As the NBA enters the playoffs, they have entered the regular season in the WNBA. Without Belgian Cats Emma Meesseman and Julie Allemand, but with Sabrina Ionescu. And the super talent did not disappoint.
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The 23-year-old American was selected first by New York Liberty in the WNBA Draft last year, but made only three games in her first season due to a serious ankle injury. This season she is already in as many gigs and they were one by one to frame.
Ionescu opened with 25 points, 6 rebounds and 11 assists against Indiana, the team where Allemand shone last season. The point guard scored the winning three pointer in the slot.
Kobe Bryant
Afterwards, during the TV interview, she wore a jersey from Kobe Bryant, the lamented LA Lakers legend who died in a helicopter crash early last year. Ionescu was good friends with the basketball icon and often trained with him. Bryant sometimes called her “GOAT” (Greatest Of All Time).
“She reads the game like no other,” said Bryant in an interview. “She gets it and she is serious about it, seriously unseen even. She is so competitive and has a lot of character. ”
Ionescu also did not disappoint in the second game of the season. Indiana was again beaten, now with 12 points, 5 rebounds and 4 assists from the daughter of Romanian immigrants. And then victory number three was yet to come. New York defeated Minnesota 86-75 thanks to a triple-double from Kobe Bryant’s protégé: 26 points, 10 rebounds and 12 assists.
It was only the tenth time that a WNBA player scored double digits in three categories and it was only the sixth game in Ionescu’s American career, immediately setting a record. Afterwards she did not want to say too many words. “It’s pretty cool, but the most important thing was the win,” she said at the press conference.
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