BROOKLYN -- Jonquel Jones has been the undeniable leader for the New York Liberty in the 2023 WNBA Finals. She leads the team with averages of 21 points and 9.3 rebounds through three games against the Las Vegas Aces. With her team down 0-2 ahead of Game 3, Jones dug deep and got vulnerable with her teammates.
"We all took it personal, especially me, coming back from Vegas after playing the way we played," Jones said after practice on Tuesday.
The "especially me" line denotes Jones' familiarity with the scenario. Jones spent her first seven WNBA seasons playing with the Connecticut Sun and has fallen short in two WNBA Finals, including last year to none other than A'ja Wilson and the Aces. The Sun dropped the first two games in Vegas, just as the Liberty did this year. The Sun went on to lose to the Aces in Game 4 on their home court.
Upon returning to New York after two disastrous losses, Jones got vulnerable and laid it all out for her teammates. Sure, players like Breanna Stewart, Courtney Vnadersloot and Stefanie Dolson have been to the WNBA Finals before. However, each of them has won a title. Only Jones could speak from the other perspective.
"I spoke to the team, and I told them we need to play with pride," Jones said.
Jones took herself and her teammates back to what she described as one of the most heartbreaking experiences of her professional career. She took them all back to the moments that were hardest for her.
And she did so because the Liberty has built a culture of shared leadership.
Laying the foundation
Flashback to the first day of training camp. It was the first and last time Liberty head coach Sandy Brondello even mentioned a WNBA championship. She told her team that was a goal for the end of the season, and everything they did along the way would either get them closer or farther from that goal.
Part of the process is team meetings, but not just any type of meetings. Brondello and her staff encourage culture meetings, or meetings driven by players, to shape how the team will define, establish and sustain its unique culture.
"When we build a culture, it's about everyone having a voice, and being vulnerable, and being honest," Brondello said Tuesday. "When you're best players buy in, you can get to your destination a little bit quicker."
Despite the superteam narrative, the Liberty has had a Herculean task of building a culture while living under the expectations of Finals or bust. Couple that with playing for a franchise seeking its first-ever title, and it's not hard to imagine pressure was building up after two blowouts in Las Vegas.
The good news, however, is that it has not been a self-imposed pressure. All the more reason Brondello and the Liberty have focused on the immediate task at hand rather than the bigger picture.
"I never talked – other than the first day, yes our goal is to win a final – I didn't talk about winning a championship at all," Brondello said. "It was all about process. We've got to win the day. Every day, we step on the court and be better."
New York needed to be reminded of the process, and Jones did that for her teammates and for herself.
Trust is earned
Early in the season, Jones was recovering from a foot injury, and it took time for her to be the double-double machine the Liberty needed. After the All-Star Break, Jones went seven consecutive playoff games with double-digit points and rebounds.
16 PTS | 10 REB for 3️⃣5️⃣ pic.twitter.com/GNtqN8VYDT
— New York Liberty (@nyliberty) October 8, 2023
Up until Game 2 of the WNBA Finals, Jones had been content to lead by example. She would listen in team culture meetings, but never spoke her mind if what she wanted to say had already been said.
"Sometimes I tend to just fall back because we have so many people that have opinions and ... a lot of times by the time it gets to me, things have been said already," Jones said.
Things could have gone on that way, and perhaps they would have had it not been for the early work the Liberty put into defining expectations.
"What's unique about this group is that we want everybody's voice to be heard, and it's someone different every night," New York guard Courtney Vandersloot told CBS Sports. "We don't want it to be exclusively one person talking.
"She's been in this exact position last year – down 0-2 on her home floor – so she has a lot of insight that we can take from her. For her to step up and be that emotional leader. She really was vulnerable with us, wanting us to know how she felt after Game 2. That was huge for us, and we just kinda jumped up and followed her."
The Liberty team followed Jones to an 87-73 win Sunday to keep their hopes of a championship alive. It was the right message from the right person at the right time. And the work is not done.
Taking control of their destiny
The Liberty met success Sunday by switching defensive assignments. Guard Sabrina Ionescu was placed on Aces center Kiah Stokes so Betnijah Laney could lock down Aces winger Jackie Young. That left 2023 MVP Breanna Stewart to guard Aces point guard Chelsea Gray. The Liberty played determined on defense in a way we hadn't seen throughout the WNBA Finals. The Aces, who outscored the Liberty by over 22.5 points per game in the first two games, were held to a series-low lead of one point in Game 3 at the six-minute mark in the First Quarter -- and it didn't last long.
"It's do or die right now," Laney told CBS Sports. "It's leave it all out there or go home – or stay home, rather. And, that's not something that we're looking to do."
Laney described that, after looking at film from the games in Vegas, the team seemed too focused on self rather than the whole. They were short on hustle plays and what she called one-percenters, "Those things that don't seem like a big deal but really are – that give you momentum, that make you feel good," Laney explained.
"We really needed to be intentional about uplifting each other, trusting one another, and encouraging," Laney said. "Trust doesn't come just because we're all here together. We had to build that."
With their season and a chance at a WNBA title on the line, Jones helped shift the perspective. Jones showed she trusted her teammates and their growth process by sharing her worst professional pain. She trusted they would listen, that they would support her, and that they would learn.
"We wanna win for her," Liberty guard Sabrina Ionescu told media outside the team locker room Sunday night. "She came here to win and championship, and she's been so close so many times, and she's fully committed herself to being the best she can in her role ... we're not at this point without her.
"We talked after those two games, and we had that belief of understanding that no team has done what we're trying to do now, and why not us?"
Nobody, including Jones and the Sun last season, has been able to overcome a 0-2 deficit and win the WNBA championship. Even with news of the Aces' injuries to Gray and Stokes, history is not on the side of the Liberty. However, new memories are made, and victory is often birthed from the ache of defeat. And that is what Jones hopes is in store for her new team.
"I've been here, and you want to use those experiences to help shape new ones," she said.
The Liberty host the Aces at Barclays Center for Game 4 of the 2023 WNBA Finals on Wednesday night at 8:00 p.m. local time.
