How Sabrina Ionescu went from ‘dark days’ of injury to the brink of a WNBA championship

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NEW YORK — Sabrina Ionescu could barely walk during last season’s WNBA Finals. The New York Liberty star needed an injection into her aching hip to even take the floor in the early games of the series against the Las Vegas Aces. She struggled to score, and as the Aces were en route to clinching the championship in a one-point victory on the Liberty’s home court last October, Ionescu threw up into a sideline trash can.

The Liberty and Aces were billed as the WNBA’s super-teams last year because of their star power, including Ionescu. But Vegas made a statement and left a lasting scar for Ionescu.

“Losing,” she said, “motivates you.”

The Liberty had room for growth, and Ionescu recognized that included her. Before traveling home to California last fall, she met with New York’s coaching staff. They discussed in detail how she could improve. While she was good with the ball in her hand, they told her she was too easily defended off-ball. They stressed identifying and taking advantage of pick-and-roll situations. They wanted Ionescu to become a better cutter, play with different speeds and attack the basket more.

Once healthy, she got to work with no physical limitations or, apparently, without a ceiling on how hard she’d push herself.

“It’s just about wanting to be better all the time and not really being OK with being complacent,” Ionescu said.

She was in the gym constantly. She worked on her handle and quickness. She added various floaters to her game. She focused on pulling up out of different dribble variations and utilizing her strength. She played five-on-five against current and former Pac-12 players, WNBA players and overseas pros. “Nothing compares to defense and live reps,” she said.

That wasn’t even enough. Ionescu devised challenges to make difficult drills even tougher. Her trainer recalled a catch-and-shoot sequence in which Ionescu was tasked to make 20 deep 3-pointers, requiring the last five be consecutive. Ionescu added that each needed to be all net. After making 13 in a row, she called out that a few had barely grazed the rim. “No absolutely, not. These don’t count,” she said. She started the sequence again.

“Being able to go full blast was a whole different story,” said Breen Weeks, her basketball skills trainer the last two offseasons.

Another time, Ionescu made herself hit five one-dribble, same-handed, same-footed floaters, but she required the last three be banked in off the glass without using her right hand as a guide. “If she didn’t like the height on it, (it) doesn’t count,” Weeks said. “That’s how obsessive she is. That’s how locked in and detailed she is. I call her a cold-blooded competitor.”

Said Ionescu: “I know I can make a shot, but I want to continue to challenge myself to chase perfection. Sometimes that’s with a swish, sometimes that’s with a challenging move.”

Taking difficult moments head on has been a theme through the early stages of Ionescu’s career, which has been marked with accomplishments but also injuries and shortcomings. But her competitive obsessiveness this offseason has elevated her game to new heights. She gets downhill more and is now New York’s primary ballhandler, averaging a career-high 18.2 points and 6.2 assists per game, and playing more minutes than ever.

It culminated in guiding the Liberty back to the WNBA Finals and to the doorstep of a franchise peak. Following its loss last season, New York — one of the WNBA’s original teams — is in position to win its first championship, taking on the Minnesota Lynx in Game 1 on Thursday.

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

Those who know Ionescu best aren’t surprised that she lived in a gym all winter and spring. As a high school sophomore on the way to becoming one of the nation’s top recruits in Orinda, Calif., her coach gave her a key to the school’s gym. She practiced there late into the night so often that the school principal informed Miramonte High School’s janitorial 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 practice facility was open 24/7 for players, but she quickly learned that wasn’t necessarily true. Ionescu was booted out of the facility on her first night on campus by a security guard, the first of many times throughout her college career. “She was the only player that I’ve ever had that’s been kicked out of the practice facility,” Graves said.

That work ethic was vital as Ionescu’s celebrated entry to the WNBA was quickly marred by injuries. Ionescu was the No. 1 pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, but she suffered a severe ankle sprain in her third WNBA game and she missed the remainder of her rookie season. Ankle pain lingered throughout the 2021 season, and it wasn’t until the 2022 campaign she said she was fully healed. Still, thoughts of injuries remained with her, later recalling those plagued stretches her “dark days.” Finishing an entire season healthy was a goal, in the same way as winning a championship.

