It seems like it was just yesterday that I was fighting to make the roster. Now, it's a lot different. There's pressure on how well the Liberty will do and how well I will do. My contribution is not a question mark anymore; it's an expectation with an exclamation!

Believe me. It's a lot easier, in some ways, to have high expectations from not only yourself, but others as well. Now, nobody doubts my ability to contribute, but it does add a lot of pressure to my game.

When there are no expectations on you, you can relax and just play. The downside is that nobody has any confidence in you. Instead of looking for reasons to keep you, they look for reasons to cut you. In a lot of areas, it's a constant uphill battle because whatever preconceived notions coaches or others may have of you, they will remember the one thing you did wrong and forget the 10 things you did right. Thank goodness I don't have that battle anymore — at least to that extent. Swinging to the other side and having both others and myself expect a high level of contribution is a welcome change.

This year, the New York Liberty has great expectations. We had our first game of the season against Miami this past Thursday. I was disappointed with the way we played. We lost 68-59 in Miami. As a veteran team, the Liberty has to understand that we are everyone else's big game — just like everyone used to be with Houston. All competitive teams want a shot at the best.

With Houston's "Big Three" (Sheryl Swoopes, Cynthia Cooper, and Tina Thompson) down to the "Big One" (Thompson), the race for the WNBA championship is wide open. L.A. and N.Y. are considered to be the premiere teams, but everyone's roster improved this year. It should be fun to see how everything turns out this season, not only for the Liberty, but for my individual play as well. I believe this is the Liberty's year!

Becky Hammon, an all-state basketball player at Rapid City Stevens and an All-American at Colorado State, is in her third year of pro basketball as a member of the WNBA's New York Liberty.