Sabrina Ionescu Hints at Future With Liberty

"I think we all know that the team never looks the same every single year," Ionescu noted. "But I think we understand [who] our core, our core players, the players who are committed to wanting to be here and through the good and the bad [are]. You can't just want to be a part of it when you're on top and enjoying a parade and popping champagne bottles, you have to be able to continue to commit and want to be the best for this organization."

"I'm excited for next year. I think we're going to use this to continue to motivate us. I think you've got to cherish those years where everything seems to be going well, where you're healthy, you got the players out there, and this year just wasn't our year with that. That's something out of our control. We can see that tonight, knowing we did everything we could with the opportunities that we had, it just didn't fall our way with injuries [this year]."

That's perhaps the best answer Ionescu can give with the WNBA's labor and compensation issue still unresolved, as a tenuous offseason awaits for all 13 teams and incoming squads Portland and Toronto. She's one of many free agents set to hit a unchartered market, one where larger checks could well be distributed upon the signing of a new collective bargaining agreement.

Returning from foot issues just before the postseason tipped off, Ionescu did not have her signature three-point shot during this brief postseason foray, hitting just 7-of-32 in three showings against the Mercury (including 6-of-24 in Game 3).

Perhaps inspired by teammate Breanna Stewart, interior penetration helped Ionescu generate some momentum in the second quarter when the Liberty partly erased a 12-point deficit in the second quarter. But Ionescu was not immune to the metropolitan struggles in the final frame, which saw Stewart account for each of the Liberty's final 14 points of the campaign, a stat that was a shock even to Stewart in the aftermath.

Further proof of Ionescu's apparent intent to stay in New York and atone for the heartbreaker in the desert emerged in an ode to Stewart, claiming that she's interested in touring with the two-time MVP far beyond their shared endeavors as American Olympic stars.

"It's an honor to be able to watch what she does every day, how she leads by example, how I can have a player to look up to, like her on my team and go to war with her every day," Ionescu said. "There isn't a player who I would admire more and would love to play alongside for the rest of my career than Stewie, because of how she comes out every single day, for practice, for games, for anything that she takes kind of head-on. She owns it, and she's the best for a reason."