French guard Marine Fauthoux has typically stood on the outskirts of the team huddle during timeouts.
Occasionally, she’s looked up and around Barclays Center to take in the hectic spectacle.
“That’s crazy,” she said of the fan support. “Really, the gym is huge, the fans are crazy.”
After a yearlong rehabilitation from an anterior cruciate ligament tear in the left knee, Fauthoux will finally get to experience playing in front of the rowdy home crowd.
Fauthoux, the Liberty’s third-round pick in the 2021 draft, was set to make her WNBA debut Saturday night against the Indiana Fever.
She found out Friday and could hardly contain her excitement.
Coach Chris DeMarco said he has “no expectations” for Fauthoux but is excited to see her suit up.
“She’s worked so hard to get back,” he said after shootaround. “I’m just really, really happy for her for this opportunity.”
Fauthoux tore her ACL last June and missed last year’s EuroBasket tournament.
She’s been rehabbing ever since.
She said the early days of her recovery process were some of the hardest.
She watched a lot of the men’s EuroLeague because she couldn’t bear to watch the women early on.
“I love so much basketball,” Fauthoux said. “And for me, it was so hard to see other people play basketball and I wasn’t able to do it. But I feel I’m stronger now in my head and in my body as well.”
She knew it’d take time for her to recover from the knee injury, but she didn’t expect to miss this much action.
She had only been sidelined because of surgery once before in her career, but it took only three months to return to action.
“I thought I would be on the court earlier,” Fauthoux said. “I didn’t think about one year, but I feel my body is stronger than before.
“It was long… I learned a lot about me, like, how I can go through this, so it was really hard and I know now I’m a strong girl.”
Fauthoux, 24, has been among the Liberty’s pool of international prospects since she heard her name called with the 29th overall pick while attending fellow French player Iliana Rupert’s draft party in 2021.
Fauthoux felt like this season was “a good time” for her to join the WNBA.
She’s signed to one of the Liberty’s two developmental contracts.
Saturday will be her first game, and she can play in up to 12 games under her current deal.
There’s a lot of French influence around the Liberty these days.
Fauthoux has been friends with fellow rookie Pauline Astier since they were babies because their mothers played together on the French national team.
She’s played alongside Marine Johannès at two Olympics, winning silver in 2024.
She was also a teammate of Liberty player development coach Kristen Mann, who stood behind reporters during Fauthoux’s availability Saturday in a show of support.
Fauthoux said the established relationships she had with her fellow countrywomen helped her adjust to life in New York.
As for Saturday, Fauthoux was eager to log her first meaningful minutes of basketball in a year.
Her mom made the trip to New York for this major milestone.
“I want to be good, the best version of myself on the court,” she said. “I just want to [do everything] to win.”
Fauthoux’s addition to the rotation gives the Liberty another point guard.
Up to this point, New York has relied heavily on Astier, the team’s only true point guard with Sabrina Ionescu sidelined.
“The biggest thing she’s a competitor,” DeMarco said. “Yeah, if you want to… look at the position with Sab out, yeah, she plays point guard, but it’s just the compete level. And she wants it, and you can feel her presence in the game, so yeah, we’re excited to have her.”
