Ionescu, Sabrina (1997- )

Subterms

    More stories

    • 88 Shares189 Views

      in Football

      New York Sports Entering a Promising Era

      by

      #masthead-section-label, #masthead-bar-one { display: none }The NBA SeasonVirus Hotspots in the N.B.A.The Friendship of LeBron and Anthony DavisThe N.B.A. Wanted HerMissing Klay ThompsonKobe the #GirlDadAdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyOn New York SportsThat Strange Feeling Going Around New York Is OptimismAfter two decades of frustration and incompetence broken up by an occasional championship (thanks, Giants), the region’s sports teams all appear headed in the right direction.Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving have the Nets poised to be true championship contenders for the first time since Jason Kidd was playing for the team.Credit…Jason Miller/Getty ImagesFeb. 23, 2021Updated 9:08 a.m. ETIt was a rough couple of decades for sports in New York, and not just because of the incessant losing. The last 20 years was an era of general ineptitude marked by a butt fumble, a Ponzi scheme, failed coaches, disgraced executives, a team hero getting dragged out of the arena by security and losing seasons stacking up like rotting garbage bags in the snow.To be a New York sports fan through all of that was a mental and emotional test of endurance just to remain loyal during perhaps the worst two-decade stretch for sports in the region.The dozen or so teams in the country’s biggest market, with all their resources and expectations, competed for a possible 223 championships over that period in six different leagues, but won only four titles, or 1.8 percent. Boston, a much smaller city, won 12 out of a possible 99 and one team in a an even tinier market — the San Antonio Spurs — won just as many as all the New York teams combined, despite having only 20 chances.But maybe, just maybe, the collective suffering is coming to a merciful end. You might have to look deep in a couple of cases, but for the first time in years, all the arrows seem to be pointing up.“We are on the cusp of maybe a good 10-year run where all the teams are in contention in their respective sport,” said Boomer Esiason, the Long Island-bred former N.F.L. M.V.P. who, as the host of the drive-time morning show on WFAN radio, has the pulse of the fans. “It’s really a fascinating time in New York sports.”Of course, it could all go sideways in the blink of a stupid trade or a shredded elbow, especially with articles like this one to jinx it. For now, optimism reigns as fans are allowed back in arenas and stadiums in limited numbers, and the following words can be typed in succession for the first time in ages: The Nets are stacked, the Mets are poised, the Giants seem to be building something real, the Jets have a bushel of draft picks and a commanding new coach. And the Knicks — the Knicks! — actually seem to know what they are doing.OK, we know you are skeptical. Twenty years of sports PTSD will do that. But here is a closer look at how the various New York teams are faring.Julius Randle, center, has received All-Star buzz but the team has several other promising young players like Immanuel Quickley and RJ Barrett.Credit…Jason Decrow/USA Today Sports, via ReutersThe Nets are contenders. The Knicks are competent!The most astonishing turnaround in the metropolitan region at the moment belongs to the Knicks.People under the age of 30 may not remember, but there was a time when the Knicks owned New York, even more than the Yankees. When they played the Chicago Bulls, the Indiana Pacers or the Miami Heat in the playoffs in the 1990s, the city went on pause. That changed, coincidentally or not, around the same time James Dolan took ownership of the team and the Knicks only made the playoffs (barely) five times over 20 seasons.But the future for the Knicks shimmers a little brighter now with a combination of exciting young players, a highly respected head coach in Tom Thibodeau and a sensible executive with a vision in charge of it all (Leon Rose, that is, not Dolan).Immanuel Quickley and Obi Toppin are impressing in their first few months in the league. RJ Barrett, a former No. 3 over all pick, is only a year ahead of them on the development scale. And Julius Randle, a rare free agent success for the team, has broken out to become a star. With everyone committing to Thibodeau’s defensive mandate, the Knicks are floating close to .500 for the first time in eight years and are actually watchable again.“One hundred percent they are headed in the right direction,” said Isiah Thomas, the Hall of Fame point guard, N.B.A. analyst and former Knicks coach and executive. “Under Leon Rose and Thibodeau, what they have established with his defensive mentality is already paying dividends.”Sabrina Ionescu didn’t get much of a rookie season because of an injury, but she is expected to lead the Liberty into a promising new era.