# How the Liberty spent their World Cup break

> With the WNBA on pause for the FIBA World Cup, the Liberty players left behind scattered across beaches, hometowns and Europe.
- Title: How the Liberty spent their World Cup break · New York Post
- Summary: With the WNBA on pause for the FIBA World Cup, the Liberty players left behind scattered across beaches, hometowns and Europe. A mid-season break built…
- Keywords: wnba, new york liberty, fiba world cup, offseason, basketball, news, entertainment, Liberty, spent, World, Cup, break
- Source: New York Post — https://nypost.com/2026/09/11/sports/inside-wnba-world-cup-break-for-liberty-players-who-stayed-behind
- Published: 2026-09-11T18:06:40+00:00
- Read time: 1 min
- Topics: wnba, new york liberty, fiba world cup, offseason, basketball, news, entertainment
## The league hit pause
The 2026 FIBA Women's World Cup forced an unusual gap in the WNBA schedule, leaving Liberty players who weren't called up with open calendars.
## Jonquel Jones went island time
Jones and teammate Rebekah Gardner skipped the gym for the beach, taking the break as a straight vacation.

> Jonquel Jones and Rebekah Gardner went on island time
## Sabrina went home to reset
Ionescu flew back to California to press reset, trading the New York grind for familiar ground mid-season.
## A stop at the US Open
Ionescu still made it back to Queens for the U.S. Open, catching tennis instead of playing basketball.
## Anneli Maley saw Europe
Maley squeezed in Paris and Berlin, a vacation doubling as a celebration of the WNBA standard contract she just signed.
## Rest is part of the job
Beaches, home cooking and European cities are what a break looks like when the season stops but the body still has months to go.
## Key takeaway

A mid-season break built around an international tournament hands the players who aren't in it a rare stretch of real time off.