Sabrina Ionescu didn’t exactly have an ideal college ending or start to her WNBA career.
Nor was it her dream to shoot a brutal 1-for-19 in the clinching Game 5 of her first WNBA Finals.
Yet despite it all, Ionescu proclaimed Sunday night to be a “storybook ending” after the Liberty beat the Lynx in overtime, 67-62, to win their first championship and break the city of New York’s 51-year basketball championship drought.
It goes down as Ionescu’s first championship in her career, including college.
“I feel like I was envisioning what I was going to do if we would have won for like a long period of time,” Ionescu said after the win. “I don’t think until you get in that moment do you realize, like you’re kinda in shock. … That was just in that moment like we did it here in New York. We just won in overtime and just kind of this breath of fresh air.”
A year ago, Ionescu may have been more upset with her poor performances in the last two games of this year’s WNBA Finals against the Lynx, scoring a combined 15 points just after having the shot of the year — a 28-footer to win Game 3 in the final seconds.
A title certainly changes the mood, but a maturity has shown in the guard this past season and it didn’t seem to bother Ionescu that she didn’t contribute largely in what was the biggest moment of her career.
Rather, she had a bigger picture than just the stat sheet.
To wait five seasons for a first WNBA championship title is probably what some would consider a luxury.
Liberty teammate and 2024 WNBA Finals MVP Jonquel Jones, who waited nine years and four finals appearances for it, knows that all too well.
However, the 26-year-old former Oregon star graduated in 2020 and had her senior season and chance to compete for an NCAA title taken away by the COVID-19 pandemic.
She helped Oregon make it as far as a national semifinal appearance in her junior year.
The Walnut Creek, Calif., native then went on to be the No. 1 overall pick to the Liberty in the 2020 WNBA Draft, but a severe ankle sprain in her third WNBA game ended her rookie year as the Liberty went 2-20 on the season.
The injury lingered into the 2021 season and it wasn’t until Sandy Brondello’s hiring as head coach and Ionescu’s improved health in 2022 that things turned around.
“I don’t want to get too emotional talking about it, but 2020 being the toughest year of my life, dealing with a lot individually …” Ionescu said on Sunday night. “To be able to just come now, 2024, a few years later and just see all the hard work that you put in … this is what the dream is. You just gotta continue to believe in yourself and stick with it, and good things will always happen.”
Under her first season with Brondello in 2021, the Liberty went 12-20 and lost in the first round of the playoffs after missing the postseason from 2018 to 2020.
In 2022, Ionescu earned her first All-Star nod after averaging 17.4 points per game, and she was the runner-up for Most Improved Player.
With the additions of Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vandersloot and Jones making the Liberty a superteam in 2023, Ionescu is a more versatile and grown-up player.
She has endured heartbreak after the 2023 WNBA Finals loss to the Las Vegas Aces, exposed to the best talent at the 2024 Olympics, and has developed her game outside of her 3-point shot to avoid what she called being “one dimensional.”
Ionescu had her best season — and longest, with the Olympics — yet in 2024, averaging 18.2 points and a career playoff-high 16.9.
“I’m just thankful and blessed. It’s not the end,” Ionescu said. “This is the beginning for me and that’s what I’m really excited about. I’ve just scratched the surface of what I’m gonna accomplish here.”
