Sabrina Ionescu’s amazing gesture nearly doubles WNBA rookie’s salary

Sabrina Ionescu once again reigned supreme as the three-point queen of the WNBA. It was the New York Liberty All-Star’s gesture, though, after winning that is the real story.

The 27-year-old Ionescu is having a big past year, winning the Liberty’s first-ever WNBA championship last season where she not only got her ring, but some awesome gold Nike shoes. She recently even got a visit in New York from Kobe Bryant’s family where they sat courtside and even posed with a much-taller Angel Reese.

Now, she took home her second 3-point contest in three years at Friday night’s All-Star festivities where she put on a show in Indianapolis scoring 30 points and making 11 in a row at one point.

Sabrina Ionescu put on a SHOW 🤩

(via @WNBA)pic.twitter.com/M2OCehMS8g
— Sports Illustrated (@SInow) July 19, 2025

With it, came not only the $2,575 prize from the league, but a cool $60k from WNBA sponsor Aflac. She’s not keeping any of it, however. Half of the money is going to Washington Mystics rookie Sonia Citron as a touching gesture from Ionescu for the Notre Dame Fighting Irish draft pick’s participation in the event, and the other half is going to charity.

Sabrina Ionescu is a real one for this 💯

She's giving half of her $62,575 earnings to rookie Sonia Citron and the other half to charity 💰

(via @alexaphilippou) pic.twitter.com/NaNKnjIk2p
— Yahoo Sports (@YahooSports) July 19, 2025

That’s $31,287.50 going to Citron to be exact. Citron’s base salary for her first season is $78,831, which means she nearly doubled it.

Citron would finish the even dead last, by the way, with 19 points, but it doesn’t matter as she cashed in.

Now, Ionescu will just have to figure out how to get her the money because Venmo won’t work:

Ionescu says half of her money is going to Sonia Citron, a promise she made to the rookie for getting to participate in the challenge.

"I think I have a limit on Venmo, so I got to figure out how to exactly do that. I've got to pick up the check ... maybe just cut it in half."
— Kendra Andrews (@kendra__andrews) July 19, 2025

What an amazing gesture by Ionescu — a champ on and off the court.

Sabrina Ionesc — Trevor Ruszkowski-Imagn Images

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