GQ Hype: It’s the big story of right now.


It’s the end of a long day for the New York Liberty’s brand-new big three.

The WNBA season doesn’t start for another few weeks, but Sabrina Ionescu, Jonquel Jones, and Breanna Stewart have been at work since the early morning, trudging through hours of team-related obligations that will eventually yield the Liberty’s media guide, gameday programs, and other in-arena visuals. They’ve spent all day milling about Barclays Center, which has been transformed into a giant hall of promotional materials—but will soon be a basketball canvas for the most exciting team in the WNBA. 

As afternoon turns to evening, Ionescu, Jones, and Stewart still have more to do. It’s a beautiful spring day in Brooklyn that they’d all certainly prefer to use for something else. All this, it turns out, comes with becoming the biggest story in women’s basketball. And if everything goes according to plan for this team, the spotlight on them will only grow brighter. 

“I could see how you would get a first day of school type of vibe,” Jones says, with the team getting accustomed to the people they’ll spend the next six months with. “But everybody is willing to make this work because we understand how special of a group it is.”

How special? Start here: three years ago, the Liberty went 2-20. Rookie sensation Ionescu suffered an ankle injury that prematurely ended her time in the WNBA’s pandemic bubble. After two more seasons of mediocrity, they’ve gotten her some help. In a big way. 

This past winter, the Liberty caused an offseason earthquake, the likes of which the WNBA had never seen before, over the course of three weeks executing a pair of mega-transactions that brought in two of the best women’s basketball players in the world. First, they swung a trade for Jones, the only player in WNBA history to win the MVP, Defensive Player of the Year, Sixth Woman of the Year, and Most Improved Player awards. 

Then came the move that really put everyone on notice—the one that brought a third superstar to Brooklyn and the loaded “superteam” label that comes with it. Stewart, arguably the most decorated women’s hooper ever at just 28 years old, signed a free agent contract with the Liberty in February. Ionescu does not hesitate to call her new teammate the best player in the league. The non-comprehensive list of Stewart’s accomplishments: four college national championships in a row at UConn, a regular season MVP, and two championships with the Seattle Storm, with two Finals MVPs. Just like that, a team touting a miserable .297 winning percentage since the start of the 2018 campaign became instant title contenders. In conversations with each of the big three, I learn that they’re still very much getting to know each other—and Jones and Stewart are still getting used to the city of eight million people that they now call home. But they’ll take a little adjustment period if it means hoisting a trophy this fall.

Matthew Roberson

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