The New York Liberty won last year’s WNBA Championship. They’re in good shape to repeat, too.
But before the team’s second-half sprint to the playoffs, New York collected some other hardware Friday night at Gainbridge Fieldhouse.
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Liberty guards Sabrina Ionescu and Natasha Cloud headlined the first night of 2025 WNBA All-Star festivities in Indianapolis, with Ionescu winning the 3-Point Contest and Cloud winning the Skills Challenge.
Ionescu didn’t participate in last year’s 3-point contest, which was won by Atlanta Dream guard Allisha Gray, who became the first player to win both the 3-point contest and the Skills Challenge in the same season.
That said, Ionescu took home the 3-point contest trophy in 2023 when she wowed with a jaw-dropping final round, making 25-of-27 attempts for 37 points, the most all-time in the competition.
Ionescu and Gray met in this year’s 3-point contest final, and the Liberty’s sharpshooting star put on a similarly unbelievable performance.
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She hit 11 shots in a row and finished with 30 points, ultimately eight more than Gray.
“Well, I’m pretty disappointed,” Ionescu told ESPN’s Holly Rowe in an on-court interview afterward. “I feel like I missed a few easy ones there that I definitely could have made, so I’m sorry about that.
“But just happy to be here and obviously happy to have won with my teammate, Natasha Cloud, who won the skills competition as well.”
Ionescu had nothing to apologize for. She delivered WNBA fans another popcorn-worthy show.
Later, she told reporters that half of her prize money — made up of $60,000 from WNBA insurance partner Aflac, plus another $2,575 from the league — will go to Washington Mystics guard Sonia Citron.
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While they were sitting together on the bench Friday night in anticipation of the competition, Ionescu told a nervous Citron that Ionescu would pay the rookie half the 3-point contest winnings if she won. Ionescu said that it takes a lot of courage to participate as the only first-year player in the event, and that she is proud of Citron for doing so.
“I think I have a limit on Venmo, so I got to figure out how to exactly do that,” Ionescu said, as reported by ESPN’s Kendra Andrews. “I’ve got to pick up the check … maybe just cut it in half.”
The other half of Ionescu’s winnings is going to her foundation.
This year’s 3-point contest was notably missing a hometown star. Indiana Fever guard Caitlin Clark originally committed to the event but had to back out after she aggravated her previous groin injury on Tuesday night against the Connecticut Sun.
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Clark’s Fever teammate, Lexie Hull, took her place in the competition and more than held her own.
Cloud, meanwhile, beat out Erica Wheeler to take home the $55,000 prize in the skills competition.
Here’s how this year’s WNBA 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge went down: