It had been only about a month since Isabelle Harrison signed with the New York Liberty when she got a call from her girlfriend, Natasha Cloud, a veteran point guard: “She was like, ‘So I might be going to New York, too.’ ”
They’d been a couple for four years, but their schedules playing for different W.N.B.A. teams had meant that they usually went weeks without seeing each other during the season, staying over an extra night when their teams faced off. There was a moment’s pause as they considered whether they were ready to live, travel and compete together on a championship team that was aiming to repeat.
“We just kind of had to learn what that new dynamic would be,” Ms. Harrison, 31, said, referring to both their relationship and their separate ties with new teammates.
“She’s reserved, but she has a really beautiful way of connecting everybody,” Ms. Cloud, 33, said of Ms. Harrison before describing herself as the total opposite. “I’m just loud and obnoxious, and I bring everyone together. We always want people to have their own relationships with us.”
It’s been a rockier season than expected, with Liberty players battered by injuries, including a concussion for Ms. Harrison, a forward, and a broken nose that has Ms. Cloud playing in a face mask. But their connections have remained intact.
They share a two-bedroom apartment in walking distance of Barclays Center with their dogs: Coda and Brody, 5-year-old pit bulls, and Prince, an 8-year-old Yorkie.
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