The WNBA had to hit pause on a Texas matchup after the New York Liberty ran into travel trouble that had nothing to do with basketball. Mechanical issues with the team’s charter flight pushed the scheduled game against the Dallas Wings back several days, turning a normal road trip into a messy delay and a reshuffled calendar.
The Liberty were supposed to face the Wings on Thursday night, but they never made it there on time. The league said the postponement came after the team’s flight hit mechanical problems, forcing the schedule change and leaving both clubs to adjust on the fly.
The game is now set for Monday, July 20, 2025, at 8 p.m. ET, and the Wings said tickets from the original date will still be good. That kind of quick adjustment matters for fans who already planned their night around the matchup, especially when the change happens because of something as basic, and frustrating, as plane trouble.
For New York, the delay added an ugly little twist to a trip that was already turning into a headache. Liberty player Pauline Astier clearly wasn’t thrilled, and she vented on Instagram while the team waited around after a long stretch on the tarmac.
“10h après toujours sur le tamarac,” she wrote, which translates to, “10 hours later, still on the tarmac.”
According to reports, the Liberty even changed planes once before finally getting off around 12:30 a.m. ET. That kind of delay is the sort of thing that can leave a team drained before it even steps onto the floor, and it explains why the league chose to move the game rather than force a scramble at the last minute.
The postponement also gives Dallas a strange stretch in the schedule. The Wings are 16-8 and have been rolling with five straight wins, so the interruption lands in the middle of a hot run and adds another layer to a packed week.
Instead of a normal rhythm, Dallas now has to play three games in four days. The Wings host the Los Angeles Sparks on Sunday, then turn around to face the Liberty on Monday before heading out to take on the Portland Fire on Wednesday.
That’s a lot of basketball in a short window, and the timing matters because momentum is everything this time of year. A team playing well wants clean preparation, not an extra layer of fatigue and travel math layered on top of a busy slate.
The Liberty, meanwhile, just have to reset and get back to the basics. Travel problems are never glamorous, but they can shape a season in small ways, and a delayed road game is the kind of issue that tests how a team handles chaos without losing its edge.
