Of course you know Justine and Scott. Wait a second, who? You ask. Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld, who sit front & center on New York Liberty broadcasts, just next to the scorer’s table and often behind whichever visiting head coach is screaming their head off. They often look something like this:
Or this:
Or, via Reddit, they look like this:
And, I know, they look so cool that you might think: who are these fabulously wealthy celebrities? To be clear, Justine and Scott aren’t actually filthy rich. They are artists - specifically, novelists - and they’ve been working their way into these courtside seats since 1999, when Scott first became a season ticket holder. They are two of the purest women’s basketball obsessives I know. And over the years, they’ve become my friends.
I first met Justine & Scott on the internet in 2024 when Justine discovered Rough Notes before I’d really shared it with anyone; we’ve pen-pal’d ever since. Last week, while visiting New York, I finally got to meet them in person. It was so. freaking. sweet.
I spent my whole night at Barclays engulfed in gratitude for people like these two who have loved the New York Liberty for longer than many WNBA players’ lifetimes. Yes, I go hard for the Valkyries, and the emergence of Ballhalla, but there’s nothing like talking to WNBA fans with such deep roots. So I gotta say it: the Bay could learn a thing or two from New York, in this way.
I asked Justine & Scott if they’d take me on a sweeping tour of their New York Liberty fandom, from the 1990’s until today, through a series of rapid-fire questions. Bravely, they agreed. Here is our conversation!
Maya: Okay, so how’d you meet?
Scott: In 2000, at an awards ceremony for science fiction writers.
Maya: And how’d you get together?
Justine: I’d see Scott at science fiction events, where people mostly didn’t dress up. The look was scruffy. The folks’ styling stood out, and he was always wearing a cool jacket. I remember this fab cobalt blue one with an off kilter plaid pattern.
Scott: Comme de Garçon! Purchased for an award banquet. When we first hooked up, we didn’t know each other very well. But we ended up eloping, like, 7 months later.
Justine: I asked him to marry me because of the season tickets. Scott was a series of green flags: he was interested in women’s sports but not in a pervy way, in his apartment, he had so many books written by women. Which I’d never fucking seen from any men or women I’d gone out with. And the tickets!
Maya: Of course it was the tickets. How much were those tickets?
Scott: In Madison Square Garden, section 205. $1,000-ish for two tickets, for the full season.
Maya: These days, do you see other folks at Barclays that started going in the 90s?
Justine: Well, there’s Aaliyah and her mom, Sharon, who’ve been going since day one. They’re deep into women’s college hoops too. They used to sit behind us, and share hoops wisdom, but then the big price hike. We miss them so much!
Scott: They taught us a lot about the game. The first game after they got priced out, the guy in Aaliyah’s seat contributed nothing but “Gotta make your free throws.” Dude, we were 20 up and it was Connecticut.
Justine: And Eileen across the way. (Last night she was wearing the now famous “Trans Kids Belong” shirt.)
Scott: Then there’s the head scorer, Danny Fishbane. He just turned 80 years old, and he’s worked for the Knicks and the Liberty for ages. We always chat with him.
Maya: How’d you first move courtside?
Scott: Because we got a deal. In 2011, the old front office dumped the Liberty in New Jersey while Madison Square Garden was renovated. We’d worked our way to the second row, but they put us courtside for the same price. After that, we couldn’t go back to BB. (Twice as many photons in that first row!)
Maya: Who do you think is the most underrated player in Liberty history?
Justine: It’s hard to say she’s underrated because she’s the all-time rebounding leader of the league, but Tina Charles. More than any player we’ve ever had she carried the team on her back. She was MVP in Connecticut one year, but she should have won it at least twice more in New York.
Scott: Also, Elena Baranova. In 2004, she was something like 46% from three. At 6’4. No bigs were shooting threes at that kind of rate back then.
Maya: How about - biggest villain in Liberty history?
Scott: Shout out to Debbie Black, in her Miami Sol days. A 5-foot-2 menace pestering T-Spoon. She won DPOY at age 35. Despicable stuff.
Justine: But really: James Dolan. We call him “The Bad Man.”
Maya: Correct. What’s something that was better about Liberty games before the invention of smartphones?
Justine: Oh my god, I remember they’d give out these little cards, with the visiting team’s players. It had their numbers, height, and college. You could collect them like a kid.
Scott: I liked the physical tickets. With lanyards for the good seats.
Maya: What about a Liberty fashion icon, besides you two?
Justine: I actually started dressing up to go to games because of Tina Charles’ dad. He sat near us courtside and he always looked - chef’s kiss. I was obsessed. He is gonna notice me! I’ll start dressing and I’ll say hi and we’ll be best friends… which never happened.
Maya: He never noticed you?Justine: Nope. He was there to see his daughter. And he was apoplectic when she had a bad game. (Or bad calls.)
Maya: What about - any memories of the WNBA’s ‘glass closet’ era?
