New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu has joined Unrivaled, the league announced Monday. Ionescu, fresh off a WNBA championship, will fill the 36th and final roster spot for the inaugural 2025 season, which tips off in Miami on Jan. 17. She will suit up for Phantom BC.
Unrivaled announced that Ionescu's signing was a "historic agreement." While her exact salary is unclear -- the total salary pool is over $8 million -- the deal "puts her in a category of her own," among the 36 players taking part this season, according to Kendra Andrews of ESPN. In addition to her salary, Ionescu, along with the rest the Unrivaled roster, will receive equity in the league.
SABRINA is UNRIVALED 👑 Filling the last wildcard spot ✅ SHE'S A PHANTOM 👻 pic.twitter.com/kShoP3rcY2
— Unrivaled Basketball (@Unrivaledwbb) December 23, 2024
Ionescu, the No. 1 overall pick in the 2020 WNBA Draft, is coming off another impressive season in which she averaged 18.2 points, 4.4 rebounds and 6.2 assists per game, made her third consecutive All-Star and All-WNBA appearances and finished sixth in MVP voting. She also helped Team USA win a gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
In the 2024 WNBA Finals, Ionescu hit a game-winning 3-pointer in Game 3, but suffered a high-grade UCL tear in her thumb on her shooting hand in Game 4. That led to poor shooting performances, including a historically bad 1 of 19 effort in the Liberty's title-clinching Game 5 win. She underwent surgery to fix the issue early in early December, and the initial timeline to return to on-court activity was four weeks. With Unrivaled beginning more than six weeks after her procedure, she should be ready to go by opening night.
Ionescu will play alongside Natasha Cloud, Brittney Griner, Marina Mabrey, Satou Sabally and Katie Lou Samuelson. Phantom BC will be coached by Adam Harrington. Their first game is set for Saturday, Jan. 18 at 2 p.m. ET against Laces BC.
Unrivaled, which was co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier, is a brand new 3-on-3 league that aims to give WNBA players an alternative to going overseas during the offseason and a chance to compete against the best players in the world.
"For a long time, going overseas was the only option that people had in their offseason, and so this is kind of changing the narrative around that and giving another option," Collier said earlier this year. "Overseas is a great option for some players, but it shouldn't be the only thing you can do to make money and play basketball and get better."
