Breanna Stewart was told the same thing. The players were off because they flew to Atlanta on the eve of Thursday’s game against the Dream, but both Stewart and Ionescu gave invited, ominous interviews.
Amazingly, two Liberty stars suffered flat tires that day and received a personal surprise: USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley was waiting for them in a hotel conference room, telling the players they’d been selected for the 2024 Olympic team and presenting them with the official red, white and navy jerseys of Team USA for the Paris Olympics.
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“When you go in, you see cameras everywhere,” Stewart told reporters. [Liberty general manager] Jonathan [Kolb]When I look at Jim Tooley, I think, what kind of all-access is this?
Ionescu felt like she was engaged again. It felt like a marriage proposal. It was also a surprise when her now-husband, Hronis Glas, proposed to her. He made her think they were attending a GQ photo shoot. When Ionescu saw Tooley standing there in the jersey, she was so shocked she blacked out. She didn’t remember exactly what Tooley said to her, but she assumed he was inviting her to join the team.
That “I got it!” moment was a stroke of luck for Liberty’s first-time Olympian.
“I was totally shocked,” Ionescu said. “I was talking to Stewie that morning and she was like, ‘Yeah, I heard about it in late June, early July.’ We had just been talking about it, so it was like it was real, so it just caught me completely off guard.”
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Ionescu sniffled and wiped her eyes after hugging Tooley. She told reporters on Wednesday that she wasn’t too surprised and that her emotions were running wild. For Ionescu, becoming an Olympian was a childhood dream. She was an avid Olympic watcher and even had the five rings as the background for her phone. She posted a video montage on Instagram explaining how long she’s been in the USA Basketball system, dating back to her U-16 days, when she wasn’t even invited to play for the team. She sent in an application and was one of the few cases of a player who self-selected to make the team.
“I’m really happy for Sabu,” Stewart told reporters on Wednesday. “Obviously, it’s definitely well-deserved for her to be competing in her first Olympics. She’s been on the U.S. team for a long time, but you’ve rarely seen her this emotional. You know it really means a lot and I’m really proud of her. I’m excited for her to be competing in her first Olympics.”
Stewart’s emotions were less dramatic, but she, too, was ecstatic to have been selected for her third Olympics. It was very clear that Stewart was going to Paris after all the marketing and promotion she’d done leading up to the Olympics, including a segment she did with Kelly Clarkson on her daytime talk show during the offseason and an appearance at the Team USA Media Summit in April. It’s been clear for a long time that Stewart would be selected for the 2024 U.S. Olympic team.
While the Olympics aren’t as shiny and new for Stewart as it is for Ionescu, there will be something different in Paris that the three-time Olympian is looking forward to. “The thing I’m most looking forward to is being with my family,” Stewart said. “Obviously, when I competed in Tokyo, there was the quarantine and all that, but it’s nice to have my family and friends there and have everyone feel like it’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience.”
For Ionescu, the Olympic experience this summer wasn’t a fait accompli. When the U.S. team headed to Tokyo for the Olympics, which have been postponed to 2021, the young Liberty guard was still rehabbing from an injury she suffered during the 2020 bubble season. When she attended her first senior team training camp after a major injury, she was nervous and a little hesitant. She wasn’t sure how newly appointed coach Cheryl Reeve wanted to use Ionescu.
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“I just asked her what she wanted from me,” Ionescu said, “because I can shoot, I can drive, I can pass, I can do a little bit of everything, so I think it was just about figuring out what’s needed from me on this team.”
Ionescu learned that Reeve and staff needed a combo guard who could also play off the ball for presumed starting point guard Chelsea Gray. Reeve, staff and the selection committee made it clear they wanted Ionescu to lead the team. They wanted Ionescu to feel comfortable including the players around him in offensive sets and actions. As one of the younger players who has put in the time in training camps and qualifying tournaments (such as the 2022 World Cup and Olympic qualifiers in Belgium earlier this year), it’s a daunting task, especially for a player with high expectations who faced a lot of adversity coming out of college and early in his professional career.
“We wanted her to be as effective as a point guard as she was as a two-guard,” selection committee chair Jen Rizzotti said Tuesday. “Her passing and shooting are an asset to our team, and we’ve watched her grow from her experience at the World Cup to this last qualifying tournament in Belgium to the Final Four camp. She’s been preparing for this moment. She’s gotten better. She’s gotten more poised. She’s taken the feedback she’s gotten from Cheryl and applied it. So it’s really rewarding to see that come through, and to see her be rewarded for that effort, because it’s never an easy process.”
Ionescu and Stewart will be the first Liberty duo to represent the U.S. at the Olympics. The last time they did so was when Tina Charles competed at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.
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The Liberty Olympic team also includes head coach Sandy Brondello, who will be playing in her sixth Olympic Games and her second as manager of the Australian Opals. Nyara Sabally and Leonie Fiebig, both still recovering from back injuries, will also be playing in their first Olympic Games for Germany. Marine JohanYeahJohn McCain and Han Xu, who are not on the 2024 roster but whose rights are still held by the Liberty, will represent France and China, respectively. Oh, and let’s not forget New York’s head athletic trainer, Teri Acosta, who will be the athletic trainer for the U.S. team.
“We knew about it, that was the secret,” Stewart said of Acosta, “but I think it’s great to have Terry coming with us representing Team USA, so we’ll have our own little Liberty posse in Paris.”
