Last week, Ellie the Elephant, beloved mascot of the New York Liberty, was preparing for her birthday party. It was to be a bash involving dance routines and costume changes, held in front of 17,000 people at Barclays Center. Naturally, the team was pulling out all the stops: Ellie was celebrating the big 0-6.
Across the street, at the Brooklyn Basketball Training Center, more than five dozen young people ages 4 to 16 were practicing choreography for Sunday’s halftime show. Amid counts of “5, 6, 7, 8,” the children tried their best to pump their bodies and get down on the parquet floor, in hopes of delivering a dance sequence on par with what Ellie usually brings for her fans.
Over the past six years, Ellie’s distinctive aesthetic and courtside panache have signaled to many Black women, Liberty fans or not, that Ellie is one of us. To them, the evidence is irrefutable: Whether she’s performing as Mary J. Blige (in thigh-high boots), Lil’ Kim (again, in thigh-high boots) or Whitney Houston (her pixie wig seeming to vibrate on a cellular level), the performance is simply too dropped in.
So: Is Ellie Black?
“Ellie represents culture,” said Criscia Long, senior director of entertainment for the Liberty. She added that the many women whom Ellie draws upon in her presentation are all carefully considered and researched; no matter how Ellie chooses to “show up culturally” for an appearance, it is always going to be very intentional.
Long is part of a team that helps style Ellie from wig to toenails. “Depending on what occasion it is, we are very thoughtful from top to bottom of how Ellie is going to show up in every single moment,” she said.
For the birthday celebration on Sunday, Ellie wore long, gem-encrusted pale pink nails; a glittery pink gown with brown tulle; a headband that held her ponytail up; and gold shades that sat perfectly on her trunk.
As the crowd sang “Happy Birthday,” Ellie soundlessly performed being overcome with emotion, holding her hand to her face. But once fans began to sing the chorus to Stevie Wonder’s version of “Happy Birthday,” she immediately pivoted, walked in front of her birthday cake — a tower of doughnuts — and began to twerk.
As a hybrid mascot-influencer — she has nearly 270,000 followers on TikTok — Ellie is perfectly at home with product placement. Her rhinestone gold shades came out of a bag branded with the Sunglass Hut logo. Her pink gown, with a skirt resembling a sprinkle-covered doughnut, came from Dunkin’. She also had a velvet bag from Coach, also a sponsor.
But to Ellie’s fans, she is far more than a billboard.
The way she flings her braid around and dances with players during timeouts, the hair used to create the turquoise-and-gray braid that falls between her eyes — all of it is a nod to the women who see themselves in her.
“All the different elements from hair to styling to vibe, I think that that’s what really brings her to life,” Long said.
And Ellie can speak volumes about who she is without saying a word. (The Liberty has long refused to disclose the identity of the performer in the Ellie suit, though a spokeswoman said “there has only ever been one Ellie since she was introduced.”) During an interview in which she pantomimed her responses, she indicated her excitement about her birthday by tapping her middle finger and thumb together in approval — a “clock it” gesture.
Videos of Ellie’s antics are enormously popular online, with clips of her twerking and shopping and generally vibing in Brooklyn, picking up thousands of views. But children love Ellie in a way that has nothing to do with memes or views. Aubrey Heiligh, 9, could not sleep the night before rehearsals, according to the girl’s mother, Ebony Heiligh. The family traveled from the Bronx to Brooklyn on a steamy Thursday afternoon to try to learn the steps for the halftime show.
“She’s been telling everybody on the planet; she’s so happy for this,” Heiligh said. “She knows Ellie, she is obsessed with Ellie. I hope she’s focused.”
For Salvador Dalmasi, 8, also from the Bronx, the rehearsal was also a reunion.
“He met her at a game before, so he is super excited to be here,” his mother, Christina Woo, said.
At the game, an afternoon face-off against the Washington Mystics, the children walked out on the court and did their dance just as rehearsed. Ellie appeared behind them in denim overalls and a pink shirt, hitting all her eight counts and swinging her single braid on beat without hitting her trunk or ears — a professional.
Her single braid is a particular signifier of her growth in the last six years. When she made her debut, in the 2021 season, she simply wore a curl on the top of her head. In 2023, the curl became a single 72-inch braid made out of Kanekalon synthetic hair.
“First it was gray and then we found the balayage tone, so we added that in,” Long recalled. “It became part of our identity. We couldn’t even figure out how to keep it on.” For a while, the braid would fall off mid-performance, which became part of the bit. Now in her sixth season, Ellie has the situation in hand. “That is evolution,” Long said.
Two other mascots were present as guests of honor: Violet, a raven, from the Golden State Valkyries; and Skye the Lioness, of the Chicago Sky. Ellie was turning 6, but unlike a typical 6-year-old’s birthday party, the vibe was more girls night in the city than cake and ice cream.
At the end of the game, Ellie, Violet and Skye came together on the court to perform “Lose My Breath” by Destiny’s Child. As the three mascots walked in formation, the crowd at Barclays cheered raucously.
Ellie stood in as Beyoncé. Naturally.
Camera operating by Reagan Petrehn.
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