Scott: In the late 90s and early 2000s, there was nothing official going on at Liberty games for Pride weekend. But everyone showed up in rainbow stuff, tons of lesbians were there, and a few times somebody ran with a huge Pride flag down the walkway between the 100s and 200s, like a protest. The crowd went wild!
Maya: What’s been your favorite era of Liberty mascot?
Scott: I like Ellie. She reminds me of Bugs Bunny in that she’s simultaneously for the children, but also a stone cold freak. (Justine’s not a mascot person.)
Maya: Genius. Most heartbreaking year when you thought the Liberty could win a championship but didn’t?
Scott: In 2016 we had the best record in the east. Tina Charles was dominant. We got a bye in the first round, with that wonky one-and-done playoff structure. So we had like a week off, then played an elimination game against Diana Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury (the 8th seed!). We had a bad fourth quarter and - poof - the season’s over. Dolan was in the house, and sent us to Westchester soon after, where we tanked for two years. It had the most downside of any single loss I’ve ever seen.
Maya: You can never get over it. What’s the most surreal photo you have on deck?
Scott: Maya Moore at a pre-season game at Columbia University, which is like a high school gym.
Maya: Wow, this blows my mind! How about… people you most look forward to seeing at games?
Justine: Since I’m Australian, I try really hard to connect with every Australian player. Actually, last night, Jade Melbourne was running by and I yelled “Aussie, Aussie, Aussie!” She looked back and clocked me. Then later she was waiting an interminable time to get into the game at the scorer’s table. She smiled at me and said, “I owe you an oi, oi, oi.”
Maya: Something you wish you could forget?
Justine: When Becky Hammon tore her Achilles. We were like six rows back and we heard it snap. And she just crumpled.
Maya: Nooo! What about: something you most disagree with Liberty fandom about?
Justine: How invisible defense can be to them. Like both Bec Allen and Bec Gardner get bagged because they’re not scoring. But if you watch them on D, my God, they’re so active! It’s ridic to me that people want them gone.
Maya: What’s better experience-wise: MSG or Barclays?
Justine: Barclays. At MSG Liberty fans were always second-class citizens. It was all about the Knicks. (That said, MSG Liberty games were lit back then! There were sold out games! And collective joy!)
Scott: Yes, Barclays. Especially because of the Crown Club. It has Vegas-level stylings, and that famous candy room.
Maya: If you could reincarnate either Becky Hammon or Teresa Weatherspoon to come back right now as a player at the height of their career, who would you choose?
Scott: The thing about Teresa Weatherspoon is that she still holds the record for most steals (100) in a season in the WNBA. That season had 30 games! We’re in a 44 game season now and no one has broken her record. So you gotta go Spoon.
Justine: But the thing about Becky Hammon is that most of her time with the Liberty, she had a coach who didn’t like her, and wouldn’t play her. She was stuck on the bench. We used to call her Becky Big Time because when things were going pear-shaped — and he’d finally consent to let her play — she would come out and save games for us. Over and over.
Scott: Full disclosure: Becky once glared at me for a solid minute for telling her “Good timeout!” after an ATO inbound turnover. A cherished memory.
Maya: Okay, maybe we can reincarnate them both. What about: realest celebrity fans - besides you guys?
Justine: Lol. First, Joan Jett - lovely. And for a brief while Fran Lebowitz was a fun presence. She seemed, like, bewildered that she loved watching basketball. And you gotta give it to Spike Lee: he came early on, and always watches games the whole way through, plus the shootaround. Queen Latifah! She doesn’t come often but she’s always immaculate. Aubrey Plaza loses her mind at the refs. She clearly knows hoops. (Once when they put her on the big screen she pretended to be reading a book. Read our book, Aubrey!)
Scott: One time I saw Julio Torres, back row of the 100s, fully incognito. I caught his eye and he gave me a look like, “Do not out me. I will murder you.” And I was like, “Dude, I’m a New Yorker, it’s cool.”
Maya: So, will we see you courtside next year?
Justine: Nope. Honestly, staying courtside this year was one of the most demented financial decisions of our marriage. Our first year at Barclays we paid $8600 for two courtside seats. By 2025, the cost was up to $22,000. Which, ouch! But then in 2026 our seats went up to $56k (with our longtime Loyals discount). That’s a college education! A fancy car! A house deposit (somewhere other than NYC)!
Scott: We’ve had a good run, courtside since 2011, and we can let go. But I hated the idea that 2025 would be our last time sitting next to the visitors’ bench, getting to watch the head coaches, all the players up close, without us knowing it was over. Ridiculous or not, I wanted us to be able to lean into the experience. Say goodbye properly! And here we are.
Maya: Anything we can do to keep you courtside? We need you there.
Scott: Buy our books?
Justine: Yeah, we’re cooked, unless our new novel, The Mortons, becomes a bestseller. It’s the first novel we’ve written together. (Dark academia. Ancient crime family. Saltburn meets Sopranos!)
Maya: I’m ordering it from my local independent bookstore right now! Please know that you are WNBA legends, no matter where you sit, forever.
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