NEW YORK — Year 3 for Sabrina Ionescu has so far shaped up to be a career reset.
Ionescu is finally 100% healthy and free from her ailing ankle, having spent the entire offseason rehabbing and getting stronger. She has new teammates and a new set of coaches. And for the first time since suffering that Grade 3 left ankle sprain in 2020, she can give her teammates her absolute best without holding back.
“I didn’t play, really, that first year, I learned a lot of lessons last year, learned what I should and shouldn’t do, and took an entire offseason to get healthy and be able to give my all to the team,” Ionescu said during the Liberty’s third day of training camp at Barclays Center on Tuesday. “And I think that’s really important. And it’s also unselfish. It’s not fair to the team if I’m not playing at 100 percent and able to give them everything that I have.
“I’m able to do that now and I’m excited to just get to work and continue to get better every day.”
Last season, the Liberty said their young point guard was dealing with a lingering issue in that left ankle, which ended up being diagnosed as tendinitis. Whatever it was, it held her back as she would try to grind through games without the same flexibility and strength on that ankle she’d had before that first injury.
Ionescu was a triple-double machine coming out of Oregon with a flair for putting up big scoring numbers. In just her second WNBA game, she had 33 points; in her sixth, a year later, she had a triple-double. But she says she was still a shell of her old self physically.
In February, she appeared on an episode of the “All the Smoke” podcast with Matt Barnes and Stephen Jackson, and recounted feeling like she was playing on a wooden leg — and that she forecasts more triple-doubles this season.
Ionescu further explained on Tuesday that she should not have pushed herself to play while her ankle wasn’t 100% and that she should have spoken up and been more confident in her decision to or not to play.
“Don’t play if you’re not healthy,” Ionescu said. “That’s probably the main thing that I’ve learned is it’s a long game and it was my second year and thank God that I didn’t get more injured or get a different injury, but sometimes playing through it isn’t always the right way.”
Ionescu has been a full participant in training camp every day so far this week. That is already good to see considering last year she was not and had essentially went from minimal preseason work straight into regular season games.
And it’s already been the big difference for her in her third year of preseason prep.
“I’m really excited to actually have training camp,” she said.
Ionescu and the rest of the Libs at camp certainly have their work cut out for them. New head coach Sandy Brondello is in the business of training champion contenders. And this team is certainly not new to the game anymore.
