How Sabrina Ionescu went from the “dark days” of injury to the brink of a WNBA championship

NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu could barely walk during the WNBA Finals last season. The Liberty of New York star needed an injection in his sore hip to even speak in the early games of the series against the Las Vegas Aces. She struggled to score, and while the Aces were on their way to winning the championship with a one-point victory on Liberty's home field last October, Ionescu vomited into a sideline trash can.

The Liberty and Aces were heralded as WNBA super-teams last year because of their star power, including Ionescu. However, Vegas issued a statement and left Ionescu with a permanent scar.

“Losing,” she said, “motivates.”

Liberty had room to grow, and Ionescu noted that was true for her as well. Before heading to California last fall, she met with the New York coaching staff. They discussed in detail how she could improve. Even though she had the ball in her hand well, they told her she was too easy to defend without the ball. They emphasized identifying and exploiting pick-and-roll situations. They wanted Ionescu to become a better attacker, play at different speeds and attack the basket more often.

Once she was healthy, she began working without physical limitations and apparently without any limit to how hard she could push herself.

“It's about always wanting to be better and not getting complacent,” Ionescu said.

She was constantly at the gym. She worked on her handle and speed. She added various floats to her game. She focused on getting out of different dribbling variants and using her strength. She played five-on-five with current and former Pac-12 players, WNBA players and foreign professionals. “Nothing compares to defense and live representation,” she said.

It wasn't even enough. Ionescu came up with challenges that made difficult exercises even more difficult. Her coach recalled a catch-and-shoot sequence in which Ionescu was tasked with making 20 deep three-point shots, with the last five having to be made in a row. Ionescu added that everyone had to be all-net. After doing 13 in a row, she exclaimed that several barely touched the edge. “No, absolutely not. It doesn't count,” she said. She started the sequence again.

“Being able to perform at full capacity is a whole different story,” said Breen Weeks, her basketball coach for the past two offseasons.

Another time, Ionescu forced herself to hit five one-dribbles with the same arm and the same foot, but required the final three to hit off the glass without using her right hand as a guide. “If she doesn't like her height, it doesn't count,” Weeks said. “It's such an obsession. This one is closed and detailed. I call her a cold-blooded competitor.

Said Ionescu: “I know I can hit the shot, but I want to continue to challenge myself and strive for perfection. Sometimes you have to do it with a whoosh, sometimes with a difficult movement.”

Sabrina Ionescu turned up the heat in the fourth match 🔥

With 22 points and 5 of 8 shots from beyond the arc, she lit up the court and energized Liberty to victory #WelcomeW pic.twitter.com/1zcSvivVlm

— WNBA (@WNBA) October 6, 2024

Dealing with difficult moments was a theme throughout the early stages of Ionescu's career, which was marked by achievements but also by injuries and shortcomings. However, her obsession with competition in the off-season took her game to a new level. He's been moving downhill more and more and is now New York's starting point guard, posting career-highs of 18.2 points and 6.2 assists per game while playing more minutes than ever.

It ended up leading the Liberty back to the WNBA Finals and on the cusp of the franchise's peak. After suffering a loss last season, New York – one of the WNBA's original teams – is in position to win its first championship by defeating the Minnesota Lynx on Thursday in the first game.

“It's really rewarding to see my true self come out,” Ionescu said.

Those who know Ionescu best are not surprised that she lived in the gym all winter and spring. When she was a high school sophomore in Orinda, California, in order to become one of the top recruits in the country, her coach gave her a key to the school gym. She practiced there late into the night so often that the school's principal told the Miramonte High School cleaning staff to “just leave her alone and let her shoot,” her coach Kelly Sopak said.

When coach Kelly Graves recruited Ionescu to Oregon, he told her the university's training facility was open to players 24/7, but she quickly learned that wasn't necessarily true. Ionescu was kicked out of the facility on her first night on campus by a security guard, the first of many such incidents in her college career. “She was the only player I ever had who was kicked out of the practice facility,” Graves said.

That work ethic was crucial as Ionescu's celebrated ascension to the WNBA was quickly marred by injuries. Ionescu was the No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, but she suffered a high ankle sprain in her third WNBA game and missed the rest of her rookie season. The ankle pain persisted throughout the 2021 season, and it wasn't until the 2022 campaign that she said it was fully healed. Still, the thought of her injuries haunted her, later recalling those agonizing stretches of “dark days.” The goal was to finish the entire season healthy, as well as win the championship.