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressWhile the Knicks are building organically, the Nets took the just-add-water approach with a powerful mix of three superstars — Kevin Durant, James Harden and Kyrie Irving. The Nets, fresh off a five-game sweep on the West Coast, are the No. 2 team in the Eastern Conference behind the Philadelphia 76ers and are title contenders for the first time since the Jason Kidd (playing) era.The Liberty have been quietly atrocious the last three years, but in 2020 they selected the incomparable point guard Sabrina Ionescu with the No. 1 over all pick in the W.N.B.A. draft. She played in only three games her rookie season because of an ankle injury, but is expected to help transform the team. Adding Natasha Howard, an All-Star who has won multiple championships, can’t hurt.Oh, and St. John’s men’s team is playing tough defense, too, and is over .500.Taken as a whole, Thomas said, “It’s very positive for basketball in New York right now.”Shortstop Francisco Lindor is expected to solidify the Mets’ defense while providing a middle-of-the-order bat.Credit…Gene J. Puskar/Associated PressD.J. LeMahieu and Luke Voit are two of the many bright spots for a loaded Yankees offense.Credit…Mike Stobe/Getty ImagesThe Mets have a savior. The Yankees are the Yankees.It is impossible to look past the Mets repeatedly hiring men accused of harassment, but the actual team on the field should be in for an exciting summer. Many of those fans waited years for an owner like Steven Cohen to take the team from the Wilpons and start spreading his billions around like a wiseguy at a craps game, but their best off-season move was a trade for Francisco Lindor, a transformational player. For now, fans and players alike believe Cohen will deliver a winner to Flushing. Luis Rojas, the Mets manager said the players’ optimism was palpable on the first day of spring training.“You feel the energy from the guys as far as talking about the passion that our new owners has shown in the off-season,” Rojas said.As for the Yankees, let’s cut them some slack for only winning one World Series since 2000. Ordinarily, that would be an abject failure, but compared to the other slouches in town, at least they actually grabbed one. For sheer consistency of effort over that time, the Yankees stood alone in the region.Coach Joe Judge appears to have changed the tone for the Giants.Credit…Adam Hunger/Associated PressCoach Robert Saleh is expected to bring intensity to the Jets’ sideline.Credit…Doug Benc/Associated PressIn new coaches, the New York football teams trust.Look, we know the last five years or so of football in New Jersey has been excruciating for the fans. But …“There is no question that both franchises are on the upswing,” said Esiason, who is also an N.F.L. analyst for CBS. “Both Giants and Jets fans feel there is an optimism surrounding the team, for different reasons.”Finding something positive about the Jets is really an undertaking for a historian. Actually, a geologist — what does the carbon dating reveal about their only trophy? Paleolithic period? Jurassic? After all, the Jets (2-14 last season) can’t even lose properly. By winning a second game, they missed out on a generational No. 1 draft pick. Trevor Lawrence almost certainly won’t be a Jet, but the No. 2 pick is better than, say, the No. 3 pick, and they have many more picks in the holster, too.“I would love to see Joe Douglas’s white board,” Esiason, who played for the Jets, said about the team’s shockingly competent general manager. “They’ve got tons of options.”They also have a new coach, Robert Saleh, whom people already love before he has run a practice. The Jets clearly took note of the success of their fellow Jersey swamp residents’ new tough-guy coach, and hired one of their own.Much of the hope surrounding the Giants emanates from that coach. Joe Judge changed the culture in his first year and led the G-men to six wins, which in the awful N.F.C. East made them a playoff contender.Plus, with two Super Bowl titles in the last 14 years, the Giants get the city’s only hall pass in this accounting.Alexis Lafreniere, center, is one of the many bright spots for a team that began a total rebuild a few years ago.Credit…Nick Wass/Associated PressHockey built itself back from the ground up.Esiason is also passionate hockey fan, and he pointed to a key moment in recent Rangers history that he sees as the catalyst for the entire region’s turnaround. In February 2018, the Rangers decided they were going to tear down the roster and rebuild, and sent a letter to season ticket holders advising them to say goodbye to their beloved older stars.“That has never been accepted in New York, for any team,” Esiason said. “It kind of set things in motion.”Now the Rangers are loaded with promising young players, like Alexis Lafreniere, last year’s No. 1 pick, Kaapo Kakko, the No. 2 pick in 2019, Adam Fox and goalie Igor Shesterkin, just to name a few.The Devils have also been plucking No. 1 picks, with Nico Hischier, who was just named captain last week, in 2017 and Jack Hughes in 2019, plus a deep pool of other intriguing prospects. Fans seem to appreciate where they are headed (and yes, they also get credit for capturing the region’s other title way back in 2003).Meanwhile Islanders fans are feeling good that Lou Lamoriello is the president of a team that made the conference finals last year.“Lou Lamoriello has basically resuscitated that moribund franchise,” said Esiason, whose son-in-law, Matt Martin, is a forward on the team, “and they have a new arena being built over in Elmont — who would have thought that would ever happen? Now, suddenly, they are one of the top teams in the N.H.L.”It’s all there. Maybe.Add it all up, from the Bronx to New Jersey — the Red Bulls are bound to win an M.L.S. Cup eventually, right? — and maybe the region really is headed for something better than four championships in the next 20 years.“New York is the greatest city in the world and it really needs some positive energy,” said Alex Rodriguez, the ESPN analyst who was part of the last Yankees championship in 2009. “Things are looking up. I think sports is ready to bring a lot of joy and hope for the folks of New York.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More

