{"id":1005933,"date":"2026-08-17T05:56:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:56:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1005933\/"},"modified":"2026-08-17T05:56:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-17T05:56:25","slug":"rebecca-allen-has-always-been-ahead-of-her-time","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/1005933\/","title":{"rendered":"Rebecca Allen has always been ahead of her time"},"content":{"rendered":"

At 14 years-old New York Liberty developmental player Anneli Maley<\/a> remembers, oh-so-clearly, watching her role model Rebecca Allen<\/a> play for the Women\u2019s National Basketball League\u2019s (WNBL) Bulleen Boomers, now the Geelong Venom.<\/p>\n

Just like with A-list celebrities, there\u2019s this assumption that all Australians like Maley and Allen just know each other very well because they are Australian. But that\u2019s not necessarily always the case. Maley met Allen right when Allen was first beginning her WNBA journey in around 2015, and the two were just acquaintances as Maley went through the Australian National team system. They were in the same industry, but they just knew each other by association.<\/p>\n

But now, around a decade later, Maley considers the two to be incredibly close, calling Allen by the affectionate nicknames of \u201cdawg\u201d and \u201cbestie\u201d to describe the now-tight bond between the two Australians.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey said \u2018don\u2019t meet your role models\u2019, but I think I got pretty lucky about this one,\u201d Maley told The IX Sports about Allen.<\/p>\n

Maley, who hadn\u2019t yet spent a full season in the WNBA before this season, is one of the players benefiting from the development pool, one of the roster expansion features<\/a> in 2026 Collective Bargaining Agreement. <\/p>\n

While she had been a hardship player in Chicago with the Sky four seasons ago at the beginning of the 2022 and then was cut by the Los Angeles Sparks before the season began in 2025, Maley has now spent considerable time in the league, and has an ideal person by her side to adapt to her first full season in the W.<\/p>\n

Those close to Maley told her that she had struck gold with Allen because of not only her institutional knowledge of the league and the city of New York, but also because of her interpersonal skills and sociable personality.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe always wants to do things,\u201d Maley said about Allen. \u201cShe\u2019s nice to everyone. So like everyone was like telling me that you are going to have the best time because you\u2019re going to get to be with [Allen], and I was like, \u2018Well, hell yeah, love that.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Allen has been a New York Liberty mainstay for the past decade. While she wasn\u2019t officially drafted by the organization, her relationship with New York is similar to what might be expected between a player and the team that first gave them their first professional opportunity.<\/p>\n

Allen was presented to the Liberty front office at the time by her agent who sent clips to a group that consisted of longtime WNBA executive and head coach Bill Laimbeer<\/a>, general manager Kristin Bernert and now-Atlanta Dream general manager and former Liberty director of basketball operations Dan Padover.<\/p>\n

\"RebeccaNew York Liberty center Kiah Stokes<\/a> (41), New York Liberty guard Rebecca Allen (9) and New York Liberty center Amanda Zahui B (17) before a Liberty vs Sun WNBA basketball game at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. on July 11, 2018. (Photo credit: Chris Poss | The IX Sports)<\/p>\n

The Liberty\u2019s front office was sold when the Australian national team completed an overseas tour<\/a> in the United States playing against WNBA teams during the W\u2019s preseason in 2014. Allen was then signed by the Liberty during free agency in 2015 and she stayed with the franchise through its change of ownership in 2019. <\/p>\n

Allen is one of a few current Liberty players that remembers the more modest and less professional days at the Westchester County Center in White Plains before the Barclays Center and Ellie the Elephant were even a reality. While Allen opted out of the 2020 COVID-19 bubble, she played in New York in 2021 and 2022 before getting traded to Connecticut in the deal that allowed Liberty current GM Jonathan Kolb to acquire Jonquel Jones<\/a>. <\/p>\n

But after three seasons away from the franchise that first believed in her, both she and the Liberty endured their own highs and lows. The franchise achieved what it hadn\u2019t done in its history, winning the elusive title in 2024. And Allen hopped around to a few different teams, joining the Sun, Phoenix Mercury and Chicago Sky, but had to miss the 2024 Paris Olympics due to tearing her hamstring, a moment she recently said<\/a> was the hardest in her life.<\/p>\n

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But now, back with the WNBA franchise where she got her start, both Allen and the Liberty have goals they want to accomplish. Allen wants to be a part of what she helped build. While winning the Commissioner\u2019s Cup trophy in June was the first trophy she ever won with the Liberty and in the league, that\u2019s not enough \u2014 she wants to win a championship in New York.<\/p>\n

