By Luis Vazquez
The Liberty’s Brittany Boyd recently suffered an achilles injury that was successfully repaired but will cost her the 2017 WNBA season. Credit: Neil Miller/Sportsday Wire.
Explosive. It’s why Brittany Boyd was one of two prize acquisitions desired by the New York Liberty in the 2015 WNBA Draft. As Cappie Pondexter showed signs of age, the Liberty appeared to find her successor in the diminutive point guard from the University of California that resembled her game but in a more dynamic package.
Implosion. The abundance of talent that Brittany Boyd possesses has also morphed into a curse. It appears that the speed that outclassed the WNBA as a supersub the past two seasons has even surpassed her own body’s ability to handle.
Boyd recently suffered an achilles injury that was successfully repaired but will cost her the 2017 WNBA season. This cuts short what was to be her coming-out party as the starting point guard of the New York Liberty.
Brittany Boyd, NY-Liberty. Credit: wikipedia
Boyd was already averaging 13 points, 4.0 rebounds and 2.5 assists starting out and was up to 16 points in the fourth quarter against the Minnesota Lynx when the left achilles tore.
“Boyd had an excellent training camp, and was poised for a breakout season, as evidenced by the way she performed in our first two games,” Liberty head coach Bill Laimbeer said, “We are all hoping for a speedy recovery.”
Boyd’s injuries have struck at the most inopportune times and is eerily reminiscent of the last time Boyd missed crucial games for this reason.
It happened just as suddenly two years ago when Boyd responded to the challenge to grow up rapidly in her rookie campaign. She was reckless but also brilliant at times. Boyd was on the verge of bringing that extra dimension to New York in that year’s upcoming playoffs when it all came crashing down. She went into the air, was blocked and landed hard on her wrist to break her awkward fall, fracturing it in the process.
It deprived the Liberty of their newest weapon that they hoped to unleash on their playoff opposition. It reduced them instead to a pedestrian team and many pointed out that Boyd’s injury may have cost them a championship at that time.
The parallels are hauntingly familiar. New York was banking on Boyd now to run the offense and team up with Sugar Rodgers to contain the speed of opposing WNBA backcourts. But alas, it was not meant to be as the Liberty go back to the drawing board in 2017.
Boyd looks to next year to once again put herself in position to once again take the reigns of leadership in New York City. But this time for an extended period.
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