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The patient steps behind Brionna Jones’ meteoric rise in the WNBA

(Adam Hagy/NBAE via Getty Images)

A month before the start of the 2020 “wubble” in Bradenton, Fla., during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, All-Star center Jonquel Jones told the Connecticut Sun that she was opting out of the season to remain in the Bahamas. Soon after, head coach Curt Miller sat down with Brionna Jones, his backup center, and told her point blank that she needed to step up and fill the hole in the starting lineup.

Jones walked away from the conversation with a newfound purpose.

“I realized all my preparation was getting me ready for that moment,” she says.

When the 2020 season finally tipped off, Jones didn’t just step up in JJ’s absence — she stomped onto the court and left her footprints all over it. After averaging 3.1 points in 7.9 minutes per game across her first three seasons, in the bubble, Jones’ production jumped up to 11.2 points in 26.1 minutes on 60.5 percent shooting. The Sun finished the season seventh overall at 10-12 and advanced to the semifinals of the playoffs, where they lost to the Las Vegas Aces.

It was a successful season for Connecticut overall, considering their shortened bench and the complex playing environment. They came together as a team through adversity, becoming only the third squad in WNBA history to reach the playoffs after starting the season 0-5.

For Jones individually, the 2020 season was a coming out party that appeared to happen overnight.

“It might seem like a flip of the switch, but there were a lot of things that led up to it,” Jones says. “There’s a lot behind the scenes — like watching a lot of film, getting in the gym, working on my game. It was slow going.”

Jones’ basketball evolution didn’t begin in 2020, and it didn’t end there either. It’s an ongoing journey that she’s been working hard at every step of the way.

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Jones shined for the Sun in her first season as a full-time starter. (Ned Dishman/NBAE via Getty Images)

When Connecticut selected Jones with the eighth overall pick in 2017, Miller was looking to add frontcourt depth to an already stacked Sun team. Jones was a standout at Maryland for the better part of her career, averaging 19.9 points and 10.9 rebounds as a senior, and Miller liked the potential he saw in her.

“I think the thing that stuck out, being in the Big Ten myself, was her efficiency. She was consistently at the top or in the top five in the nation in field-goal percentage,” Miller says. “I truly value efficiency, and I believe there are things that translate [to the pros]. The other thing is that I felt you saw growth, you saw development from the time she arrived at Maryland as a freshman to the time she graduated.”

Miller appreciated Jones’ work ethic and her ability to add different skills to her game. Most of all, he didn’t think she had reached her ceiling. At that point in the draft, it wasn’t about position or need. Miller believed Jones was the best player available on the board, and the Sun could give her the time she needed to learn and grow.

It ended up being the perfect situation for Jones, too.

“Coming straight out of college and playing as much as I did and as well as I was in college, it was a little shock coming into the league,” Jones says. “I was barely playing those first couple of years, trying to stay positive and also knowing there’s some things in my game that I needed to work on.”

The adjustment from the college to professional level can be difficult to navigate, even for first-round draft picks in the WNBA. The game is faster, the competition is tougher, the opponents are stronger, the systems are more complex, and not every player has the luxury of developing in the background since teams have to adhere to a tight salary cap.

With the benefit of time in Connecticut, Jones worked on improving her quickness in the paint and making better decisions with the pick-and-roll on offense and with her slide-and-help defense.

“Experience in these situations — they’re already making reads before I even knew what I was doing in the game,” she says. “I’m more of an IQ player, so knowing where things are happening and when it’s happening, I feel like that was the biggest adjustment for me.”

“The speed of the game impacts all the way from point guards to center, and overall athleticism,” says Miller. “[Jones needed to work on] speed and athleticism. She was a really big center in the Big Ten at 6-3. In the WNBA, that’s considered a short center. Playing against players clearly bigger than her height-wise I thought was an adjustment for her.”

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When Curt Miller drafted Jones in 2017, he knew she had just scratched the surface of her potential. (Anthony Nesmith/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

As Jones sat and waited her turn, she worked on her quickness and post moves. She also focused on staying mentally ready and not getting down on herself. She wanted her Sun teammates to know she was there to support them, but also to learn and grow.

“For me, it was all about taking the opportunity when it came and just continue to get in the gym, still work on my game in practice, and show what I could do in practice,” Jones says. “I think that was big for me. Having that practice time helped me to see that I was still doing good things in practice, so when it came time to get on the court, I knew I’d be ready.”

Like a lot of players who don’t have immediate success in the WNBA, Jones went overseas. There, she was able to play the kind of minutes she wasn’t getting initially with the Sun, and compete against both top European players and WNBA talent.

