Former Oregon women's basketball star and now-WNBA champion Sabrina Ionescu announced on Monday, Dec. 23 that she had claimed the final wild-card spot in Unrivaled – a professional 3x3 women's basketball league.
Ionescu, who won the most recent WNBA Championship with her team, the New York Liberty, played for the Oregon Ducks from 2016 until 2020 and became known as the queen of triple-doubles.
Since graduating from Oregon and being selected first overall in the 2020 WNBA Draft, Ionescu has become a star at the professional level. When Ionescu and the Liberty won the title earlier this year, the former Duck was battling through an injury to her right hand, also known as her shooting hand.
However, the high-grade UCL tear was expected to have a full recovery and Ionescu opting to join Unrivaled during the WNBA offseason is a great sign that the Oregon legend will be back in action sooner rather than later.
Throughout the most recent WNBA season, Ionescu stepped into her best form yet. She averaged 18.2 points, 6.2 assists, 4.4 rebounds, and 1.0 steals per game – including the postseason. While in college, Ionescu was virtually unstoppable. During her four-year career for the Ducks, she averaged 18.0 points, 7.7 assists, 7.3 rebounds, and 1.5 steals per game for Oregon.
Unrivaled is scheduled to start with the new year, in January 2025. The 3x3 league was started by one of Ionescu's Liberty teammates Breanna Stewart alongside Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier, who are both expected to play in the league.
Both Stewart and Collier are hoping to change the way that the world of women's basketball works. They hope that there is no longer a need for these athletes to travel to a foreign country for half of the year in order to afford their livelihood.
"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. "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."