Back around decade ago, Allan, the franchise and the league were constantly having to prove themselves. And now, in the middle of the WNBA\u2019s golden age, the Liberty are hell bent on proving that their 2024 title wasn\u2019t a fluke. Allen is driven by a storybook ending and the idea of finishing something she started with the organization where it all began for her.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve definitely probably romanticized the whole idea of it too,\u201d Allen told The IX Sports. \u201cAnd obviously within a season, there\u2019s ups and downs and all of that. But I mean, I\u2019ve been riding those waves pretty well.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"ANew York Liberty forward-guard Rebecca Allen (9) shoots the ball against the Connecticut Sun during the second half at Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Conn. on Aug. 15, 2026. (Photo credit: Eric Canha | Imagn Images)<\/p>\n

Allen\u2019s steadiness has helped turn turbulence into success<\/p>\n

The 2026 season so far has been a series of crests and troughs for the Liberty. Breanna Stewart<\/a> has used her hand, wrist and arm ad nauseam to gesture exactly that. She curves her hand and wrist up and down like a snake of a wave of water to further illustrate the ups and downs of the season. Stewart, along with Jones, has uttered the phrase \u201cturn the page\u201d to the press too many times to count this season. <\/p>\n

But if anyone on the roster has been exceptional at \u201cturning the page,\u201d it\u2019s been Allen, who has endured a 2026 season that she believes is a microcosm of her entire career in the league. It\u2019s been an ongoing cycle of being underestimated and then working hard to prove herself. <\/p>\n

One of the earliest Liberty examples of this phenomenon was when Laimbeer pushed Allen to improve defensively. He called her a liability, and as a result she put in hours after practices with former player development coach and franchise legend Teresa Weatherspoon<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Flashing forward to 2026, Allen spent the first two plus months of the season racking up DNP after DNP. She made her Liberty season debut during the team\u2019s fourth game in Portland against the Fire after spending a lot of training camp getting her conditioning right. <\/p>\n

But then, after getting her feet wet in May coming off the bench and struggling to make shots, Allen was benched for most of the month of June while the Liberty were also trying to work in Betnijah Laney-Hamilton<\/a> before she, too, was benched before being waived<\/a> earlier this month.<\/p>\n

Newer Liberty fans who didn\u2019t know as much about Allen\u2019s history with the franchise were confused as to why she was on the roster amid her struggles. <\/p>\n

But Allen, as the consummate professional she is, waited for her opportunity. When Leonie Fiebich<\/a> was ruled out with her left foot injury following the Liberty\u2019s 99-86 win over the Lynx on July 3, head coach Chris DeMarco and his staff were searching. Who would be their starting wing? <\/p>\n

First, they went with Rebekah Gardner<\/a>, who struggled when the Liberty defense switched ball screens. She was too small to defend larger forwards and wings. Then DeMarco went to Marine Johann\u00e9s<\/a> to go for a three guard lineup alongside Sabrina Ionescu<\/a> and Pauline Astier<\/a>. Bu defensively, this also didn\u2019t work. <\/p>\n

And then DeMarco went to Allen, someone who had more size than Gardner and had a similar build to Fiebich. Was she 6\u20194? No. But she\u2019s 6\u20192 with a 6\u20195 wingspan and has length. The Liberty teams of their championship window that began in 2023 have been based on how the rosters have been able to leverage their length. And when those teams truly take advantage of it, that has led to the most success. <\/p>\n

And just like Fiebich, Allen can shoot, though a bit less consistently. But Allen being on this roster is an example of Kolb\u2019s Noah\u2019s Ark-type roster building<\/a> serving its purpose. When one player goes down, there\u2019s a similar one waiting in the wings, and that\u2019s been Allen.<\/p>\n

In the 11 games since Allen has become a starter, she\u2019s averaging <\/a>8.5 points and 3.1 rebounds per game and shooting 45.5% from three. Before this stretch of games, Allen was just shooting just 17.6% from three. Her shooting splits have increased by over 158% following her 11 straight starts and more defined role.<\/p>\n

Allen has also reminded the older fans who she is and introduced the newer ones to the player she\u2019s always been with the franchise. Allen\u2019s fan-favorite status in New York was based on the energetic plays she made. She\u2019s built her career on game-swinging three-pointers, pivotal deflections, cutting off the ball and rebounding at key moments. And that\u2019s exactly what she\u2019s been providing in the past 11 games.<\/p>\n

Ionescu played with Allen earlier on in the decade when the Liberty were still functioning as a quasi-start up with much loftier goals. Ionescu has gotten a front row seat over time as to how Allen makes an impact.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always loved playing with her,\u201d Ionescu said. \u201cWho she is as a person, just how steady she is, but also on the court, like you know what you\u2019re going to get from her every single night, and she kind of just brings a calming presence. She\u2019s a veteran. She knows how to play the game. She understands her role. She knows how to play in the starting unit, and then she also knows how to play with the bench. And that\u2019s something that I think you have to kind of go through to understand. And her ability to kind of get plugged into the starting unit and perform at a really high level speaks to who she is and why she\u2019s made it so long in this league.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n

fun end to this one<\/p>\n

— Lucas Kaplan (@lucaskaplan.bsky.social)<\/a> 2026-08-15T18:55:46.695Z<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n