For several years, the New York Liberty were like a good television show -- with a familiar cast of characters -- that is popular but never quite reaches No. 1 in the ratings.
Then, inevitably, it begins to decline and the characters leave. Fans talk about the "good old days," which become even better in retrospect. That Kodachrome phenomenon makes what "was" brighter than what "is."
It was like that the past few seasons for the Liberty. They were a franchise that had come close to winning a championship, but never did it. Eventually the "cast" retired, moved to another team, or was traded names like Vickie Johnson, Sue Wicks, Teresa Weatherspoon, Becky Hammon, Tari Phillips, Tamika Whitmore.
They were all on the last Liberty team to reach the WNBA finals -- in 2002 when New York lost to Los Angeles -- and the feeling that group inspired in its faithful was, understandably, hard to maintain.
New York made the Eastern Conference finals in 2008, losing to the Shock, but then finished 13-21 last year. Longtime coach Patty Coyle was moved out during the season, with Anne Donovan taking over.
At season's end, Liberty fans couldn't have been criticized if their attitude for 2010 was peaking at "glum." Or if it plummeted to "morose" when, in November's draft lottery, Minnesota got the No. 1 overall selection thanks to the first-round pick the Lynx had received from New York in a three-way deal.
Holding onto that pick could have brought UConn's Tina Charles to her hometown of New York. Instead, the Liberty faithful were left cursing fate (and their frequently targeted front office) once again.
All of which is why, as last winter descended upon Gotham, you wouldn't necessarily have expected a bright-looking summer for the Liberty. But guess what?
"I'm as excited as heck about this team," Donovan said. "I still have a lot of question marks in terms of the personality. I don't think I have a complete handle of who we are yet. But I know we've made big improvements.
"At the end of last season, we identified that we needed stronger leadership, just people who could really step up. To me, the biggest definition of a winner is: When your back is against the wall and things aren't going well, how do you respond? And we didn't respond well last year. So the mission through the offseason was to make sure we found those people who were going to compete hard regardless of the situation."
Now, sure, it's only one game into this season for the Liberty -- an 85-82 win over Chicago on Sunday -- but there really is plenty to be excited about. It's a new-look Liberty with the kind of "star power" the team has been lacking.
Liberty president/general manager Carol Blazejowski -- who has taken her share of heat, of course -- added three players who have WNBA championship experience in Cappie Pondexter, Nicole Powell and Taj McWilliams-Franklin. Then New York drafted a player coming off two consecutive undefeated college seasons and NCAA titles, UConn's Kalana Greene.
"That felt like a huge gift. We felt sure she'd be gone in the first round," Donovan said of getting Greene with the first pick in the second round.
The team that had seemed to struggle with figuring out how to win in 2009 is now populated by players with an abundance of know-how in victories.
Powell came through December's dispersal draft of Sacramento players, for which the Liberty had first choice. As crushed as Powell was about the sudden demise of the Monarchs, she found a silver lining.
"My initial reaction when the Liberty took me was, 'It's really nice to be wanted,'" Powell said. "I kind of felt like a rookie again. Blaze and coach Donovan seemed to be thrilled to have me join the team, and that felt good. They made a choice to take me.
"It's not easy to stay in this league; it's so competitive. A lot of good players get cut. And I'm aware even more of how fortunate I am to be playing at this level and still competing."
Then, with the Detroit Shock relocating to Tulsa, veteran McWilliams-Franklin wanted to go elsewhere. And Pondexter, coming off a second WNBA title in Phoenix, requested a trade to get to New York, where she thinks her post-basketball future will best be served. Plus, Pondexter wanted to be back in the greater New York area where she went to school, at Rutgers.
"For me," Pondexter said, "it was just all about opportunity and a new start."
For Donovan, a "seize the day like there's no tomorrow" is a very easy mindset to be in this summer. What's far down the road for the Liberty isn't in her thought process. It's all about the next four months.
That's because she has accepted the head-coaching job at Seton Hall for next season. As was the case with the Sparks' Michael Cooper finishing out 2009 before moving to Southern California, Donovan's days with the Liberty are numbered no matter how well the team performs.
Donovan is very used to juggling responsibilities to different teams, obviously, with her many years in USA Basketball, including as Olympic coach. So the mechanics of getting through this summer focused on the Liberty while still keeping tabs on what her Seton Hall staff is doing won't be a big stretch.
But it might be more emotionally difficult than she would have expected to leave the Liberty, especially if the team is very successful. In fact, Donovan acknowledges emotions have been a bigger part of the last year-plus for her than she anticipated.
A New Jersey native, she has coached at the collegiate level, in the ABL and the WNBA, along with USA Basketball. Her home base for the past decade or so had become Charlotte, where she had once coached the WNBA's now-defunct Sting for two seasons.
When she joined the Liberty's staff in the spring of 2009, she pragmatically expected it would be a relatively short stay in the Big Apple. She wasn't at all prepared to feel a sense of "homecoming."
"I come from a wonderful, big family, and we're extremely close," Donovan said of growing up in New Jersey. "But when I left from high school [to Old Dominion], I had no desire to go back to the climate and the hustle and bustle of the Northeast.
"It really wasn't until I came to the Liberty last year that all those roots and the emotions around them surfaced. I realized there were things about this area that I really missed."
When the Seton Hall job opened, Donovan saw that as a more reliable anchor to relocating to the area. Which is understandable, with the greater job security college generally provides as opposed to the WNBA.
Still, there's no question her thoughts right now are 100 percent on the Liberty. She's thrilled to have a player the caliber of Pondexter. And that Powell is in the peak years of her career. McWilliams-Franklin is the savvy veteran whom Donovan first coached more than a decade ago with the ABL's Philadelphia Rage.
Donovan thinks McWilliams-Franklin's experience will help not just post players Janel McCarville, Kia Vaughn and Tiffany Jackson, but everyone on the team regardless of position.
Powell agrees, saying, "Actually, I was talking to Taj about that last night at dinner. She was talking about how she's learned the game over many years. I think your knowledge can always grow."
Powell said as far as Donovan's situation, knowing she will leave at season's end, it's not any kind of distraction.
"I'm not worried about it, because you really can only think about the season you're in," Powell said. "You don't know what's going to happen next year. Look at the Monarchs -- it was like, 'Bam, they folded.'
"So I'm immersed in the moment and taking the season each day as it comes. We've got a lot on our plate now, getting to know each other and improving. It's all about this season.
"I just feel like when I walk in the locker room, there's an energy and excitement hanging in the air. I know that might sound really corny, but I really feel that way. Like we all have the same expectations, and in a good way."
Mechelle Voepel, a regular contributor to ESPN.com, can be reached at mvoepel123@yahoo.com. Read her blog at http://voepel.wordpress.com.