After failing to win an NCAA title during her time with Oregon, NY Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu picked up her first silverware this season as she won the WNBA Commissioner’s Cup. The Commissioner’s Cup, which is a fairly new tournament, has been active for a total of three seasons and serves to replicate the beloved East vs West structure in the WNBA. The cup takes place in the first half of the season with the Finalists being chosen after each team plays 10 games against respective opponents in their conference. Teams with the best record in their conferences then qualify for the Finals which are played at the mid-way point of the regular season.
Sabrina Ionescu and the Liberty defeated defending WNBA champions the Las Vegas Aces in the Final this year with the Easten Conference team looking to recreate a similar upset in this year’s playoffs. Ionescu recently discussed the importance of this win and the Commissioner’s Cup amidst the NBA’s new format changes.
Sabrina Ionescu speaks about the Commissioner’s Cup win and its importance
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During a special episode of the podcast, The Old Man and the Three, ex-NBA star JJ Reddick took his show on the road as he hosted an interview cum podcast with Sabrina Ionescu during her signature shoe release with Nike. The episode dived into many topics of interest including the 2x WNBA All-Star’s Commissioner’s Cup triumph earlier this year.
The former Mavericks man seemed keen to get an insight about the Liberty’s Cup win as he questioned Ionescu on the team’s celebration stating, “The locker room celebrations with you guys, the googles and the champagne, it looks like it’s been a lot of fun?”
Sabrina agreed with JJ’s take as she revealed that the victory “has been a lot of fun.” The guard then dived deeper into the win as she explained the importance of winning the Commissioner’s Cup and more importantly getting a trophy back to New York.
Elaborating on the emotion of winning a trophy for New York the former Duck’s icon stated, “Anytime you can win some type of trophy and bring that back for us – it was back to New York, it’s something worth playing for.” [sic]
Interestingly, NBA icon Stephen Curry might seek advice from NY Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu as the NBA looks to implement an in-season tournament similar to the Commissioner’s Cup.
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Stephen Curry to seek advice from Ionescu amidst NBA’s new format
The NBA cup as it’s been dubbed will begin this season and will pit the 30 NBA teams into six groups of five implementing a European soccer-style knockout tournament. Sabrina who recently broke the NBA 3-point contest record held by Curry might be contacted by the GSW guard as he prepares to replicate Ionescu’s Commissioner’s Cup success during the inaugural NBA cup.
With only 39 days remaining for the season kickoff, Steph may just want to start dialing numbers if he wants pointers on a knockout cup tie.
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Do you think Ionescu can help Curry with her knockout stage knowledge, and will the NBA cup yield similar results to the Commissioner’s Cup? Let us know in the comments below!