“She just competes against herself,” Liberty general manager Jonathan Kolb said.

When the Liberty reconvened in the spring, assistant coach Olaf Lange said he quickly noticed “the flashes were there in training camp.” Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello took note of Ionescu’s improved explosiveness.

By her 14th game, Ionescu had made more floaters than she did in all of 2023. Heading into the finals, 37.2 percent of her shot attempts had been runners or at the rim, up from 26.3 percent last year, according to Synergy Sports. “When she’s aggressive like that it kind of opens things up for everyone else,” Liberty teammate Breanna Stewart said.

Stewart and Jonquel Jones are New York’s lone players with MVP awards on their resumés, but Ionescu is arguably the franchise’s motor. Aces coach Becky Hammon said the 5-foot-11 guard is “what makes (New York) go with her pace, her ability to read, her ability to put defenses in different dilemmas.” Hammon called her the Liberty’s “head of the snake.”

“I love her shooting, everything that she brings to the game. Even just her finishing around the rim, I think has been a bit better,” Hammon said. “It’s tough when you take really, really good players, and they get better.”

It’s why Las Vegas sought to specifically shut her down in Game 3 (Ionescu’s four points were her second-lowest of the season). Stop Ionescu, the Aces believed, and they could get back into the semifinals. Then Game 4 happened. Ionescu scored 12 first-quarter points en route to an eventual team-high 22 to close the door on the Aces’ comeback attempt.

Stopping Ionescu consistently this season has proved challenging, not just statistically, but because of the new confidence she is playing with. “Sometimes early in her career, I thought when she feels the crowd, she just wants to make a play and force the issue,” Lange said. “As of late, she lets it come to her.”

As Sopak watches Ionescu throughout New York’s postseason run, he has had constant flashbacks. He recalled a middle school contest when she hit a late runner off the glass that reminded him very much of a late-game shot over A’ja Wilson in New York’s Game 2 win over the Aces. With the Liberty leading by only one point with 11.6 seconds left, Ionescu approached the free-throw line looking to close out the win. She missed the first free throw, however, and from his home in California, Sopak said, “St. Mary’s–Stockton.”

The meaning dates back to Ionescu’s freshman year of high school, when Ionescu was fouled and went to the line for a one-and-one against what Sopak said was a top-10 program. She missed the front-end, and Miramonte lost by a point. The loss motivated Ionescu to avoid being in that position again.

“You can’t sugar coat it with Sabrina,” Sopak said. He said he told her after that game: “If you’re to be a great player, you’re going to have to be prepared for failure. If you’re not willing to lose that game and take the consequences of it, then you’re never going to win it.”

Ionescu doesn’t shy away from key moments. It’s why Sopak had no doubt she would make the second free throw. She embraces trying to win games, not just avoiding losing them. “She’s not proving anything anymore,” Sopak said.

Over the last three weeks, Ionescu has dapped up Spike Lee, fallen into Carmelo Anthony’s lap and sung with Alicia Keys. She fist-pumped after making 3-pointers, waved her hands to amp up Barclays Center crowds and iced playoff wins at the free-throw line.

Amid all the fanfare and the victories, Ionescu’s drive has been evident. After she tied New York’s franchise playoff-record with 36 points to close out its first-round series with the Atlanta Dream, she sat in a corner of the Liberty locker room and took a rare breath.

“Good f— job,” Ionescu said to her teammates as she fixed her headband. “This game wasn’t perfect, but we played hard. We played hard for 40 minutes and we just chipped away.”

Healthy, focused and confident, Ionescu said she’s felt more comfortable with being vocal and showing who she is. “People have been able to see a little bit more of my personality this year, who I am as a person,” she said. “Because I’ve just felt more confident in myself.”

She is in the ear of coaches about what she can do to score and how she wants to help her teammates succeed. At a recent practice, she urged the staff to continue repping out-of-bounds plays instead of taking a water break. Every minute, and every drill, matters.

Winning a ring is paramount, she said. She said she’s thought about what it would feel like to be victorious, and what it would mean for her teammates, for a Liberty franchise that has lost its five prior trips to the finals, and for New York City, which hasn’t won a basketball title since the 1970s.

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

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