Liberty GM Jonathan Kolb named WNBA Executive of the Year - ESPN

Fresh off assembling a superteam that is eight wins away from bringing home the first WNBA championship in franchise history, New York Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb has been named 2023 WNBA Executive of the Year.

The award was determined by the league's 12 executives, with individuals not allowed to vote for themselves. Kolb received six first-place votes, with Dallas' Greg Bibb and Connecticut's Darius Taylor also receiving multiple first-place votes (two apiece).

Within a year, the Liberty went from eking into the playoffs to being a championship contender behind a historic offseason in which New York acquired 2021 MVP Jonquel Jones in a three-team trade and signed 2018 MVP Breanna Stewart and seven-time WNBA assists leader Courtney Vandersloot as free agents.

With Jones, Stewart and Vandersloot joining forces with 2020 No. 1 draft pick Sabrina Ionescu and 2021 All-Star Betnijah Laney, the Liberty have asserted themselves as championship contenders eager to dethrone the reigning champion Las Vegas Aces, whom they tied 2-2 in the regular-season series but finished two games behind in the standings.

Kolb told ESPN this week that New York's offseason was a «confluence of events that will probably never happen again,» given where the Liberty were in their rebuilding process, the availability of a player like Jones on the trade market and the unrestricted free agency of Stewart and Vandersloot, already considered two all-time greats.

Stewart and Vandersloot also were willing to take well under the supermax salary to come to Brooklyn, what the team has described as part of their collective sacrifice in pursuit of a championship. The Liberty are the sole remaining original franchise to have never won a WNBA title.

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