Sabrina IONESCU

WNBA records, Paris 2024 aspirations

After the start of the 2020 WNBA season was delayed until July due to the pandemic, Ionescu gave Liberty fans a taste of what to expect with 33 points, seven assists and seven rebounds in her second professional game against the Dallas Wings.

However, she suffered a grade three ankle sprain in her very next match which ruled her out for the rest of the season with the Liberty finishing bottom of the league with a 2-20 record.

The injury also saw Ionescu miss national team training camps which meant she was ultimately overlooked by Team USA for the postponed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.

Early in her second season, Ionescu became the youngest athlete in WNBA history to post a triple-double (double figures in points, assists and rebound), something no Liberty player had done before. She also claimed her first Eastern Conference Player of the Week award and led the Liberty to the playoffs where they went down by just one point to eventual finalists Phoenix Mercury.

Ionescu won four East Player of the Week awards, and two Player of the Month gongs, in 2022 as the Liberty made the playoffs again. They won their first-round opener against Chicago Sky but the defending champions won the series 2-1. Ionescu was picked for her first WNBA All-Star Game and named to the All-WNBA Second Team.

Those performances earned her a call-up to the USA squad for the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup. Ionescu had limited game time as the team won a fourth consecutive title.

In 2023, the arrival of reigning MVP Breanna Stewart, former league MVP Jonquel Jones and assist specialist Courtney Vandersloot transformed the Liberty from strugglers to title contenders. They were second in the regular season with a 32-8 record with Ionescu earning her second WNBA All-Star Game appearance.

In the playoffs, the Liberty posted a 32-8 record to finish second in the regular season standings. As the top team in the Eastern Conference in a 10-game portion of the season, they met West leaders Las Vegas Aces in the Commissioner's Cup and beat the reigning WNBA champions to claim the franchise's first trophy.

In the playoffs, Ionescu's side swept the Washington Mystics 2-0 in round one before a 3-1 series win over Connecticut Sun sent them through to their first WNBA Finals. Despite Ionescu's game-high 11 assists in a must-win Game Three, the Aces would win Game Four to clinch a 3-1 series triumph and retain their title. For the second year running, Ionescu was named to the All-WNBA Second Team.

Having missed out on Tokyo, Ionescu will be keen to earn selection for Paris 2024 with Team USA bidding for an eighth straight women's Olympic title.