first time Radio City had hosted a professional sporting event since the Roy Jones Jr. boxing match held in 1999.

In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Liberty, as huge underdogs, faced the defending champion Detroit Shock in a best-of-three series.

Led by newly signed high scorer Cappie Pondexter (formerly of the Phoenix Mercury) and the 2010 Most Improved Player Award winner Leilani Mitchell, the team made it all the way to the Eastern Conference Finals, where they lost to the Atlanta Dream.

In November 2017, the Madison Square Garden Company and James L. Dolan announced they were actively looking to sell the franchise.

[15] During the 2019 season, the Liberty played two games in Brooklyn at the Nets' home of the Barclays Center, with the rest still in White Plains.

Shortly before the draft, they traded former league MVP Tina Charles to the Washington Mystics in a deal that also involved the Dallas Wings.

[20] The Liberty began the 2020 season, held in a "bubble" in Bradenton, Florida, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with seven rookies on their opening-night roster.

Despite the lack of wins, one of the first-year players, 12th overall pick Jazmine Jones, was named to the Associated Press and WNBA's All-Rookie teams.

Prior to its first season as full-time tenants of Barclays Center, the Liberty added WNBA champions Natasha Howard and Sami Whitcomb in a multi-team trade that sent Kia Nurse and Megan Walker to the Phoenix Mercury [25] and signed Betnijah Laney, the league's 2020 Most Improved Player Award winner.

Laney would represent the Liberty at the 2021 WNBA All-Star Game while Onyenwere won the Associated Press' Rookie of the Year Award.

[28] On the roster, the team brought in Stefanie Dolson of the defending champion Chicago Sky and drafted Nyara Sabally fifth overall, though the latter would miss her whole rookie season with an injury.

But the All-Star efforts of Ionescu and Howard kept the team afloat and they would end the season on a three-game winning streak to secure its second consecutive playoff berth.

In 2023, the Liberty made several major transactions that turned them into immediate contenders: the team acquired 2021 WNBA MVP Jonquel Jones from the Connecticut Sun in a three-team deal that also obtained reserve Kayla Thornton from the Dallas Wings.

Over the ensuing season, the Liberty won a franchise-record 32 games and defeated the Las Vegas Aces in the Commissioner's Cup in-season competition, with Jones securing MVP honors.

[30] Further assisted by the emergence of WNBA rookie Leonie Fiebich, the Liberty once again won 32 games, tying the franchise record set the year before.

[31] This time around, the 32 wins were good enough to secure the top seed on the WNBA playoff bracket, which saw the Liberty sweep the eighth-ranked Atlanta Dream in two games before defeating the Aces 3–1 in the semifinals.