Liberty's Sabrina Ionescu Talks WNBA Championship, Unrivaled and More in B/R Interview

Becoming a first-time champion means plenty of new experiences such as parades, celebrations and a bigger spotlight.

But Sabrina Ionescu is ready to attack her next new experience.

The experience of defending her crown.

"It makes you have to level up," the New York Liberty guard told Bleacher Report when discussing the target on the team's back heading into the 2025 WNBA season after winning the title. "Everything is super important, every decision you make, the way you approach training camp and practice. 

"There's an understanding that everyone has to be on board. The season goes by really fast, and things can change in the blink of an eye. There's an understanding of what it takes to win, and now we know. We know what it takes to win. We also know what it takes to lose. So having that experience should really help us this year even though we know every team is gunning for us."

New York is the favorite to take home the trophy once again after retaining its core of Breanna Stewart, Ionescu, and Jonquel Jones alongside key role players such as Leonie Fiebich and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton.

Still, there will be plenty of challengers with the Minnesota Lynx eyeing another run to the WNBA Finals, the Las Vegas Aces adding Jewel Loyd and the Indiana Fever bolstering their roster around Caitlin Clark.

"The competition continues to get better and better," Ionescu said. "I'm super excited. No matter what happens, I'm excited for this season knowing we're going to be better than we were last year."

Many of the league's biggest stars, including Ionescu, maintained that level of competition during the offseason by playing in the inaugural season of Unrivaled.

Stewart and Napheesa Collier teamed up to co-found the new 3-on-3 league that gave players an alternative to playing overseas during the WNBA offseason. It also created more financial opportunities with players receiving equity in the league.

While the Rose Basketball Club took home the championship and Ionescu's Phantom failed to qualify for the playoffs, she still found the experience of teaming up with Brittney Griner, Satou Sabally, Natasha Cloud and others rewarding while waiting for the WNBA to return.

"It's been amazing," she said of her experience with Unrivaled. "Any time you're able to compete against the top players in the league in the middle of our offseasons and work on ways to continue to get better will only help for the W season. That's super important and why I wanted to be a part of this league.

"Also, knowing it's the first of its kind and the first time we're doing something like this. Getting to be a part of it and helping it get off the ground and running is something that really excites me knowing it's going to create a lot of opportunities for players coming into the league to develop without having to go overseas."

Playing in Unrivaled was part of a busy offseason for Ionescu.

In February, Nike announced she was "embarking on her first Asia tour" in an effort to "share her message of inspiration and strength with young hoopers and further introduce herself to the global basketball community."

Over the course of a week in March, she traveled through Manila, Guangzhou and Hong Kong in a celebration of women's basketball while hosting youth basketball clinics, unveiling a new Nike Sabrina 2 collaboration, taking over a retail store and participating in various events.

"It's huge," Ionescu said when discussing her opportunity to expand the game to younger generations and around the globe. "Understanding the gravity to be able to continue to grow the game of basketball is something that really excites me. 

"I grew up watching Kobe go, Steph go, and knowing the excitement they created around basketball. For me, I'm really excited to push the game forward and create an opportunity for a lot of other people to go out there and have it be successful."

Ionescu also partnered with Body Armor this offseason as part of the company's first-ever rebrand that will feature a new visual identity and packaging in stores by the end of April.

Part of that rebrand included partnering with the likes of Ionescu, Joe Burrow, Connor McDavid and CeeDee Lamb for a "Choose Better" campaign that encourages more thoughtful choices, including when it comes to hydration.

"It's been a blessing to partner with Body Armor throughout my professional career," the Liberty guard said. "Every year continues to get better. This campaign is really exciting to me because I choose better every single day and understand what it takes to be a professional athlete. I continue to push myself to make the best decisions to go out there and compete, understanding how every decision you make matters."

Photo: Body Armor

The "Choose Better" approach in particular was meaningful.

"This campaign resonates with me a lot," Ionescu said. "I understand all the choices I make off and on the court play a huge role in the success that I have and my ability to play and compete at the highest level. That starts with hydration and understanding what you put in is what you get out."

She got a championship out of all her hard work during the 2024 campaign, which was the type of accomplishment the Liberty surely envisioned when they made her a franchise cornerstone as the No. 1 overall pick of the 2020 WNBA draft.

The Oregon product was an All-WNBA Second Team selection and All-Star in 2022 and 2023 and helped lead her team to the 2023 WNBA Finals, where it lost to the Aces. That meant there was plenty of pressure to reach the sport's mountaintop in 2024, and she delivered another All-Star and All-WNBA season while averaging 18.2 points, 6.2 assists and 4.4 rebounds per game.

New York advanced to the Finals once again and faced Collier and the Lynx this time around in a back-and-forth series that will long be remembered.

Minnesota stormed back from a double-digit deficit in the fourth quarter to win Game 1, the Liberty cruised in Game 2 before Ionescu connected on a buzzer-beating three to win Game 3, and the Lynx responded with a Game 4 win to force a decisive contest.

Ionescu would probably like to forget her own individual performance in that Game 5 (1-of-19 shooting from the field and 1-of-10 from deep), but her team still prevailed in overtime after Stewart tied the game in the final seconds of regulation on the free-throw line.

The rest was history, and the Liberty celebrated with thousands of fans during a ticker tape parade through the "Canyon of Heroes" in New York City.

"The parade was the best part about winning," Ionescu said. "I've watched so many, I went to some being in the Bay Area with the Warriors. I remember being in high school and going to the parade and being able to be a fan and see the excitement of it. 

"It's completely different being on the other end of it and knowing you're the one being celebrated. It was something I couldn't have even dreamed about seeing how many people were there in attendance and all the love we received as a team."

And now it's time to earn another celebration.

"We're gearing up toward next season and trying to win another championship," she said. "It'll be the hardest one knowing we have this target on our back. Having done it once, this one is going to be the hardest. That's a lofty goal that we're excited to strive to accomplish."

The path to that goal starts May 17 when Ionescu and the Liberty host the Aces in a season-opening showdown between title contenders.