Editing New York Liberty (section)

===Transition seasons (2003–2009)===
[[File:Madison Square Garden Liberty.jpg|250px|thumb|Madison Square Garden during a Liberty game]]
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 2004 season saw Hammon replacing Weatherspoon as the team's starting point guard.

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]].<ref>{{cite news |last=Williams |first=Lena |date=25 July 2004 |title=PRO BASKETBALL; Liberty Opens Big on Its Home, Er, Stage |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2004/07/25/sports/pro-basketball-liberty-opens-big-on-its-home-er-stage.html |access-date=10 November 2011 |newspaper=The New York Times}}</ref> These games marked the first time Radio City had hosted a professional sporting event since the Roy Jones Jr. boxing match held in 1999.

With team leader [[Tari Phillips]] being signed away to the Houston Comets, [[Ann Wauters]] emerged as a force at the team's starting center position in 2005. However, she was injured midway through the season. The loss of Wauters was felt as the team was swept two games to none by the [[Indiana Fever]] in the first round of the playoffs.

The Liberty had a poor 2006 season, winning only 11 games.

At the beginning of the 2007 WNBA season, the team traded [[Becky Hammon]] to the [[San Antonio Stars|San Antonio Silver Stars]] for [[Jessica Davenport]], a first round pick in the [[2007 WNBA draft]]. They also acquired center [[Janel McCarville]] through the dispersal draft associated with the dissolution of the [[Charlotte Sting]]. The 2007 Liberty started out 5–0, then lost 7 straight games, then rallied at the end of the season to get the last playoff spot by winning 3 out of their last 4 games, beating the [[Washington Mystics]] on the tiebreaker of head-to-head record. In the Eastern Conference semifinals, the Liberty, as huge underdogs, faced the defending champion [[Detroit Shock]] in a best-of-three series. The Liberty defeated the Shock in game 1 in New York. In games 2 and 3 the Liberty lost both games to the Shock in Detroit, 76–73 and 71–70 (OT), respectively.

In 2008, the Liberty drafted former [[Rutgers Scarlet Knights women's basketball|Rutgers]] shooting guard [[Essence Carson]] and former [[North Carolina Tar Heels women's basketball|North Carolina]] forward Erlana Larkins, and signed former [[Utah Utes women's basketball|Utah]] point guard [[Leilani Mitchell]] during the preseason. Despite having the youngest average age of any WNBA team, the Liberty managed to win 19 regular season games in 2008, to defeat the [[Connecticut Sun]] in the first round of playoff action, and to come within two points of defeating the [[Detroit Shock]] in the third and last game of the Eastern Conference Finals. Again, the Detroit series entailed a Liberty victory at home in Game 1, followed by narrow defeats away in Games 2 and 3. The 2008 season also featured the "[[Liberty Outdoor Classic]]", the first ever professional regular season [[basketball]] game to be played outdoors, on July 19 at [[Arthur Ashe Stadium]] of the [[USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center]]. The [[Indiana Fever]] defeated the Liberty in the Outdoor Classic.

In the [[2009 WNBA draft]], the Liberty selected local favorite [[Kia Vaughn]] from Rutgers. With a solid core group, the Liberty looked to be a contender in the East yet again.

In the 2009 season, however, they never proved to be a contender and the team fired head coach [[Pat Coyle (basketball)|Pat Coyle]]. To replace Coyle, the Liberty hired then-Liberty assistant coach [[Anne Donovan]] on an interim basis. Despite the coaching change, the franchise continued to struggle, finishing 13–21, their second worst record in franchise history.