“I could never dream of this. Ya’ll know how many times I’ve been denied it. But it was delayed, that’s all it was and I’m happy to do it here.”
Those words came from a teary-eyed Jonquel Jones moments after her Liberty team won its first championship in franchise history and seconds after hoisting her WNBA Finals MVP award on the Barclays Center hardwood.
The emotions overcame the 6-6 Jones, who landed in Brooklyn during the 2023 offseason looking for a new start to her WNBA career. The 2021 MVP specifically requested a trade to Brooklyn after six seasons with the Connecticut Sun, including two WNBA Final defeats that left her games away from earning a title.
On Sunday night, she contributed a team-high 17 points and six rebounds in a gutsy do-or-die Game 5 overtime victory over the Minnesota Lynx. She was part of a rarely used Sandy Brondello rotation — Jones, Nyara Sabally, Leonie Fiebich, Sabrina Ionescu and Breanna Stewart — that inspired its own brand of lengthy, gritty, bully-ball basketball which helped flip a seven-point halftime deficit to a three-point lead going into the fourth quarter.
Jones’ and-1 layup over Bridget Carleton with four minutes remaining third quarter contributed to the run and induced one of the loudest ovations from the raucous sellout crowd as her team honed in on the Lynx.
It all helped keep the Liberty in the game, and eventually get them into overtime. And when star teammate Breanna Stewart dribbled the clock out in overtime, she was first greeted by Jones.
While Stewart was the biggest domino to fall during the Liberty’s 2023 star-studded offseason overhaul, she also helped recruit Jones to Brooklyn.
All of their conversations of what a roster with both of them on it came to fruition as the Barclays Center clocks hit zero. For Jones, it was her first title in her eighth WNBA season.
“When I hugged Stewie, I was sobbing in her ear. I didn’t say one word,” Jones said after Game 5. “I was just crying the whole time. I’m so happy to win and do it with her. We talked about it so much, about coming together and what we envisioned of what we wanted to do in New York, and what we could do, to be able to pull it off and accomplish a dream. It’s so freaking hard to do. It just means a lot. It means a lot.
“I told her this before, but I’ve watched Stewie be great for so long, in high school and then in college and then in the WNBA. For a long time, she was that person that I was kind of like chasing in college; I want my game to be at her level and play against her in the WNBA and to ultimately be teammates.
“It really just means a lot to be able to win with her and to watch the way that she approaches the game every day. The way that she leads our team, because she is our leader and we look to her in tough moments. So it just really means a lot to have everything come together and to be able to win together.”
Stewart added: “I think that first I had to bring the ball over half court because I didn’t want to get an eight-second violation.
“But then I think it was picture perfect to be able to embrace JJ. Really what I was saying was like, she led us. Her dominance in the paint, on the boards, help-side defense. Everything that we needed, she was there.
“She had to wait awhile to get to this point, to get to the Finals to win a championship. But the wait was worth it.”
On a team that includes stars like Stewart, Ionescu, Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and Courtney Vandersloot, the Liberty went as far as Jones took them. A Jones double-double almost guaranteed a Liberty victory during the 2024 regular season. In games Jones struggled with lack of touches and foul trouble, the Liberty struggled.
She was the most consistent Liberty player in the 2023 postseason whereas Ionescu and Stewart struggled mightily. Her reliable performances in the 2023 postseason came after a rocky regular-season start in a Liberty jersey due to a foot injury suffered in the 2022 WNBA Finals as a member of the Sun.
She hit her stride in the 2023 postseason, recording eight consecutive double-doubles, the most in a single postseason in WNBA history. But it all ended — the streak and the season — at the hands of a dominant Las Vegas Aces squad destined to achieve its second consecutive title.
Jones — and the Liberty — got payback in Game 4 of this year’s semifinals series. Jones’ trey with two minutes in regulation was the final haymaker that ended Las Vegas’ dreams of a WNBA three-peat.
That Game 4 clinching-win set up the WNBA Finals series against the Lynx, a team they lost the Commissioner’s Cup Final to and the regular-season series, 2-1.
The Lynx relatively held Jones in check in the regular season. The big exploded for 21 points and 12 rebounds in a July 2 win, but combined for 13 points (4-of-12 shooting) and 11 rebounds in the other two regular-season losses. Jones’ performance in the Commissioner’s Cup Final was poor too: three points (0-of-3 from the field) and 12 rebounds.
But redemption was achieved — again — with a gutsy Game 5 Finals win and WNBA Finals MVP award.
It doesn’t get better than that.
“For me, I’m happy,” Jones said. “Just really happy and trying to take in the moment and enjoy every aspect of it. I’m just up here smiling and thanking Jesus and thanking my teammates. Yeah, just enjoying the moment.”