Jones’ biggest leap came in 2019, when she joined EuroLeague club USK Praha in Prague. Former Maryland and current Sun teammate Alyssa Thomas had been with Praha since 2018 and pushed for them to sign Jones, who averaged 17.7 points and 10.8 rebounds that 2019 season.

“Having AT in my ear all the time definitely helped me a lot,” Jones says. “I’ve known her for a very long time. She was just giving me tips offensively, defensively that I could do and that helped me translate more when I returned to the WNBA.”

“Me and Bri go back all the way to college. When she joined our team, I had already known so much about her and her game,” adds Thomas. “Now we play every year together.”

Entering the bubble season with confidence, Jones emerged as one of the top players in the WNBA in 2020. The Sun subsequently rewarded her with a two-year, $120,000 contract extension. And in 2021, she backed it up, winning Most Improved Player of the Year and earning a spot on the WNBA All-Defensive Second Team and in the All-Star Game for the first time in her career. Back with USK Praha this past season, she finished second in scoring with 20.9 points per game during the regular season and was named to the All-EuroLeague Second Team.

Jones knew she was putting in the work and doing everything she could to grow her game, but until she saw the hardware, she couldn’t help but wonder if anyone else had noticed.

“It was everything to me to get recognized as Most Improved Player out of everybody that had changed their game that season as well,” Jones says. “For me, it was just the affirmation that, like, I put in all this hard work behind the scenes and I got to show for it at the end of the season.

“And then, I don’t want to end there. I want to keep working and keep getting better and still try to improve my game every season.”

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Jones and Alyssa Thomas reunited in Connecticut and Prague after playing together at Maryland. (Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)

Stephanie Jones has always looked up to her older sister. They are the only siblings to play together on the same team at the middle school, high school, college and professional level, where they teamed up again on the Sun in 2020.

Stephanie remembers sitting next to Jones when she got the call about being voted to the 2021 All-Star team. They both started crying. “We just had a moment, like is this really happening?” Stephanie says. “I mean, we all saw it coming because she works so hard.”

Jones’ admiration for her younger sister runs just as deep. For as hard as she’s worked to get to where she is today, Stephanie’s WNBA moment in 2020 gave her a new appreciation of the journey.

“When [Stephanie] told me that she made the team [in 2020], I was more excited than her,” Jones says. “Because she didn’t have the same path as I did. She didn’t get drafted, so being able to see her work for that, go overseas and play and come in and make the team the next season, I was just so proud of her.”

This season, Jones has added more versatility to her game and is averaging 13.6 points and 4.8 rebounds per game with a top-10 player efficiency rating of 23.0. She’s currently third overall in win shares with 4.6 and listed as one of the top 10 players of 2022 by Her Hoop Stats — all while coming off the bench and sharing the floor with JJ, DeWanna Bonner and Thomas. Making her second WNBA All-Star appearance earlier this month, she enters the second half of the season with a strong case to win the Sixth Woman of the Year award.

Miller drafted Jones knowing she had yet to reach her ceiling, and he isn’t surprised that she exceeded even his expectations.

“She is an elite basketball mind. That allows her to just see the game so clearly, anticipate and be a proactive defender. It’s just really impressive,” he says. “What you hope you get in a very short courtship as you get to know people, she’s an elite human also. She’s really a pleasure to coach.”

“I’ve watched her grow as a player and a person. Her confidence — each and every year she adds something to her game,” says Thomas. “I tell her all the time I’m her No. 1 fan, No. 1 supporter. I just think now people realize how good she is … I know she has so much to give.”

After this season, Jones will be a free agent and will most likely be courted by a handful of teams around the league. But she isn’t thinking about that right now. She loves her team, she loves Connecticut. And the Sun, Jones says, have unfinished business.

They entered the 2021 playoffs with the league’s best record at 26-6 and were eliminated in the semifinals by the reigning WNBA champion Chicago Sky.

“The way last season went and the way we were rolling into the playoffs, there was a lot of excitement and everything. And then having AT come back, it felt like everything was clicking at the right time,” Jones says. “It just didn’t work out.”

Jones thinks Connecticut has figured out what went wrong. In close games this season, the team doesn’t panic, especially on the road. And with a veteran group, there’s a different feeling in the locker room and chemistry on the court. Currently fourth in the league standings at 16-9, the Sun believe they have what it takes to finally get over the hump and win the first WNBA title in franchise history.

No matter what happens at the end of the season, Jones will take it in stride. She’s learned that it’s not going to be “all roses” playing in the WNBA. All she can do is stay the course and continue to put in the work.