    • 125 Shares199 Views

      in Basket

      The Liberty Enter Free Agency ‘Absolutely’ Ready for Big Changes

      by

      AdvertisementContinue reading the main storySupported byContinue reading the main storyThe Liberty Enter Free Agency ‘Absolutely’ Ready for Big ChangesSabrina Ionescu’s ankle injury derailed the Liberty’s high hopes for her rookie year, but the team is again aiming to contend next season. This is how it can do it.Liberty General Manager Jonathan Kolb said the team is in position to capitalize on free agents’ desire to come to New York and join the young roster.Credit…Phelan M. Ebenhack/Associated PressJan. 15, 2021, 3:00 a.m. ETAt first glance, the Liberty aren’t anywhere near contending in the W.N.B.A.They finished 2-20 during the bubble season in Bradenton, Fla., last year, and the numbers don’t get any more encouraging below that top line. The Liberty’s offensive efficiency, 87.3 points per 100 possessions, ranked at the bottom of the league — by a lot. The gap between the Liberty and the Atlanta Dream, ranked 11th of the 12 teams, was larger than the gap between Atlanta and the No. 1 team, the Seattle Storm.In years past, the off-season wouldn’t offer much hope for a team in the Liberty’s position, with the league’s best players locked into long-term contracts and few free agents expected to make big moves. But that kind of off-season is no longer the standard under the collective bargaining agreement signed last January. Last year, many big names, including Skylar Diggins-Smith and Tina Charles, moved to new teams: Diggins-Smith to Phoenix from Dallas and Charles to Washington from the Liberty.The timetable for a W.N.B.A. team to turn itself into a winner is significantly shorter under the new rules, which include a much higher max salary and fewer core designations — the league’s equivalent of the N.F.L.’s franchise tag.So for the Liberty’s general manager, Jonathan Kolb, that means this off-season is more than just a chance to improve at the margins. A winter that can both define the Liberty’s rebuild and catapult the team into the playoffs is within reach.“Absolutely,” Kolb said of whether the Liberty could expect a drastic change in 2021. “For the history of the league, up through last season, teams really improved via the draft. And you go back and look: Trades really weren’t much of a thing.”Salary Cap: Stick with the rookies.But a byproduct of the new C.B.A. is pressure on general managers. The max salary jumped 80 percent to $215,000 from $119,500, while the salary cap increased around $300,000, or about 30 percent. Suddenly, a status quo that had roughly 40 percent of the league earning a max salary couldn’t hold. Teams with multiple stars who could command max salaries as they completed their old deals spent big last off-season, setting themselves up to have to make difficult decisions this year and beyond.The Liberty, however, are overstocked with cap-friendly rookie contracts. The team is building around Sabrina Ionescu, last year’s top overall pick. A team that played seven rookies last season has similarly cost-effective young pieces up and down the roster as well.“The rookies will mature as players, and they’re going to be more ready to step in and be more efficient,” Kolb said. “And in terms of the system, I mean, of course, we will change things up. We’ve been deep diving into doing an autopsy of our season, and looking at all of it, offensively and defensively. And so I think it will be a combination of personnel and improvements.”Guards: Count on Sabrina Ionescu and Kia Nurse.Sabrina Ionescu reacted to a play from the bench wearing a medical boot last season.Credit…Julio Aguilar/Getty ImagesOne place the Liberty appear set is at the point guard position. Though Ionescu played only three games before an ankle injury ended her season, she quickly displayed the evolved offensive repertoire that turned her Oregon