“She's just competing with herself,” Liberty CEO Jonathan Kolb said.

When the Liberty team reconvened in the spring, assistant coach Olaf Lange said he quickly noticed “flashes were evident in training camp.” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello noted Ionescu's improved explosiveness.

In her 14th match, Ionescu completed more swims than in all of 2023, according to Synergy Sports. Heading into the Finals, 37.2% of her shots were either runs or at the rim, up from 26.3% last year, according to Synergy Sports. “When she's that aggressive, it opens the door for everyone else,” Liberty teammate Breanna Stewart said.

Stewart and Jonquel Jones are the only players in New York with MVP awards on their resumes, but Ionescu is arguably the driving force behind the franchise. Aces coach Becky Hammon said the 5-foot-7 guard “is what keeps (New York) going with her pace, her reading ability and her ability to defend in different dilemmas.” Hammon called her Liberty's “snake head.”

“I love her shooting and everything she brings to the game. I think even just the finishing around the rim was a little bit better,” Hammon said. “It's hard when you have really good players and they keep getting better.”

That's why Las Vegas was especially keen to eliminate her in Game 3 (Ionescu's four points were her second-lowest total of the season). Stop Ionescu, the Aces believed, and they could get back to the semi-finals. Then came Game 4. Ionescu scored 12 points in the first quarter before scoring a team-high 22, closing the door for the Aces to come back.

Containing Ionescu consistently this season has proven to be a challenge, not only statistically, but because of the newfound confidence with which he is playing. “Sometimes early in my career I thought that when he felt the crowd, he just wanted to play and impose the problem,” Lange said. “She's been letting it get to her lately.”

As Sopak watches Ionescu throughout the postseason in New York, memories keep coming back to him. He recalled a high school competition when she hit a runner's windshield late in the game, which reminded him a lot of the late-game shot Oh, Wilson, in New York's Game 2 win over the Aces. With Liberty leading by just one point with 11.6 seconds left, Ionescu went to the free throw line looking to close out the victory. But she missed her first free throw, and from her home in California, Sopak said: “St. Mary's-Stockton.”

The significance of this event dates back to Ionescu's junior year of high school, when Ionescu was fouled and faced a program that Sopak believed was a top-10 team. She missed the front end and Miramonte lost by one point. The defeat motivated Ionescu to avoid finding himself in that position again.

“You can't sugarcoat it with Sabrina,” Sopak said. He said he told her after that match, “If you want to be a great player, you have to be prepared to fail. If you are not willing to lose this game and suffer the consequences, you will never win it.

Ionescu is not afraid of key moments. Therefore, Sopak had no doubts that he would make the second free throw. He tries to win games, not just avoid losing them. “She doesn't prove anything anymore,” Sopak said.

For the past three weeks, Ionescu has dressed Spike Lee, fallen on Carmelo Anthony's lap, and sung with Alicia Keys. After scoring three points, she raised her fists and waved her arms to energize the Barclays Center crowd and secure playoff victories at the free throw line.

Amid all the fanfare and victories, Ionescu's determination was evident. After she tied the New York playoff record with 36 points and ended the first-round series against the Atlanta Dream, she sat in a corner of the Liberty locker room and took a rare breath.

“Good job,” Ionescu told her teammates as she adjusted her armband. “This match wasn't perfect, but we played hard. We played hard for 40 minutes and we were just successful.

Sabrina Ionescu: “Spike Lee gave me a high five… and I felt like New York had been injected into my veins at that moment. I thought to myself, “We're winning this.” 😂pic.twitter.com/bnevwhIz0Z

— Dime (@DimeUPROXX) September 25, 2024

Healthy, focused and confident, Ionescu stated that she felt more comfortable expressing herself and showing who she was. “This year, people were able to get to know my personality and who I am as a person better,” she said. “Because I just felt more confident.”

He listens to coaches about what he can do to score goals and how he wants to help his teammates succeed. At a recent training session, she urged the staff to continue repeating plays off the court rather than taking a water break. Every minute and every exercise matters.

She said the most important thing was to get the ring. She said she thought about what it would be like to win and what it would mean for her teammates, for the Liberty franchise, which had lost five previous trips to the finals, and for New York, the basketball champion since the 1970s.

“I've been thinking about the championship since we lost last year,” Ionescu said.

(Illustration: Daniel Goldfarb / Athlete; Top photo of Sabrina Ionescu: Evan Yu / NBAE, Mitchell Leff / Getty)