When Unrivaled commissioner Micky Lawler’s cab pulled up to Barclays Center around 3 p.m. Monday, she noticed a line had already formed outside the arena’s main entrance.
Never mind the fact that it was 30 degrees outside and windy and the doors didn’t open for another few hours, fans gradually started to show up.
Patrons filled McMahon’s Pub House, a bar located a few blocks away, to the brim.
Even Sabrina Ionescu and Napheesa Collier pulled up for the Unrivaled pregame.
A month after Unrivaled garnered record-shattering attendance in Philly, the 3-on-3 basketball league managed to do it again in Brooklyn.
Monday’s semifinal games didn’t have the same lead-up as the Jan. 30, Philadelphia tour stop.
Unrivaled had less than a month to sell tickets.
“To be honest with you, it was somewhat of an internal split room on should we pull the trigger on this?” Unrivaled president Alex Bazzell said.
Brooklyn’s turnout didn’t disappoint.
“It was cool for Unrivaled to put this together with [short] notice,” Dearica Hamby said after Vinyl’s loss to Phantom. “It felt like a W game… It’s a unique situation to put this together in two weeks, and you would have had no idea the way it turned out.”
Monday’s semifinal games welcomed a sellout crowd of 18,261, with plenty of stars in attendance, including two-time Olympic gold medalist Hilary Knight, Hall of Famer Carmelo Anthony, soccer star Alex Morgan and actors Ashton Kutcher and Issa Rae.
There were plenty of Liberty sightings, too.
Ionescu was in the broadcast booth.
Team owner Clara Wu Tsai, general manager Jonathan Kolb and new head coach Chris DeMarco sat courtside.
And the games delivered quite the show.
Kelsey Plum knocked in the go-ahead 3 to punch Phantom’s ticket to Wednesday’s championship game, which sent the crowd into a frenzy.
After the game, Plum, who has played four WNBA playoff games at Barclays Center, joked that she’s used to New York fans booing her.
“Just to be clear, like, most respect. New York fans are different and I’ve always appreciated the competitiveness, so I welcome it with open arms,” Plum said.
Barclays Center’s electric atmosphere wasn’t a surprise to anyone who has attended Liberty games.
“Barclays was Barclays. New York was New York. It’s always electric. It’s always a show,” Phantom head coach Roneeka Hodges said. “It’s even better when the basketball game is high quality, the product is good.”