team into a juggernaut, and her 33-point effort against the Dallas Wings served notice that her production translates to the next level. When Ionescu went down, Layshia Clarendon, a former All-Star, took over point guard duties and provided veteran leadership. With Clarendon running the offense, the Liberty proved they could play at the speed Coach Walt Hopkins preaches, finishing second in the league in pace.Ionescu’s return will give the Liberty even more options. Her pick-and-roll skills juiced the offense at Oregon, where she collaborated with rolling bigs like Ruthy Hebard (now with the Chicago Sky) and Satou Sabally (now with Dallas).It is easy to picture the team around Ionescu taking form. Kia Nurse, whose season-long shooting slump in 2020 came after her breakthrough All-Star 2019 season, seems likely to return to form. The perimeter looks that Hopkins’s system generates should be more fruitful with the sharpshooting of Rebecca Allen of Australia and Marine Johannes of France, both of whom opted out of the 2020 season over concerns about traveling to the United States during the pandemic.Bigs: Natasha Howard or Nneka Ogwumike?The team’s primary center from last year, Amanda Zahui B., is a free agent. Kiah Stokes, who recently signed an extension with the Liberty, is efficient around the rim but struggled from 3-point range for a team that gave everyone the green light to shoot from deep.The market ahead offers multiple ways to address this deficiency, while potentially pairing the younger Ionescu with a veteran big with championship experience. Natasha Howard, who was a bench player on Minnesota Lynx championship teams and then a vital part of the Seattle Storm title winners in 2018 and 2020, is a free agent. She shot 35 percent from 3-point range last year, while feasting on interior defenders worn down from trying to stop Breanna Stewart. But Howard was the fourth offensive option in Seattle, after Stewart, Sue Bird and Jewell Loyd, and she could decide to join the Liberty and become more of a focal point. She averaged only 7.5 shot attempts per game in 2020.Then there’s Nneka Ogwumike, the longtime Los Angeles Sparks forward. Like Howard, she is a free agent, and like Howard, she was relatively low on the pecking order in Sparks Coach Derek Fisher’s offense last year, averaging a career-low 9.3 shot attempts per game. She’s also the president of the W.N.B.A. players’ union and, with a move to New York, would find herself a subway ride away from its headquarters.While Seattle and Los Angeles have given Howard and Ogwumike core designations, that only guarantees compensation for the teams should the players force their way out. That was how Charles and Diggins-Smith landed with new teams last season. A lineup of Ionescu and either Howard or Ogwumike, with the other returning Liberty players like Nurse and Allen, would be the framework for a true contender.Draft: Keep the pick — or cash it in?And the Liberty have the luxury of free agency coming before a draft, expected to take place in April, in which they again hold the top overall pick. That pick is a primary asset the Liberty can use to put the finishing touches on an off-season with a big free-agent signing or in a trade to acquire a second star to play alongside Ionescu.Kolb did not mention any free-agent targets, but he did indicate that he hoped most of the Liberty’s team-building work would be concluded before the draft. Then again, if the right players cannot be recruited this winter, it just means running the same play again in 2022, when players like Stewart and Jonquel Jones of the Connecticut Sun could hit the free-agent market.“I think the most exciting thing is, we’re in position to do something,” Kolb said. “We’re positioned cap-wise, flexibility-wise, that if they’re interested in coming to New York, we’re in a position to capitalize on it.”AdvertisementContinue reading the main story More