At halftime at Barclays Center in Downtown Brooklyn, where the New York Liberty, the defending W.N.B.A. champions, were leading in their season opener against the Las Vegas Aces, the team’s mascot, Ellie the Elephant, danced to Nicki Minaj.
Downstairs in the Crown Club, a space reserved for select ticket holders, the “Severance” actors John Turturro and Zach Cherry chatted in the front of the room. In the back, Robin Roberts, the broadcaster, had a quiet meal with Russell Wilson, the quarterback of the New York Giants. Joining them were the owners of the Liberty, the Brooklyn Nets and Barclays Center, Clara Wu Tsai and Joe Tsai, who is also the founder and chairman of the Chinese tech company Alibaba.
After dominating much of the game, the Liberty won, 92-78.
The filmmaker Spike Lee was also in the Crown Club, browsing a room filled with free popcorn, water and candy, including boxes of Milk Duds and Swedish Fish.
“It’s just such a great moment for the city,” he said, reflecting on an unusually momentous weekend for New York sports teams, which also included a subway series between the Mets and the Yankees, as well as a playoff run for the Knicks.
Mr. Lee, dressed in the orange and blue colors of the Knicks, said he had been at Madison Square Garden the night before, cheering as the team had routed the Boston Celtics, 119-81, to head to the N.B.A’s Eastern Conference finals for the first time in 25 years.
Later that day, he planned to fly to France for the Cannes Film Festival to premiere his newest movie, “Highest 2 Lowest,” an English-language reinterpretation of Akira Kurosawa’s Japan-set 1963 police procedural “High and Low.” But Mr. Lee, a longtime Liberty fan, wanted to support the team first.
“I am very worn out,” he said, though he added that he was “so honored to be here.”
“I had to see the raising of the flag,” he said.
Before tip-off, the team celebrated its 2024 national championship. Players were presented with rings full of diamonds, and a championship flag was hung from the rafters. The sold-out game drew more than 17,000 people.
Natasha Cloud, a guard who is new to the team this year, said she was looking forward to playing in New York.
“To play in front of a city that absolutely loves their sports through and through, I’m really excited,” she said.
But she admitted to feeling a little pressure after the Knicks’ win the previous night.
“If they are going to put on for the city, we have to do that, too,” she said.
Ms. Cloud has been playing in the W.N.B.A. for about a decade, and she said she had never seen this level of support for women’s basketball.
“This is the trajectory that women’s sports in general deserves,” she said.
Fans had lined up early to meet the players and collect autographs.
Ivy Lehner, 39, a teacher who lives in Brooklyn and started watching the team during the pandemic, made a shirt with basketball trading cards. “I love watching these women play,” she said. “Liberty consumes everything for me.”
Others wore jerseys and T-shirts that read, “Everyone watches women’s sports.”
“I am here because girls have to support girls,” said Maya Laquice, a 15-year-old who lives in New Jersey. “I have made so many friends at Liberty games.”
The actor Jason Sudeikis, who was also at the Knicks game the night before, was captured on the big-screen at Barclay’s pumping his hands up and down, encouraging the crowd to get even louder.
“We get used to things too easily as human beings,” he said, “and it’s nice to have these very special weekends every now and then.”
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