CHICAGO — Liberty star Jonquel Jones on Saturday night hoisted the All-Star MVP trophy above her head, prompting the United Center crowd to roar even louder.
Moments later, she dedicated the award to her late aunt, Marilyn Anita Knowles.
“It means a lot to win the MVP at the All-Star Game,” Jones said after leading Teresa Weatherspoon’s team to a 129-122 win in front of a WNBA All-Star record crowd of 19,783 fans. “There’s so many great players that have come before that have done it. … New York means so much to me and every time I put the jersey on. I know that I represent a city that loves the game and players that have come before me that have really paved the way so I think it was really a big deal to come here tonight and to play in a way that represented the game well.”
Jones almost didn’t come to Chicago this weekend after earning her sixth All-Star selection this season because her aunt’s memorial service was also Saturday. She talked with her family before deciding to play and found peace in knowing that she will be there for when they spread her aunt’s ashes.
“My aunt meant a lot to me,” said Jones, who fondly recalled watching her aunt cook. “She was one of the matriarchs in our family and I remember a lot of great parties, family parties, family get-togethers that happened at her house and she was so willing to bring everybody together.”
Playing in her sixth All-Star game and first since 2024, Jones packed the stat sheet with 22 points, 13 rebounds and eight assists off the bench. She will receive a $20,000 prize for being named the game’s MVP on top of the $15,000 bonus for participating in the game.
Fever star Caitlin Clark lauded Jones, who was her teammate for the weekend.
“JJ’s incredible and she’s just a good soul,” Clark said. “She’s a good person, she’s very down to earth. She’s funny, she’s kind.”
Jones is the fourth player in league history to win an MVP in the regular season, Finals and All-Star Game, joining Lisa Leslie, Candace Parker and Maya Moore.
The Liberty’s other All-Star, Breanna Stewart, finished with six points, 13 rebounds and seven assists for Cynthia Cooper-Dyke’s squad.
“It was weird,” Jones said of playing against Stewart. “In the game, she shot a shot and I was like, ‘Yeah, Stewie.’ And everybody’s was looking [at me] and I was like, ‘Oh shoot, we’re on a different team.’ So it was a little bit awkward but at the end of the day, it’s an All-Star nod and it’s a great accomplishment, and she’s someone who I built a relationship with … and really exemplifies what it means to be a leader, what it means to be a superstar in our league and what it means to be a great human being.”
As inconsistent officiating remains a hot topic in the WNBA, commissioner Cathy Engelbert announced a major investment that could help combat some of the persistent issues.
The WNBA is set to launch a centralized replay center at the start of next season, Engelbert said Saturday before the All-Star Game.
Engelbert said the league will leverage the NBA’s replay center in Secaucus, N.J., allowing the WNBA to review replay situations in real time during games.
“This is one of the most significant investments we’ve ever made in our basketball operations,” Engelbert said. “This investment of tens of millions of dollars will help bring greater consistency, efficiency and transparency to our officiating process while continuing to improve the quality of the game.”
Engelbert said the league is still finalizing the replay center’s operational details.
It wasn’t immediately known whether the infrastructure of the eight non-NBA arenas that WNBA teams currently call home will need to be rewired to handle Sony’s Hawk-Eye Innovations, which the NBA uses.
“We’re really excited about this project, the value it will bring to the game,” Engelbert said. “And we had a lot of people working on it behind the scenes to bring it to fruition for the start of next season so we’ll be sharing more details in the coming month.”
There’s been interest for years for the WNBA to implement a “last two minute” report similar to the NBA’s format, which reviews every call and non-call over the final two minutes of the game.
“It’s another huge capital allocation to have an L2M report,” Engelbert said. “It’s certainly on the list of [things to do] but nothing to report on it.”
The WNBA closed its yearslong investigation into whether the Las Vegas Aces violated the league’s salary cap rules — at least for now, Engelbert said.
Engelbert said there was “insufficient evidence at this time to establish a salary cap circumvention violation.”
No discipline will be recommended or imposed, Engelbert said.
“Of course, if new or additional evidence comes to light, we’ll continue to investigate,” she added. “But the integrity of our game is No. 1.”
The WNBA launched an investigation in May 2024 after the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority said it would pay each Aces player $100,000 a year for two years.
Liberty legend Teresa Weatherspoon said she would “absolutely” entertain another WNBA head coaching job.
“Nothing stops the show,” she said. “I’m not the only person in the world that this has happened to. … But one thing about me, it doesn’t hold me down, nothing holds me down and I move forward.”
Weatherspoon served only one season as the head coach of the Chicago Sky. She was fired after the team went 13-27 in 2024.
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