Sabrina Ionescu has made history.
A headline we grew so accustomed to during her college days at Oregon continued in the WNBA Tuesday night with the New York guard recording her first triple double as a pro in just her sixth game with the Liberty. Ionescu tallied 26 points (4-7 3pt FG), 12 assists, and 10 rebounds to become the youngest player in WNBA history (23 years, 5 months, 12 days) to record a triple double, in the Liberty s 86-75 win over the Minnesota Lynx.
She played 37 minutes, the most of any player on either team, and logged just the ninth triple double in WNBA regular season history, the first since Chelsea Gray pulled off the feat with the Los Angeles Sparks on July 7, 2019.
The New York Liberty’s Brooklyn debut did not disappoint. Not in the slightest.
After falling behind the Indiana Fever by three points with 1:32 remaining in the fourth quarter, the Liberty.
Photo by Steven Freeman/NBAE via Getty Images
The 2021 WNBA season will begin with a bang, with Sabrina Ionescu making her WNBA re-debut in the long-awaited debut of Barclays Center as a WNBA venue.
Ionescu and the New York Liberty take on the Indiana Fever on Friday at 7 p.m. ET (NBA TV).
Last season, these two teams finished at the bottom of the league. Without Ionescu, the Liberty struggled to a 2-20 season while the Fever failed to sustain a promising start and stumbled to 6-16.
For New York, the problems were on the offensive end, as they sported a league-worst 87.3 offensive rating. Although head coach Walt Hopkins attempted to implement his modernized, space-and-pace offense system, the Liberty lacked the shooting needed to make this system succeed. While the Liberty were not shy about launching from deep, as they took 27.6 threes per game, they only converted a putrid 27.7 percent. Overall, New York shot a cellar-dwelling 37.2 percent from the field.
What DiDi Richards is most excited about ahead of her first WNBA season May 13, 2021
ABC News
(NEW YORK) DiDi Richards is what hoop dreams are made of and before the basketball star tips off her WNBA career on Friday, she credited a trait she learned from her father that helped her get back on the court after a severe injury last fall.
“He definitely instilled mental toughness throughout my life and when that injury happened it was kind of second nature. I just knew that I had an undeniable mindset that I was going to work hard and I was going to figure out how to get back on the court, but first off how to walk,” Richards told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
PREVIEW: Liberty hoping for big improvement in Brooklyn debut
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With training camp coming to a close and the Liberty poised to open the season Friday night against the Indiana Fever, coach Walt Hpokins is still getting his team ready for action . and their Brooklyn debut.
At Media Day Monday, Hopkins provided an update on star guard and former No. 1 overall pick Sabrina Ionescu. Ionescu played a mere two games last season with the Liberty in the WNBA “wubble” due to an ankle injury. Ionescu, in fact, did not play in the Liberty’s closed scrimmage against the Connecticut Sun earlier in camp. Hopkins has said the team is continuing to “ramp-up” the young star who’s expected to handle point guard duties. However, Hopkins also said that she was all but back to normal.