The Guru’s WNBA All-Star Weekend Report: Natasha Cloud And Sabrina Ionescu Make It a New York Sweep in Skills and 3-Point Competitions

By Mel Greenberg @womhoopsguru

INDIANAPOLIS – Soon to get Finals MVP Jonquel Jones back next week from a knee injury that had her sidelined for more than a month, the defending WNBA champion New York Liberty made it an All-Star extra events sweep here Friday night at Indiana’s Gainbridge Fieldhouse, as Saint Joseph’s graduate Natasha Cloud out of Broomall, Pa., captured the Kia Skills Challenge while Sabrina Ionescu won the Starry 3-point shooting contest, dethroning defending champion Allisha Gray of the Atlanta Dream with 30 makes in the final round making it the second time the former Oregon all-American has topped the long-range shooting contest.

Cloud said she was going to put on a down payment on a house after leading the event from start to finish.

Her girlfriend and New York teammate Isabelle Harrison had quipped ahead of the event that Cloud needed to win to earn the money to help make the purchase and the once-Hawks great confirmed that intent afterwards.

“That’s Izzy B’s money,” Cloud said. “She told me to go win this money for a home, and that’s what it’s going to do.”

Cloud, participating in her first All-Star weekend in her 11-year career, earned $55,000 from Aflac as part of the partnership with the players’ WNBAPA union and $2,575 from the league, part of the current collective bargaining agreement. Ionescu earned $60,000 from Aflac and $2,575 from the league.

New to the Liberty this season after playing for Phoenix last summer and previously her entire WNBA career with the Washington Mystics, Cloud posted the best time in the opening round and then beat Rutgers graduate Erica Wheeler, favored by the packed arena crowd for having been part of the Fever here in separate stints in 2016-19 and 2023-24.

Afterward interviewed by ESPN, Cloud said “I wanted to be as fast as I could on that so I could get into my shots and take my time, but I also felt like I was missing and I was getting, those second and third shots up, but that’s the name of the game.

“Once I got to the last one, I looked up and saw I had three seconds and just went ‘Don’t smoke this layup!”

Cloud won each round with speeds of 34.1 seconds in the first and 35.5 in the second, edging Wheeler by 1.1 seconds in the final.

Cloud noted her and Wheeler in the final round was a triumph for the WNBA’s “middlewomen”, the vast majority of role players in the league.

“I’m meant to be here,” she said. “I’m meant to be on this level. I’m confident in who I am. I know who I am, whether I get the flowers or not.”

Ionescu was motivated by a similar competition losing to the NBA’s Steph Curry during the NBA All-Star game in February 2024.

The second player to win the 3-point event twice, Ionescu scored 30 of a possible 40 points in the second round of the event, besting Gray’s 22, and tying retired Allie Quigley’s mark for second best in the contest behind her own 37 set in 2023.

“I knew I wasn’t going to get it when I missed a few on the front end,” she said. "But I mean, I could have gotten close.

“I just missed some easy ones at the end. I think I knew I was high up there, and I kind of locked out a little bit and started like listening to the crowd. But I mean, 30 is not too bad. So, I’m happy with 30 as well.

“I Remember being a kid and always watching these events and finding my favorite shooter just by watching,” she said. “I want to be able to be that person that can show up when time permits and be a part of All-Star weekend and kind of showcase to the world and you can believe in yourself, and how you can put the work in. And whether you win or not, it takes guts to be able to go out there when the lights are the brightest.”

Ionescu said half of her winnings would go to Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron, the third overall pick out of Notre Dame, who fell out of the competition in the first round, the other half would go to her SI20 charitable foundation.

“I told Sonia that I would give her half if I won when we were sitting on the bench, being the only rookie, she was nervous, and I was nervous for her,” Ionescu said. “Obviously have to hold up my end of the bargain. So half is going to her.”

As for the New York sweep, the second time players from the same team were winners, Ionescu said of Cloud, “It’s fun, I was excited for her, we were talking about it before we even came out here.

“About being able to participate in it together and cheer each other on.”

Gray won both events last year.

Cloud said the night sets the momentum for a strong New York run the rest of the way.

The Liberty will meet Minnesota on July 30 on the road at the Target Center, the first meeting of the two powerhouses since Game 5 of the finals in October.

While it’s five years away until Philadelphia, recently announced with Cleveland and Detroit, to follow next summer’s additions of Toronto and Portland, and this season’s Golden State in San Francisco, bringing the WNBA to 18 teams, the City of Brotherly Love has strong accents on the scene here this weekend.

Minnesota’s longtime coach Cheryl Reeve, the former La Salle star from South Jersey, will be handling Team Collier Saturday night (8:30 p.m., ABC/Disney+/ESPN+).

Reeve gained the honor off the best record (20-4, including 12-0 at home) held by the Lynx, who were clipped by New York at the finish in overtime in decisive Game 5 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn for the Liberty’s first title in the then-28 season history of the franchise, matching the longevity of the WNBA launched in the summer of 1997.

Reeve referred to Philadelphia “as a great sports city,” she said at the morning media availability wishing the future existence well.

