The WNBA’s newest champion just picked up her first piece of off-court hardware, and it comes in 14-karat gold. Nyara Sabally, fresh off a title run with the New York Liberty, is now the face of Catbird’s latest campaign, making her the brand’s newest ambassador and perhaps the first person to pair post defense with minimalist fine jewelry.
Catbird, the Brooklyn-based jewelry brand that’s basically the spiritual opposite of courtside flashiness, has tapped Sabally to showcase its signature pieces—delicate gold chains, whisper-thin rings, things that sparkle without shouting. Which, in a way, mirrors Sabally’s own energy: elegant, resilient, and quietly dominant. The campaign leans hard into that contrast—diamond-tough athlete meets gossamer-light gold—and the result is exactly the kind of crossover moment that makes brand strategists feel clever.
This isn’t just Catbird tossing a bracelet at the nearest trending athlete. Sabally is a compelling figure in and out of uniform. Born in Germany, she played college ball at Oregon, where she battled through multiple knee injuries with the kind of perseverance that would make Catbird’s soldered-permanently jewelry metaphorically weep. Drafted by the Liberty in 2022, she spent her rookie year recovering, only to bounce back in 2024 and help the team secure a championship. It’s the kind of narrative arc jewelry marketers dream of: sparkle, struggle, redemption—in reverse order.
And while this is Sabally’s first brand deal, Catbird joins a roster of collaborators who lean poetic: boygenius, Laufey, and Christen Press, a collective that seems handpicked from a Brooklyn zine release party. Sabally’s addition adds a welcome jolt of WNBA power to the lineup—less wistful lyricism, more shot-blocking gravity.
Off the court, Sabally doesn’t stick to the safe playbook. She’s also active in humanitarian causes, lending her platform to Operation Olive Branch, a grassroots initiative amplifying aid requests from Palestinian families. It’s the kind of advocacy that feels especially rare in the world of high-polish brand campaigns—though maybe not so rare if you’re Catbird, which has always styled itself as thoughtful rather than transactional.
In short, Sabally’s Catbird debut is more than a first endorsement. It’s a quiet coronation: champion, advocate, and now, muse. Gold suits her.