The Latest York Liberty are constructing a superteam in Brooklyn.
The Liberty acquired former MVP Jonquel Jones in a three-team trade earlier this week while carving out enough cap space to make a max offer to a different superstar — their longtime rumored goal is Breanna Stewart, the 28-year-old former MVP who hails from Syracuse — when free agency begins on Saturday.
And All-Star guard Sabrina Ionescu is feeling as healthy and energized as she has since she joined the Liberty because the No. 1 pick within the 2020 draft.
A Big 3 of Jones, Stewart and Ionescu would transform the Liberty into an automatic title contender in hopes of hanging the franchise’s first championship banner.
“It’s my first offseason not rehabbing, and I could say it’s the primary offseason that I’ve been in a position to sort of map out and know exactly what it’s going to appear like and never have any obstacles of surgery procedures, you recognize, whatever that appears like,” Ionescu recently told The Post while on the American Express x NBA 2K23 Gaming Lab event in Latest York City, before the Jones trade. “And so it’s been exciting. … And now getting back to training and so super excited, just hit the bottom running.”
Ionescu suffered a Grade 3 left ankle sprain in her third profession WNBA game and missed the remaining of the COVID-19 “wubble” season. The Oregon product underwent ankle surgery in Nov. 2020, and effects from the injury lingered into her 2021 campaign and the next offseason. Ionescu’s injury and recovery tested her patience. She later told Boardroom’s Wealthy Kleiman that she rushed herself back to the court following the ankle surgery.
“The primary like two years of playing professionally weren’t really what I assumed they’d be particularly just playing, you recognize, getting into a bubble, getting drafted in the course of a pandemic,” Ionescu said. “But last season’s sort of felt just like the first season as the whole lot being back to normal, us having a extremely good fan base in Latest York and, you recognize, having the ability to play at Barclays.”
A “normal” season is one strategy to describe it. Others might say Ionescu had herself a breakout yr in 2022, when she averaged 17.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists, earning her first All-Star nod and an All-WNBA Second Team selection.
Ionescu also became the first-ever WNBA player to accrue over 500 points, 200-plus rebounds and 200-plus assists in a single season and the primary to record a 30-point triple-double, when she posted 31 points, 13 rebounds, and 10 assists in a win over the Aces in July.
In October, Ionescu won a gold medal with Team USA on the FIBA Women’s World Cup in Australia. Following her return home, Ionescu took some much-deserved break day, and enjoyed a few of her favorite off-court activities.
“Obviously, I took a bit of little bit of break day after the World Cup and let my body rest and heal,” Ionescu said. “I feel I’ve traveled a bit of bit more and truthfully just devoted a bit of bit more time towards things outside of basketball — spending time with family, having the ability to go home and proceed to work out and do other things. … But I feel just not having the pressure of knowing that I even have to rehab or I even have to coach or else I’m not going to turn out to be healthy is, I feel, just something that I don’t should worry about.
“I’ve been doing a number of yoga, hot yoga and pilates, which has been really fun. … I like swimming and biking. I walked for the primary time as well because I wasn’t in a position to do this in my free time [while rehabbing]. Just having the ability to get back to love daily-life activity and never coping with stress has been something that I’ve been in a position to do that offseason.”
As she prepares for her fourth WNBA season, Ionescu can also be specializing in her various business ventures.
In November, she made the Forbes 30 Under 30 List 2022 within the sports category, which acknowledged her long list of endorsements and investments in Buzzer Media and Nex. Moreover, she works closely with Kevin Durant as an envoy for Boardroom and a strategic partner with Durant’s and Kleiman’s Thirty Five Ventures.
Ionescu has also taken on a part-time job at her alma mater with the Oregon women’s basketball team because the director of athletic culture. In her role, Ionescu will help with the event of student-athletes and cultivate head coach Kelly Graves’ five pillars of Oregon women’s basketball: passion, integrity, unity, thankfulness and servanthood.
“It’s really more of a mentorship-type opportunity,” Ionescu said. “I’m really near the coaching staff. There’s the university, obviously the team. And so I wanted to only proceed to seek out ways to present back.
“I’ve been in a position to return and refer to the team, refer to the players, and sort of just, you recognize, be there as a resource for them for whatever they need. It hasn’t been an excessive amount of for now. … But I feel just having the chance to only be a soundboard or be regardless of the players need is admittedly what I used to be searching for from this chance.”
The Post spoke with Ionescu on the day WNBA champion Brittney Griner was free of Russia in a prisoner exchange for convicted arms dealer Viktor Bout. Griner, a member of the Phoenix Mercury, was detained for nearly 10 months in Russia after she was arrested on drug smuggling charges at an airport within the Moscow region in February.
The WNBA and its players, including Ionescu, campaigned for her release with public pleas and calls to motion.
“I feel it speaks loads about, just the indisputable fact that each team within the league, each player, organization stood behind and really did the whole lot that we could to make use of our voice and platform to bring awareness and just educate and convey it home,” Ionescu said.
“She’s been there for a very long time. And I don’t know a number of players and leagues would proceed to maintain her on the forefront of what they were trying to perform. So I feel it speaks volumes about what we stand for and just the family that we now have within the WNBA.”