Liberty's Ionescu joins Unrivaled 3-on-3 league

New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu has signed with the Unrivaled 3-on-3 league, it was announced Monday.

The deal “puts her in a category of her own” among the women participating in the new league, sources told ESPN on Monday.

Participants also get equity stakes in the league.

Ionescu, who occupied the league’s final wild card roster spot and will be playing for Phantom BC, is the 36th and final athlete to join Unrivaled.

Ionescu is coming off of a year that saw her win a WNBA title with the Liberty. She averaged 18.2 points in 32 minutes per game during the regular season and was New York’s second-leading scorer in the postseason at 16.9 points per game. Ionescu earned second-team All-WNBA honors and was also a member of Team USA’s Olympic gold medal in Paris.

The 27-year-old guard underwent a successful procedure in early December to stabilize the ulnar collateral ligament in her right thumb — an injury she sustained in Game 4 of the WNBA Finals, sources told ESPN.

Ionescu will be playing with Brittney Griner, Marina Mabrey, Katie Lou Samuelson, Natasha Cloud and Satou Sabally. Ionescu was teammates with Sabally at Oregon.

Unrivaled will tip off on Jan. 17 in Miami and will run for eight weeks with games being played on Mondays, Fridays and Saturdays.

The teams were originally drafted last month with the main idea being that the squads would be as equal as possible. The total salary pool for the 36 players is more than $8 million, with players also receiving equity in the league.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.