The 2020 season showed her what was possible. And when Miller told her that she came through for them in the bubble, lived up to the team’s expectations and that’s why they drafted her, it was just another affirmation. Jones ended up with the right team at the right time, and it made all the difference.

“The Sun gave me the space to grow,” Jones says. “And I’m grateful for that.”

Lyndsey D’Arcangelo is a contributing writer at Just Women’s Sports, covering the WNBA and college basketball. She also contributes to The Athletic and is the co-author of “Hail Mary: The Rise and Fall of the National Women’s Football League.” Follow Lyndsey on Twitter @darcangel21.

USWNT Star Catarina Macario Scores with $10 Million Nike Deal

USWNT star Catarina Macario poses on a poster for Nike's horror short film series.
Nike's new "Scary Good" short film campaign features USWNT star Catarina Macario. (Nike Football)

USWNT and Chelsea FC star Catarina Macario inked a 10-year, $10 million contract with Nike on Tuesday, securing one of the most lucrative sponsorship deals in the women's game.

Macario started her pro career as an Adidas athlete, but swapped brands after battling back from a long-term knee injury to win a domestic treble with WSL side Chelsea this year.

The Brazilian-born US national is also starring in Nike's "Scary Good" ad campaign, a series of short films that "pay homage to the horror and satire of late-night television with a cast of the game's most dominant attackers."

Other soccer stars joining Macario in the sportswear giant's short film series are Spain's two-time Ballon d'Or winner Alexia Putellas and winger Salma Paralluelo, Brazil's Kerolin, and Germany's Giulia Gwinn, as well as Macario's Chelsea teammate, Australian national Sam Kerr.

"Nike has always been a part of my journey — from Surf to Stanford, to the USWNT and now Chelsea FC," Macario said in Tuesday's press release.

"Now, to be officially with the brand feels incredible. Not only because I get to join a team of football legends that have influenced my style of play since the beginning, but because I believe Nike represents the fearless spirit I try to bring with me every time I step on the pitch."

Women's soccer is blowing up on the sponsorship front, with payouts jumping from Norwegian superstar Ada Hegerberg's $1.1 Nike deal in 2020 to this week's blockbuster Macario signing.

How to watch Macario in her "Scary Good" Nike film

Catarina Macario's "Scary Good" film — dubbed "The Cold-Blooded Clinic" — will drop on July 16th on Nike Football's YouTube channel.

Waived WNBA Vet DeWanna Bonner Rejoins Phoenix Mercury After Fever Exit

Indiana Fever forward DeWanna Bonner lines up a free throw during a 2025 WNBA game.
Offseason Indiana Fever pick-up DeWanna Bonner has rejoined the Phoenix Mercury — the team that originally drafted her in 2009. (Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images)

Two-time WNBA champion DeWanna Bonner is coming home, rejoining the Phoenix Mercury after parting ways with the Indiana Fever late last month.

Bonner is back with the team that originally drafted her as the fifth overall pick in 2009, inking a slightly above-minimum prorated veteran contract for the remainder of the 2025 season.

"It's home. I know I'm going to get the love and the support," Bonner said, reuniting with fiancĂŠe Alyssa Thomas on the second-place WNBA squad.

After spending her first 10 seasons with the Mercury, Phoenix traded Bonner to the Sun in February 2020.

The six-time All-Star forward spent five seasons alongside Thomas in Connecticut, helping the Sun to at least the WNBA semifinals in each of those years.

The Fever then signed Bonner as a free agent ahead of the 2025 season, with the 37-year-old later departing the team for personal reasons after just nine games with Indiana.

Bonner missed five games before the the Fever officially waived her on June 25th, as the renewed free agent reportedly eyed a move back to Phoenix.

"We couldn't be more excited to have DeWanna back in a Mercury uniform," Phoenix GM Nick U'Ren said in a statement. "She is a true winner, leader and one of the most talented and versatile players in our game."

WNBA Star Caitlin Clark Returns from Injury in Indiana Loss to Golden State

Injured Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark looks on from the bench at the 2025 WNBA Commissioner's Cup championship game.
Indiana Fever star Caitlin Clark is available for Wednesday's WNBA game against the Golden State Valkyries. (Matt Krohn/Getty Images)

Indiana star Caitlin Clark is officially back in action, making her return to the court in Wednesday's Fever clash with Golden State to mark her first WNBA minutes since June 24th.

While the No. 6 Valkyries took the 80-61 win on Wednesday, Clark was able to log 25 minutes as well as put up 10 points, six assists, and five rebounds in her return from injury.