In the timeline of the lead up to Philly winning the $250 million bid by the NBA 76ers ownership and Comcast, Cloud, several years ago, spoke of the first effort of an existing group chasing a franchise.

She confirmed Friday morning that group was the one that included comedian Wanda Sykes.

“We were ready then, but the league wasn’t ready to expand,” Cloud said.

She gushed over the pride of “my hometown” joining the league but was also quick to repeat her loyalty to New York, where she has become a fan favorite from the outset of this season in which the Liberty at 9-0 got off to the best start in their history before the absence of Jones caused the team to plunge on a 3-6 run, though it is now currently in second just ahead of Phoenix.

Liberty coach Sandy Brondello Friday night will handle Team Clark, so named after reigning rookie of the year Caitlin Clark, the former Iowa great and NCAA career scoring leader who got the most fan votes for the game and has brought accelerated growth to the WNBA in attendance and TV viewership.

Unfortunately, Clark, who has suffered multiple injuries this season after being healthy last missing a game back in high school, will be just helping Brondello, suffering another groin injury Tuesday night in Indiana’s win over Connecticut at a sold TD Garden, the home of the Celtics, in Boston.

Clark was set before the injury to participate in the 3-point event, something she bypassed last season, and was seen on the video screen hyping the crowd from the sideline when her Fever teammate Lexi Hull took her turn as Clark’s replacement.

Both captains got to draft their teams and traded coaches for a better fit.

“Obviously, unfortunate about Caitlin, but she’s still going to have a great impact on this team,” Brondello said. “I will give the coaching hat to her as much as she wants, to be quite honest. We’re going to play around with it a little bit. It’ll be fun.”

Indiana, which lost Wednesday at New York, will be back in Brooklyn Tuesday night when the season resumes with the stretch drive to the playoffs.

Minnesota’s Napheesa Collier, the top statistical player in the league since the season’s start in May, got the second most votes to get the other captain position.

While Cloud has been one of the bright stories of the activities here, real clouds are overshadowing the WNBA success story in terms of the current CBA negotiations need to be agreed by the end of October ahead of the next expansion draft by Portland and Toronto.

A record of more than 40 players Thursday attended the first face-to-face session meeting management led by commissioner Cathy Engelbert, who is from South Jersey and played at Lehigh under Saint Joseph’s star Muffet McGraw, who later became a Hall of Famer making Notre Dame a national powerhouse.

The opening offer was made by the players association last winter after opting out of the collective bargaining agreement and not responded to from the league until recently and reaction to Thursday’s meeting did not contain progress on  several key issues.

Former Stanford star Nneka Ogwumike, who signed as a free agent with Seattle in the offseason and is the WNBA president, along with New York’s Breanna Stewart, who is a vice president, referred to Thursday’s meeting as a “missed opportunity.”

The next deal is to be a long-term agreement, which is why the urgency to get a better share in the wake of the explosive growth of the WNBA in recent seasons, including the $250 million now being paid by expansion teams and the multi billion-dollar TV deal that becomes effective next season.

“The players were not satisfied with the explanations, or lack thereof, that were given, and I think that there probably would have been more satisfaction if it hadn’t taken so long,” Ogwumike said at Friday morning’s media availability with the competing players for Saturday night’s All-Star contest.

“It’s not that we were looking for a quick response. I feel as though if there was a response to our proposal that reflected any type of change that incorporated what we had proposed, then perhaps five months would have made a little bit more sense.”

Two points of agreement noted by Stewart were of retirement benefits and family planning, but as far as the top priorities by the players involving salary and revenue sharing, the two sides are quite a distance apart.

Collier, another vice president, referred to the younger players, like Clark, and former Connecticut star Paige Bueckers, this season’s No. 1 pick taken by Dallas, who need to be invested for what they are bringing to the league from large followings in the NCAA that are being carried over through the powerful numbers in attendance figures and TV ratings.

The new Golden State Valkyries have jumped over New York in valuation, worth over $500 million, according to Sportico, selling out every game at 18,000+ in the shared Chase Center home with the NBA Warriors.

The leadership of the Women’s National Basketball Player’s Association said the issue of a work stoppage if no agreement exists after the deadline has not been heavily conversed and is not preferred, is still on the table.

Collier, referring to the record turnout, “just sent a strong message that we’re taking this extremely seriously. The points we’re talking about, we’re going to hold firm on them, and so I thought it was great to have that face-to-face meeting.”

Engelbert’s media event is before Saturday night’s game at which point the management stance on negotiations will be a topic pursued by those here covering the weekend.

Of Thursday’s meeting she told the Associated Press, both sides are in listening mode.

“It was very constructive dialogue,” she said. “I think, you know, obviously part of the process is to go back and, forth, and listen to the players, they listen to us and the owners who represent the board of governors,” she said. “I still feel really optimistic that we can get something transformational done by the end. But it's a process.”

The sides agreed to another meeting.

Terri Carmichael Jackson, executive director of the players’ union, termed the meeting, “I don’t know that I’m going to say progress, but we had spirited conversation. I think we’re on track to get back to a meeting, and to engaging in conversations that will lead us to a CBA.”