Sabrina Ionescu

Sabrina Elaine Ionescu ( yə-NESS-kew; born December 6, 1997) is an American professional basketball player for the New York Liberty of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She is widely considered one of the greatest three-point shooters in WNBA history and is credited with improving the popularity of women's basketball.

Ionescu played college basketball for the Oregon Ducks, where she twice won the John R. Wooden Award and Wade Trophy, earning consensus national player of the year honors as a senior. She led Oregon to its first Final Four appearance in her junior season. Ionescu set the Division I career triple-doubles record and is the Pac-12 Conference all-time leader in assists. She holds program all-time records in points, assists, and three-pointers.

Regarded as one of the greatest collegiate players in history, Ionescu was selected first overall by the New York Liberty in the 2020 WNBA draft. In 2023, she broke the WNBA single-season record in three-pointers and the WNBA Three-Point Contest record. She led the Liberty to their first league championship in the following year. Ionescu is a four-time WNBA All-Star and All-WNBA Team selection. She has won gold medals with the United States women's national basketball team at the 2024 Summer Olympics and the 2022 FIBA World Cup.

Off the court, Ionescu is among the highest-paid women's basketball players in the world due to several endorsement deals. She is the first female player to launch a unisex signature shoe with Nike, with her shoes being among the most-worn in the National Basketball Association (NBA), and is a part-owner of National Women's Soccer League (NWSL) team Bay FC. She gained global acclaim after competing against Stephen Curry in the first NBA vs. WNBA three-point contest at 2024 NBA All-Star Weekend.

Early life

Ionescu was born in Walnut Creek, California, to Romanian-American parents. Her father, Dan Ionescu, escaped communist Romania around the time of the 1989 revolution, seeking political asylum in the United States. He hoped that his then-wife, Liliana Blaj, and their son Andrei could join them in a few months, but they were unable to move to the US until 1995. By that time, Dan owned a limousine service in Northern California, where he had chosen to settle because he had several extended family members in that area. Sabrina was around three years old when she first picked up a basketball. She has a twin brother Edward ("Eddy"), who was born 18 minutes after her. Eddy played basketball at the City College of San Francisco before transferring to Oregon; he was solely a student in the 2018–19 school year before walking on to the Ducks men's basketball team in 2019–20. Sabrina Ionescu grew up in a Romanian-speaking household.

In a 2019 interview with Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, Ionescu admitted to being a "natural scorer", but said that most of the rest of her skill set came from playing alongside both boys and older girls in her childhood:

When I was younger, I was always playing with the guys, and I had to find ways to get the ball, because they never wanted to pass to me. So I figured that if I could rebound, I would be able to get the ball myself. Then passing-wise, when I was in sixth grade playing with the eighth-grade team, I was obviously a lot shorter, skinnier, smaller than they were. I would just have to find ways to impact the game other than shooting or scoring, and that was passing.

Ionescu attended a middle school that did not have enough players to field a girls' team, and her school refused to allow her to play on the boys' team. She recalled, "My middle school said I should be playing with dolls. Seriously, word-for-word." She responded by recruiting enough girls to enable her school to have a team.

High school

Ionescu was a four-year varsity basketball letter winner at Miramonte High School in Orinda, California under head coach Kelly Sopak.

As a freshman in 2012–13, she started 14 of 29 games and averaged 13.8 points, 3.9 assists and 3.9 steals per game to help her team to a 27–3 record and a Northern California Section Division II runner-up finish.

As a sophomore in 2013–14, Ionescu helped her team to a 30–2 record.

During her junior year, Ionescu averaged 18.7 points, 7.7 rebounds, 4.2 assists and 4.7 steals per game, and helped Miramonte High School to a 30–2 record with an appearance in the CIF open division semifinals.

In her senior year, she led Miramonte to the CIF open division title game after averaging 25.3 points, 8.8 assists, 7.6 rebounds, 4.5 steals and 1.3 blocks per game. She posted a triple-double in the championship game loss to Chaminade with 24 points, 10 assists and 10 rebounds. Ionescu also made a first half buzzer-beating shot from half court. She received national honors including the USA Today Girls Basketball Player of the Year, Max Preps Player of the Year, Cal-Hi Sports Ms. Basketball State Player of the Year and Gatorade State Player of the Year. Ionescu was named a McDonald's All-America and Jordan Brand All-American selection. She was named the McDonald's All-America game MVP after scoring a record 25 points, including seven three-pointers, with 10 rebounds.

Ionescu left Miramonte with a career win–loss record of 119–9 and a school-record 2,606 points scored. She is also the all-time leader in assists (769), steals (549) and triple-doubles (21). In addition to the career record, Ionescu also held the Miramonte top three single-season scoring records with 598 (2013–14), 760 (2014–15) and 834 (2015–16). Ionescu also held the single-game scoring record of 43 points vs. Pinewood High School while being double- and triple-teamed and the single-game record in assists with 19 at Dublin High School.

Ionescu was the No. 1 ranked point guard and No. 4 overall player in the recruiting class of 2016. According to Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, Ionescu chose Oregon "because she wanted to be the all-American at Oregon, not just an all-American somewhere else." At the time, she was the highest-ranked recruit ever to commit to Oregon basketball. However, she had difficulty making a college choice, not signing a National Letter of Intent with any school during either the early signing period in November 2015 or the late period in April 2016. Ionescu finally committed to Oregon just before the school's 2016 summer term began, driving with her father for 8 hours from their Bay Area home to Eugene, making an unannounced visit to Matthew Knight Arena and telling head coach Kelly Graves that she would join the team.

College career

Freshman season

On November 13, 2016, Ionescu made her collegiate debut for Oregon, recording 11 points in an 84–67 win over Lamar. Ionescu recorded four triple-doubles, one shy of the Pac-12 record and two less than the NCAA record. She averaged 14.6 points, 6.6 rebounds and 5.5 assists per game, ranking second on the team in scoring and rebounding, and first in assists. She also posted seven double-doubles, ranked third in the Pac-12 and 29th in the NCAA with 183 assists on the year. Her 1.93-to-1 assist-to-turnover ratio was second-best in the Pac-12. She was named Pac-12 Freshman of Week four times and was named USBWA National Player of the Week. At the end of the regular season, she was named Pac-12 Freshmen of the Year and unanimous First Team All-Pac-12 and Pac-12 All-Freshman Team selection. Additionally, she was awarded the USBWA National Freshman of the Year presented by the United States Basketball Writers Association.

Sophomore season

Ionescu rose to national prominence in her sophomore year, leading the Ducks to their third regular-season league crown all-time and first-ever No. 1 seed in the Pac-12 Women's Basketball Tournament. She led the Pac-12 in scoring (19.2) and assists, dishing out 7.8 assists per game which was fifth-most in the country. She had 16 double-doubles this season and 14 20-point games. She recorded 10-assist games 13 times this season, handing out a league season-high 14 twice. On February 26, 2018, Ionescu was named ESPNW's college basketball player of the week. Following her second season, she was named the Pac-12 Conference Women's Basketball Player of the Year, and was also named a first team All-American by ESPN. Oregon also won the Pac-12 championship for the first time since 2000. She was named the winner of the Nancy Lieberman Award as the top Division I women's point guard after the season, and was also a finalist for the Naismith Award. Ionescu became the NCAA women's all-time leader in triple-doubles, trailing only former BYU men's player Kyle Collinsworth (with 12) among all NCAA players.