Former NBA MVP Stephen Curry calls her the “walking triple-double”, in reference to her other record as the player with the most triple-double games in college basketball history. WNBA champion Sue Bird describes her as “relentless”, her work ethic the singular quality pitting the 5ft 11in point guard above her often larger or faster peers.
Last April, she became the WNBA’s first draft pick for 2020, when she was selected by the New York Liberty. Sponsorship deals with Nike, and others, followed.
“It’s definitely surreal,” Ionescu says, but she refuses to be enthralled by her achievements. After all, from a career-perspective, 2020 was a year of unfinished business – the first time the Ionescu juggernaut of success ground to a halt.
When the NCAA tournament was cancelled last March due to the coronavirus pandemic, she lost her chance at cementing her Oregon legacy by winning a national title. Then, after scoring 33 points in her second game for the Liberty, she suffered a season-ending ankle injury in just her third professional appearance. There was to be no record-breaking rookie year, only time for surgery, recovery and reflection back in the Bay Area suburbs.
“It definitely makes you cherish everything that you have when you are playing,” she says. “That’s been a huge eye-opening thing, because I have never had to worry about it.”
In the hundreds of games she played during her college and high-school career, unbelievably Ionescu missed just four through injury. To now be on the sidelines for her rookie season, where the WNBA was drawing national attention with their activism as well as their play, was sobering. “Things can change in the blink of an eye,” she reflects.
Instead, she has been counting down the days to having the ball in her hands and her feet on a court again: May 2021, when the season is scheduled to begin. “I have not played since July 31,” she says, the date of her injury seared in her mind. “I’m probably going to be very nervous, but just can’t wait.”
With all the talk of legacies, she sidesteps questions about the pressure on her young shoulders. As is Ionescu’s way, she is focused on the court, and has already identified areas to elevate – ways to win – when she returns: “Once I figure out the timing of things, the windows for passing, the margin of error …” she rattles off a list of aims. Then she laughs, as if suddenly remembering a time before the hype, on the court with her brothers, where all that mattered was making the next shot. “But at the end of the day, it’s just basketball.”
