After parts of three separate stints with the New York Liberty spanning more than a decade, it seems Rebecca Allen has finally decided it’s time to hang up her boots. The veteran guard has revealed she intends to retire at the end of this season, closing out a professional basketball career that began in 2009 and a WNBA journey that’s spanned roughly a decade, the majority of it in a Liberty uniform.

“Rebecca Allen confirms this will be her final season in the WNBA,” the caption read in a post by Underdog WNBA, published on August 8.

Allen herself made clear the timing feels right.

“Yeah, I just feel like this is my moment of closing a beautiful chapter, do you know? And I’d like to close everything at once when I am done.  So that’s me sort of making that decision and having that piece within it as well.  So for me it’s nice to know and feel peace with the decision of it,” she said 

Allen first signed with the Liberty in 2015, spending five seasons there before moving on. She later returned for a second stint in 2021 and 2022, establishing herself as a key rotational player both times.

Her most significant WNBA years came between 2021 and 2024. In 2021, she posted a career-high 9.2 points per game, adding 3.7 rebounds and 1.1 assists across 25 appearances for the Liberty. The following season, she started 19 of her 25 games, serving as a critical perimeter piece and lockdown defender as New York clinched the seventh seed under first-year coach Sandy Brondello, riding an energetic late-season push. She averaged 7.0 points, 3.4 rebounds and 1.2 assists that year.

After the 2022 season, Allen spent three years bouncing between Connecticut, Phoenix and Chicago, carving out a role wherever she landed, before signing with the Liberty once more in 2026 for what’s now her third stint with the franchise. This season, she’s averaging 3.4 points and 1.8 rebounds per game, starting 7 of the 16 games she’s played. She entered the year ranked ninth all-time in Liberty history in blocks and 14th in both 3-pointers made and games played, a quiet but real mark on the franchise record book across her time there.

Fans remain grateful for everything Allen has given the Liberty over the years, support that means even more now, as the team is once again finding form heading into the playoff stretch.

The Liberty Are Once Again Playing With Confidence

After a rough patch in mid-July, the Liberty have won the bulk of their recent games and now sit at 18-13, third in the Eastern Conference, following a 95-83 win over Seattle on August 4 that saw four players score in double figures, led by Breanna Stewart’s 24 points, eight rebounds and six assists.

Sabrina Ionescu has been central to the turnaround, healthy and playing some of her best basketball of the season. Her recent form, including a 27-point outing against the Sparks and a record-setting playmaking performance against Seattle, where she became the all-time assists leader through a player’s first 200 career games, has taken pressure off Stewart and opened things up for Jonquel Jones and Satou Sabally to focus on interior defense and rim protection. With Ionescu playing consistently, New York looks like a more complete, balanced team, and the scoring numbers reflect it.

That balance has shown up defensively too, with the Liberty successfully containing elite scorers on their best nights, a trend that’s carried into the stretch run as the playoffs approach.

With just a handful of games remaining in the regular season, Liberty fans are encouraged their team is hitting its stride at the right time, with a matchup against the Las Vegas Aces up next, another measuring-stick game against a genuine title contender.