00:02when you first heard the news came down on thursday the liberty releasing benajalini
00:09hamilton when you first heard that were you surprised by the decision after everything
00:13that we've talked about or was the biggest surprise that this happened after the trade deadline
00:19i don't think i'm surprised for either of those things i'm i think i'm just surprised that
00:23ownership or management decided to do it right uh knowing that there was definitely going to be
00:30some blowback from the fan base knowing what benajalini hamilton meant to this means this
00:34organization she came here in 2021 when the and took a risk by coming to a team that was losing
00:42more than it was winning and was very much a foundational player for the the franchise
00:47turnaround and you know she put her body on the line she has like a quote with ross that i
00:52used
00:53in my story where she basically just said that she was going until the wheels fell off uh in 2024
00:58and obviously played a big part in helping them win that championship was out all of last season
01:03because of injury stayed in market for the most part worked with andrew wade was seen around town
01:10with chris demarco at all these different events along with like niara saboli and stuff and then
01:16just never really got her season off the ground went from being a starter to coming off the bench to
01:21racking up dmp's the writing had been on the wall that you know this wasn't this wasn't working um
01:29after they couldn't move her on the trade deadline it just kind of felt like it was a matter of
01:32time
01:32especially with the way that maureen fatooks had been playing and the way that they had been talking
01:36about her it almost felt like maureen was and i had written about this for a few weeks now that
01:42maureen that was really playing her way onto the roster um and then you start to do the math and
01:48you
01:48have to figure out well who someone's got to go to add somebody and benajah kind of just felt like
01:53the
01:54odd woman out so to speak um but again it's it's for it's unfortunate just championship windows
02:01they don't stay open because of sentimentality and that's kind of the the difficult part of this
02:08business but but i don't think people are going to remember benajah for um this season i i think that
02:15they're going to remember her for every all of the contributions that she's given to this
02:20organization and what she means to the franchise yeah i want to come back to that in a second about
02:24what she means to the franchise and i've seen reaction i'm sure you've seen it too you know from
02:30the fan base um to her release you know it has been you know not as positive and a lot
02:36of fans
02:37wanted you know this we've been talking about this wanted to see her play um i guess regardless of how
02:42difficult this season became we know as you just mentioned that benajah was a foundational part of
02:47the liberties rise in their first championship i sometimes say this maddie deserve doesn't have
02:52anything to do with it but did she deserve a more graceful ending or do you look at this like
02:57look
02:57there's simply no clean way to move on from a player with that kind of history it's always going
03:01to be rough at the end where where do you land on that uh i mean i think that there
03:06can always be
03:07a graceful way of parting ways with a franchise player and all of that i think unfortunately just
03:16the way that this whole entire season was handled with her um there was miscommunication at times
03:22regarding what her role was going to look like you know obviously she stepped away early on in the
03:26season for personal reasons the team supported her through that comes back she's coming off the bench
03:31and it just kind of again i think that the lack of play it's it's one of those chicken and
03:36the eggs
03:37type thing right like she wasn't getting playing time because she looked a step slow and wasn't
03:45didn't reclaim her her form uh post-surgery the way that the team had hoped her to so she wasn't
03:52getting playing time but then could you argue that because she wasn't getting playing time and
03:56consistent minutes that that was hindering her ability to find her flow i mean you know and so
04:01i think it's it's kind of a complicated thing but but yeah i mean i i would just love to
04:09know how
04:09benijah feels about it because if benijah is at peace with it then you feel a lot better about like
04:15this this decision and honestly i have to believe everything i know about benijah is that as she might
04:21be and i don't want to speak for her this is me purely speculating but obviously this probably
04:26is disappointing that how the season has gone um but also maybe this allows you know if she doesn't
04:35end up on another team which it's very possible she could there's lots of teams that have cap space
04:39to sign her right now but if she were to not play for another team like this gives her the
04:43time to
04:45mentally physically emotionally reset before 2027 um and obviously she'll be an unrestricted free agent
04:51yeah i've i've you know i've been wondering too you know where she goes from this um also what what
04:57is the impact on this team she was close with a lot of ladies on this team um jonquil jones
05:01uh being
05:02one of them i i wonder how that impacts you talked about how fans will remember her and i agree
05:09with you
05:09that i don't think fans are going to think about this season and how little she played maybe they'll think
05:15about the release and they won't like that but do you think five ten years from now um when we
05:21look
05:21back at this and look at this back at this era of liberty basketball that fans will remember benijah
05:26as that great two-way player that you mentioned came to this team when they were losing was really
05:32part of that core of them winning how do you think fans will remember her yeah i mean i think
05:37they'll
05:37remember her for all the right reasons you know um for for what all of her contributions early on
05:43the way that she helped deliver that championship like that that run in 2024 was special and the
05:49thing about championships is sometimes you know like they're not guaranteed and so you've really
05:54got to enjoy and embrace when your team does win it because there's no it could very well not happen
06:01again you know what i mean there's so much that goes into winning a championship and she was a glue
06:06player and they missed her last season and that was very uh evident and people would talk about
06:12that you know the way that she was like that connected tissue of the team and even when she
06:19wasn't playing this season you could see her be a leader on the bench or in practice or in the
06:23huddles
06:23and stuff like that and so i think again i don't think anyone's gonna you know this is not a
06:31blemish on
06:32benijah you know in her her career and what she means the liberty this season i don't think it's a
06:37blemish on
06:37her um and so i think again they'll they'll remember her for all the right reasons
06:41you
06:42you
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