Prior to this season, the 2024 WNBA Rookie of the Year had not missed a game since her sophomore year of high school in 2017.

Wednesday's return capped a five-game stretch with Clark out with a groin strain — the most recent knock to the WNBA sophomore after a quad strain sidelined her for two weeks earlier this season.

"It's obviously hard sitting out and watching for a few weeks, so I'm excited to get out there," the guard told reporters on Tuesday.

While Indiana's loss did not impact their No. 7 spot on the league table, Wednesday's other major matchups could have deeper implications for the WNBA standings:

  • No. 1 Minnesota Lynx vs. No. 2 Phoenix Mercury, 3:30 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): The WNBA's top two teams will square off Wednesday afternoon, as a steady Lynx team meets a rejuvenated Mercury hot off a revenge win over Dallas on Monday.
  • No. 11 Dallas Wings vs. No. 12 Chicago Sky, 8 PM ET (WNBA League Pass): Young phenoms duke it out as the Sky honor 2021 WNBA champ and new retiree Allie Quigley — and hope to avenge Tuesday’s close loss to Washington by downing the Wings.

2025 WNBA All-Star Captains Napheesa Collier, Caitlin Clark Draft Rosters

Minnesota Lynx star Napheesa Collier celebrates a 2025 WNBA win.
2025 captain Napheesa Collier drafted her WNBA All-Star team on Tuesday. (Matt Krohn/Getty Images)

The 2025 WNBA All-Star teams are set, as captains Napheesa Collier and Caitlin Clark drafted the 20 other honored players into their final rosters live on ESPN on Tuesday night.

The draft began with the two captains selecting from the eight-player pool of fan-voted starters, before Clark and Collier each chose six athletes from the group of 12 All-Star reserves.

Both the Minnesota forward and the Indiana guard prioritized selecting their WNBA teammates, with Collier successfully grabbing Lynx guard Courtney Williams as one of her reserves while Clark's first picks in each category were fellow Fever players in starter Aliyah Boston and reserve player Kelsey Mitchell.

Collier also decided to keep her fellow UConn Huskies close, tapping alums Breanna Stewart and Paige Bueckers for her starting lineup — though she failed to pull off a trade for third alum Gabby Williams.

"I tried 😭 they didn't show that part lol," the Lynx star posted to X after the draft, referencing her attempt to roster Williams.

While Collier's strategy was to snag current and former teammates, as well as players with whom she has Unrivaled or collegiate ties, Clark approached the draft with less of a plan.

"I'm going on vibes. I'm picking whatever comes to mind. We're just having fun," joked Clark, promising "my team is going to be fun."

All-Star draft's lone trade sees head coach swap

Despite a handful of trade offers, the only swap of the Tuesday draft didn't end up involving players at all, as the All-Star leaders agreed to switch head coaches.

Coaching assignments follow fan votes and team records, with the top All-Star vote-getter paired with the coach of the league's No. 1 team, while the No. 2 team coach leads the squad captained by the player who garnered the second-most votes.

As such, Minnesota head coach Cheryl Reeve was initially assigned to Team Clark, with Collier's squad led by New York boss Sandy Brondello.

Following both Collier's strategy of prior connections and, perhaps, Clark's emphasis on vibes, the pair agreed to switch sideline leaders, keeping the Lynx lineup together and sending the reigning WNBA champion to helm Clark's crew.

The 2025 WNBA All-Star Game rosters

Team Clark:

  • Starters: Aliyah Boston (Indiana), Sabrina Ionescu (New York), A'ja Wilson (Las Vegas), Satou Sabally (Phoenix)
  • Reserves: Kelsey Mitchell (Indiana), Gabby Williams (Seattle), Sonia Citron (Washington), Kiki Iriafen (Washington), Jackie Young (Las Vegas), Kayla Thornton (Golden State)
  • Head coach: Sandy Brondello (New York)

Team Collier:

  • Starters: Breanna Stewart (New York), Allisha Gray (Atlanta), Nneka Ogwumike (Seattle), Paige Bueckers (Dallas)
  • Reserves: Courtney Williams (Minnesota), Skylar Diggins (Seattle), Angel Reese (Chicago), Alyssa Thomas (Phoenix), Kelsey Plum (LA), Rhyne Howard (Atlanta)
  • Head coach: Cheryl Reeve (Minnesota)

How to watch the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game

Team Collier and Team Clark will square off in the 2025 WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis at 8:30 PM ET on July 19th.

Live coverage of the game will air on ABC.

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