For the first time in her professional career in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA), Bahamian Jonquel 'JJ' Jones will not be donned in the Connecticut Sun uniform but rather a New York Liberty sea-foam green kit. Jones and her teammates will hit the court for the first time this season when they take on the Sun in a preseason matchup at 11 a.m. today at the Mohegan Sun Arena in Uncasville, Connecticut.
Jones will be entering her seventh season in the WNBA.
The Grand Bahamian and her new teammates, which includes two-time WNBA Champion Breanna Stewart, WNBA Champion Courtney Vandersloot and 2020 WNBA number one overall pick Sabrina Ionescu, will look to start off on the right foot as they prepare for the season. There is no doubt that with the additions of Stewart and Jones, both former most valuable players in the league, the Liberty has their eyes set on one goal – winning a championship. It was what the Bahamian envisioned at her introductory press conference back in January - a week after she was traded to New York. In the offseason, Jones was one of the foreign players who had to flee Russia after her club UMMC Ekaterinburg had their season come to an end, in the face of the Russia-Ukraine war. This year, she heads into the season focused.
The Mohegan Sun Arena is familiar to Jones, having called it home for six seasons. This will be the first time she plays there as a visitor.
The game today will be one of two preseason games for the Liberty. They will head on the road to play the reigning champions, the Las Vegas Aces, at the Michelob ULTRA Arena in Las Vegas, Nevada, on Saturday.
When Jones was with the Sun, they came within a game of winning the WNBA title in 2019, losing to the Washington Mystics, and within two games of winning the title last year, losing to the Aces.
After a dominant season in 2021, Jones received 48 of 49 first-place votes for the WNBA Most Valuable Player (MVP) Award, finishing one vote shy of a unanimous selection. She led the Sun to the league's best win/loss record at 26-6, including a 15-1 home record at the Mohegan Sun Arena. That year, Jones averaged a double-double at 19.4 points – fourth-best in the league – and a league-best 11.2 rebounds per game. She shot 51.5 percent from the field.
A year after turning in arguably the greatest season by a Bahamian athlete in history, Jones took a step back in 2022. She averaged 14.6 points on 51.3 percent shooting from the field while adding 8.6 rebounds and 1.2 blocks per game, and finished seventh in the MVP voting. However, she did manage to lead the Sun to a second WNBA Finals berth in four years where they lost to the Aces three games to one.
The Liberty will get their regular season underway on Friday May 19 when they go on the road to face the Washington Mystics. That game tips off at 7 p.m. at the Entertainment and Sports Arena in Washington, D.C., on Friday.
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