Satou Sabally to reunite with Sabrina Ionescu with Liberty, per report
Oregon legends Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu will reportedly reunite six years after they were Duck teammates with the New York Liberty.
Six years after the star Oregon women's basketball duo weren't able to finish a run toward a national championship in 2020, Satou Sabally and Sabrina Ionescu will join forces and chase a WNBA championship with the New York Liberty. Per an ESPN report, Sabally will reunite with Ionescu in New York on a multi-year deal a year after leading the Phoenix Mercury to the WNBA Finals. The report comes days after the Liberty designated Ionescu as a "core player," giving the Liberty exclusive negotiating rights to a player, making her return to New York all but a certainty.
It'll be the first time the pair have played together since leaving Eugene following the COVID-19-shortened 2019-20 season. The pair have competed against one another numerous times, including at the Olympics between Sabally's German squad and Ionescu for Team USA, and in the WNBA. Sabally is a three-time WNBA all-star and 2023 most improved player winner, averaging 15.
9 points and 6. 7 rebounds per game over a five-year run in Dallas and one season in Phoenix. She started 39 games last season for the Mercury, which lost in the WNBA Finals to the Las Vegas Aces but beat Ionescu's Liberty in the first round of the playoffs.
Nyara Sabally, Satou's younger sister who played for Oregon just after Satou and Ionescu, spent the first four years of her WNBA career with the Liberty but was drafted by the Toronto Tempo in the expansion draft in early April. Nyara and Ionescu played together last season with the Liberty, which began with a preseason exhibition at Matthew Knight Arena against the Toyota Antelopes in May 2025. Along with Ionescu, Breanna Stewart and Jonquel Jones are expected to stay in New York this season as the group hopes to make a run at a WNBA championship.