RESOLVING THE LEDGER
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See the full story · 2 sourcesTwo days after being waived by the New York Liberty , Betnijah Laney-Hamilton has found a new home in the WNBA.
The Washington Mystics claimed the versatile 32-year-old off waivers on Saturday, adding a veteran wing to their roster as they make a push for the playoffs.
In a corresponding move to make room for the two-time All-Defense selection, the Mystics waived Rori Harmon. Washington drafted the guard out of Texas with the 34th overall pick of the 2026 draft.
While Laney-Hamliton was a key component of the Liberty’s 2024 championship team — playing 30 minutes per game that season — she had fallen out of favor with new head coach Chris DeMarco. The Rutgers product appeared in only 17 of 32 games for the Liberty this season, averaging just 16.8 minutes per game. She hadn’t played for New York since July 12, when she was ejected for throwing a shoe .
Many believed the Liberty would try to move Laney-Hamilton ahead of the trade deadline, but they failed to find a partner to make a deal with. New York waived her on Thursday.
"She has been an instrumental part of our success since 2021 and has made a lasting impact on our team. … While this decision is incredibly difficult, we believe this will give Betnijah the best opportunity to pursue a larger basketball role,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said in a statement. “We wish her nothing but success moving forward, and she'll always be a member of the Liberty family.”
Considered to be a 3-and-D wing, Laney-Hamilton is in her 12th WNBA season. A native of Clayton, Delaware, she was drafted 17th overall by the Chicago Sky in 2015. After the Sky, she played with the Connecticut Sun, Indiana Fever and Atlanta Dream — where she was the Most Improved Player of the Year in 2020 — before joining the Liberty in 2021. In her first season with New York, Laney-Hamilton was named to the lone All-Star team of her career.
Laney-Hamilton owns career averages of 9.2 points, 3.2 rebounds, and 2.4 assists in 251 games and has made 79% of her free throws and 35% of her 3-point attempts. She has missed two WNBA seasons due to injury — 2017 with a torn ACL and 2025 with a torn meniscus.
She joins a Mystics squad that is the youngest team in the league. Led by a trio of young stars in Shakira Austin, Kiki Iriafen and Sonia Citron, Washington has won six straight games — the league’s longest active winning streak — and has surged ahead of the Liberty and Dallas Wings in the standings to be in sixth place with 14 regular season contests remaining.
Harmon had appeared in 10 games with the Mystics before being waived, last playing 3 minutes on July 16.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Betnijah Laney-Hamilton joins Mystics after being waived by Liberty
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