With the New York Liberty on the brink of winning their first-ever championship title, all eyes should be on the likes of power forward Breanna Stewart or Sabrina Ionescu. Instead, packed-out crowds at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn have been captivated all season by a five-foot-10 anthropomorphic elephant in the stands.
Meet Ellie the Elephant, the New York Liberty’s official mascot. She’s often seen strutting the arena, swinging her one single braid, and asking a security guard to hold her Telfar purse. She then death drops onto the court and proceeds to do the worm, before deciding to twerk on whichever lucky spectator is sitting courtside. If a referee should dare to give her team a penalty, Ellie will take off her large gold hoop earrings and swing her fists – sometimes going after the ref herself.
The 2024 WNBA finals are finally down to two teams: the New York Liberty and the Minnesota Lynx. On Friday night, the Liberty lost game four to the Lynx at the Target Center in Minnesota, ensuring a game five on Sunday in Brooklyn. Liberty have made the WNBA finals a whopping five times, but the team have never scored a championship title.
In fact, this moment marks a fever pitch for both the Liberty and the WNBA as a whole. This season was the most viewed WNBA season ever, with a 170 per cent increase in viewership compared to the 2023 season. Players such as Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese have dramatically increased the sport’s popularity.
The championship match-up between the Liberty and the Lynx averaged 1.24 million viewers over the first two games, which is an 82 per cent increase in the number of viewers who watched the Liberty play the Aces last year.
Ellie was a crucial part of the team’s re-brand when Joe and Clara Wu Tsai, co-owners of the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, acquired the Liberty in 2019. The original Liberty mascot was a golden retriever named Maddie, after Madison Square Garden, before the team was moved to the Barclays Center.
According to Liberty’s chief brand officer, Shana Stephenson, when they were first brainstorming ideas for a new team mascot, the team’s CEO told staffers a story about PT Barnum. The founder of the Ringling Bros and Barnum and Bailey Circus had 21 elephants march across the Brooklyn Bridge to prove the structure was stable. Thus, the mascot was born and given the name Ellie, as a nod to the iconic Ellis Island in New York Harbor.
When it came time to imagine Ellie’s game-day persona, the goal was to step away from stereotypical mascots, who perform slam dunks or ride on some type of motorcycle. Instead, Ellie was meant to reflect the femininity of the female athletes she was cheering for.
On Ellie’s TikTok and Instagram accounts, where she wracks up more than 300,000 followers across both platforms, fans can even hear a modulated version of Ellie’s voice. The mascot – or rather, the voice behind the elephant – constantly channels Black queer slang such as “sis” and “slay” into her natural vernacular.
As for her fashion, Ellie is not like other mascots. Although she does sport her black and seafoam green jersey, her basketball shorts, and a Statue of Liberty crown, she’ll often strut through the tunnel wearing couture. At one point during the WNBA finals, Ellie even wore a custom-made Joseph McRae puffer jacket and skirt, and was dressed by celebrity stylist Harrison Thomas Crite.
“Game 1 of the finals, you know the fashion had to Ellie-vate,” the mascot said in a TikTok video.
Her fashion game has gone so far that fans are now rooting for the mascot to get invited to the 2025 Met Gala. It wouldn’t be too out of turn for Ellie to attend one the largest fashion events of the year, as she was already invited to walk the red carpet at Glamour’s Women of the Year awards earlier this month.
According to members of Ellie’s team, who call themselves her “aunties,” the mascot specifically collaborates with Black, Brooklyn-based designers, which they believe is key to her large fan base. Alongside the “auntie” nickname, which is rooted in Black culture, the mascot is most known for her popularity within both the Black and queer communities – indicative of the 60 per cent of WNBA players that are Black and the 25 per cent that are openly queer.
Not just a pretty face, the mascot also has show-stopping choreography, including her signature “Ellie Stomp” and “Ellie Wave.” Both dances invite the crowd to participate during the fourth quarter, as Ellie walks around with her Stompahz – a group of dancers. The sound of thunder booms throughout the Barclays Center each time Ellie dramatically stomps her foot on the ground, as the Stompahz fall around her dramatically.
Aside from her fourth-quarter dances, the elephant has paid tribute to iconic singers, such as Beyoncé and Missy Elliot. “The tail swing!!!!!!,” one fan commented on a video of her dancing to “Water” by Tyla, while another said: “That right leg was putting in all the work!”
“OMG Ellie can DANCE,” wrote someone else.
The elephant’s show-stopping moves are nothing but high-energy, featuring splits and headstands, hip-shakes and other hip-hop moves that represent the genre New York City is best known for.
And with game five on Sunday at home, Ellie’s infectious energy will keep fans rooting for New York until the last second — and perhaps to their first ever title.
