Germany’s Leonie Fiebich going for WNBA title

With a minute and a half to go in Game 2 of the WNBA Finals between the New York Liberty and Minnesota Lynx, Leonie Fiebich took a quick glance at the basket before sinking a three-pointer. New York’s lead was restored to nine points — and the Liberty cruised to an 80-66 win.
This came as her team looked to be on the verge of blowing it in front of a record crowd of 18,040 spectators in Brooklyn’s Barclays Center — just like in Game 1, when New York let an 18-point lead slip through their hands on the way to a 95-93 overtime loss.
Not this time, though: Fiebich saw to it that New York would level the the best-of-five series at one game apiece.
The German forward’s steep rise essentially came out of nowhere. When Fiebich moved to New York Liberty in the offseason, she was very much an unknown quantity, and at first received little attention from her opponents. She took advantage of her freedom on the court, becoming an important part of her team.
“Nobody knew me at the beginning,” the 24-year-old told German public broadcaster Deutschlandfunk. “That was really cool. I was able to play to my strengths a bit. Nobody knew that I could throw the ball quite well.”
The 1.93-meter (6-foot, 4-inch) forward is now a starter for the Liberty, who are favorites against the Lynx.
By the age of 14, Fiebich was playing with the women at her club in the southern state of Bavaria. But it was by no means a direct jump from the small town of Landsberg am Lech to the Big Apple.
 “Yes, that sounds like a good storyline, doesn’t it?” Fiebich told Deutschlandfunk. “But it wasn’t like that. I didn’t go from Landsberg to New York. I had many stops in between. The amount of work that went into it was and is very exhausting.”
Fiebich was playing for Germany’s storied TSV 1880 Wasserburg in 2020 when the Los Angeles Sparks selected her 22nd overall in the WNBA draft. A year later, the Sparks traded her WNBA rights to the Chicago Sky. However, neither team even tried to contact her.

“I don’t think that they had any use for me at that moment,” Fiebich recently told the US women’s basketball publication Winsidr, “so they acted like I was not part of their organization.”
Instead of the WNBA, her career path took her to Les Flammes Carolo Basket in France before a move to the Warwick Senators in Perth, Australia. In 2022 she signed with Basket Zaragoza, where Fiebich was twice named the Spanish league’s Most Valuable Player before getting the call from the New York Liberty, who had by then acquired her WNBA rights.
It didn’t take long for the German to hit her stride, finishing the regular season as a +7 and being named to the WNBA All-Rookie Team. 
“I’ve worked my way up: I’m a starter in the playoffs,” Fiebich told German public broadcaster ARD. There are “quite a few” Europeans in the WNBA who “hardly get any playing time,” she said.
Teammates and coaches are delighted by the strong performance from Fiebich, who was one of Germany’s best players at the Paris Olympics in July and August.
Liberty star Breanna Stewart describes Fiebich as a team player.
“She just wants to do whatever she can to help this team win,” Stewart told Winsidr.
 Three-time WNBA All-Star Sabrina Ionescu told Winsidr: “She’s probably the best shooter on this team, percentage-wise. For her to be a rookie and to come in and do whatever it is that she needs to do, it’s pretty impressive.”
New York coach Sandy Brondello particularly appreciates Fiebich’s composure and consistency.
“Nothing fazes her,” Brondello told Newsday after the WNBA quarterfinals. “That’s what you love about her. Regular season. Playoffs. She brings the same mentality day in and day out.”
Even Becky Hammon, coach of the Las Vegas Acers, who lost to the Liberty in the semifinals, is full of praise for the German.
“I love Fiebich, I’m a huge fan of her,” Hammon told Sports Illustrated. “She’s got length. She’s got incredible feel for, like, guarding distance. She’s close enough to you where you can’t shoot, but far back enough where you can’t drive by her.”
The numbers back this up: Fiebich sunk 43.3% of her three-point attempts in the regular season. This was the second-best figure for a rookie in the 27-year history of the league.
Only one German has ever won the WNBA championship: Marlies Askamp with the Los Angeles Sparks in 2020. Fiebich and Liberty  teammate Nyara Sabally could be about to join her.
This article was originally published in German.