The New York Liberty are supposed to be one of the best — maybe the best — teams in the Eastern Conference. The San Antonio Stars are not only supposed to be one of the worst in the WNBA, but they were without three key players in Kelsey Plum, Kayla McBride and Moriah Jefferson.
So it makes sense that Liberty coach Bill Laimbeer would be upset following a sometimes difficult 73-64 win at home in the season opener on Saturday.
In the postgame press conference, he did not hold back.
"“I hope this is the worst game we play all year long. It was awful. We didn’t execute the things that we were supposed to. We didn’t box out. We gave up way too many offensive rebounds. We missed free throws all over the place.”"
He then laid into his bench for not being able to extend the lead and forcing him to put star Tina Charles back into the game down the stretch. Laimbeer said he hopes to play Charles less this year, but needs production elsewhere for that to happen.
"“Our starters didn’t play great but, however, we got a lead. We should extend that lead with our bench. Collectively, top to bottom i think this was about as worse an effort as we could have put forth tonight. And I told them so. In very strong language.”"
Kiah Stokes, who had a quiet opener with two points and four rebounds in 18 minutes wasn’t safe from Laimbeer’s wrath either.
"“Kiah Stokes looked terrible tonight. Awful. Out of shape. She can’t get the ball where she got last year. I told her that in front of everybody too. I’m not going to sugarcoat anything this year. We’re going to talk about what reality is and how we want to compete for a championship, this is what you have to do.”"
You can watch the full video here.