Know These Lesser known Facts About WNBA Star Sabrina Ionescu

Sabrina Elaine Ionescu – born December 6, 1997 , is an American professional basketball player for the Women’s National Basketball Association WNBA New York Liberty.

Ionescu was born to Romanian-American parents in Walnut Creek, California. Dan Ionescu fled communist Romania around the time of the 1989 revolution in search of political asylum in the United States.

Sabrina initially took up basketball when she was about three years old. She was a member of the Oregon Ducks throughout her collegiate career. She is the NCAA’s all-time career triple-double leader, the Pac-12 Conference’s all-time assist leader, and the first NCAA Division I basketball player to record 2,000 points, 1,000 assists, and 1,000 rebounds in a career.

Sabrina Ionescu is the buzz of the basketball world following her scorching-hot performance in the WNBA All-Star 3-point contest. Ionescu won the tournament after hitting 25 of her 27 shots for 37 points and obliterating the field.


The night certainly belonged to Ionescu, who established the NBA and WNBA records for most 3-pointers made in an All-Star game. Notably, Steph Curry of the Golden State Warriors scored 31 points in the opening round of the 2021 shootout.

Ionescu confessed to being a “natural scorer” in a 2019 interview with Ava Wallace of The Washington Post, but added that much of the rest of her skill set developed from playing with both boys and older girls as a child:

“When I was younger, I was always playing with the guys, and I had to find ways to get the ball, because they never wanted to pass to me. So I figured that if I could rebound, I would be able to get the ball myself. Then passing-wise, when I was in sixth grade playing with the eighth-grade team, I was obviously a lot shorter, skinnier, smaller than they were. I would just have to find ways to impact the game other than shooting  or scoring, and that was passing.”

Here are 5 facts about Ionescu that you may not know:

1) She holds the record for most triple-doubles in D1 women’s college basketball history – Sabrina Ionescu leads the record of women’s collegiate basketball players with the most career triple-doubles with 26, nearly three times more than the next closest player (Lamar’s Chastadie Barrs with nine from 2016 to 2019).

She is also the first player to have scored 2,000 points (2,562), 1,000 assists (1,091), and 1,000 rebounds (1,040) in her career.

However, because to Iowa’s Caitlin Clark’s strong play throughout her first three seasons of NCAA basketball, the distance between Ionescu and the rest of the group is closing.

DI women’s college basketball career triple-double leaders

PLAYER SCHOOL YEARS TRIPLE-DOUBLES
Sabrina Ionescu Oregon 2017-20 26
Caitlin Clark Iowa 2020-23 11
Chastadie Barrs Lamar University 2016-19 9
Suzie McConnell Penn State 1985-88 7
Louella Tomlinson St. Mary’s (CA) 2008-11 7

2 She can go “Bazooka Mode”- Ionescu can take her game to a level her father affectionately refers to as “Bazooka Mode.” It indicates that when she’s in the zone, nothing can stop her.

She didn’t spend any time demonstrating this in the WNBA, as she erupted for 33 points, going 6-10 from outside the arc, to go with seven rebounds and seven assists in only her second game in the league in July 2020 against the Dallas Wings.

3) Sabrina Ionescu has a twin brother – Eddy Ionescu, Sabrina Ionescu’s brother, is an American professional basketball player with the New York Liberty.

Eddy Ionescu, alias Edward ‘Vortex’ Ionescu, followed in her sister’s footsteps and is now a professional basketball player.

Before attending Oregon, Sabrina Ionescu’s twin brother played basketball at City College of San Francisco.

The player is from the California city of Walnut Creek. He enrolled in Miramonte High School, a public high school in Orinda, California.

4) She was close to Kobe Bryant– It was only natural for two of the best basketball players of their generations to cross paths. Kobe Bryant and Sabrina Ionescu became friends because they had a dream: to bring women’s basketball to the national level.

Ionescu and Bryant first met after “The Black Mamba” watched Oregon’s game against USC, which the Ducks won 95-53. Bryant sat courtside with her daughter Gigi and two of her teammates.

In an interview with the Los Angeles Times, Ionescu recalls being told by coaches that there was a surprise for the day and mistaking Nike for new shoes. Bryant arrived to the game with his daughter Gianna and two of her teammates.

Ionescu met Kobe’s daughter Gianna “Gigi” Bryant, worked on her skills with Kobe, and climbed to collegiate basketball prominence at Oregon. She would thank Kobe for pushing her and being present in her life during her triumphs and defeats.

Sabrina Ionescu was among those who talked about Bryant during the memorial held for him after his terrible death in 2020.

The deaths of Kobe and Gianna in January were terrible for the globe, and especially for Ionescu. Her ambitions of leading Oregon to a national title evaporated along with the 2020 NCAA Women’s Tournament when the coronavirus (COVID-19) epidemic overtook the planet. Ionescu told Bleacher Report that she felt adrift without Kobe or basketball. Despite the sorrow, she knew Kobe would always be there for her.

5) Las Vegas Aces coach Becky Hammon Is her Idol – When Becky Hammon joined the San Antonio Spurs in 2014, she became the NBA’s first full-time female assistant coach.

Ionescu told The Athletic that Hammon’s was her first basketball jersey as a child. She has stated her desire to one-day coach for an NBA franchise.

Before becoming a successful coach, the Aces coach played 16 seasons in the WNBA, dividing time with the New York Liberty and the San Antonio Stars.

When her playing days are done, Sabrina hopes to follow in the footsteps of her idol by becoming a coach.

 

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