Winning a championship is always a special accomplishment. Winning a championship in New York is even better. Sabrina Ionescu of the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty knows that, and she’s been fully enjoying her time in the spotlight as a result.
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Ionescu has led the Liberty to a 15-6 record, tops in the Eastern Conference, as they seek to become the first New York team to repeat as champs since the Yankees pulled off a World Series three-peat from 1998-2000. She also won her second 3-Point Contest title, and afterwards said that she plans to donate half her winnings to charity and give the other half to rookie Sonia Citron.
Ionescu appeared on The Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon last night, in part to promote her new Sabrina 3 shoe from Nike, and in part to help keep the WNBA’s momentum strong now that the All-Star break has concluded.
Fallon always has a great time with his guests, and with Ionescu, he played a game called ‘The Tonight Show Starting Five.’ The rules are simple — he gives a category and she has to name her top five.
After covering Ionescu’s top five pregame hype songs and her top five fast food menu items, Fallon asked her to name her starting five of the greatest basketball players of all-time, and he made clear that she could name males and/or females.
Most people would start with Michael Jordan, LeBron James and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, but Ionescu decided to go in a different direction. She named Steph Curry and herself as the first two, which is fitting since they had such a memorable battle in the 3-Point Contest last year.
Fallon cracked up at Ionescu starting with herself, saying, “I love you, you’re the best ever, man. You’re my fave, I love you. Yes!”
She then went with Kobe Bryant, another choice that made perfect sense given the respect he has among today’s players, plus the fact that he began mentoring Ionescu all the way back in her college days. The two were extremely close, and she even helped coach his daughter Gigi and spoke at his memorial service in 2020.
Next up was Breanna Stewart, Ionescu’s Liberty teammate. Stewie was also an unsurprising choice given how close the two have been since she joined the Liberty in 2023. Plus, of course, she’s awesome, having won three WNBA titles, four NCAA Titles and two MVP awards.
Maybe Ionescu’s just really excited for Happy Gilmore 2 to come out in a few days, or maybe she got caught up in the moment since Adam Sandler was also a guest on the show last night. Maybe she really does respect his game after watching footage of his many pickup games on the internet. Whatever the reason, she chose Adam Sandler as the fifth member of her starting five, drawing a huge laugh from Fallon and the studio audience.
Ionescu definitely came up with an unconventional starting five, but if this quintet was all on the same team, we will certainly be watching.
