Women's Fastbreak On SI

WNBA Fans Cry Tampering Amid Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally Unrivaled Reunion

Fans are making tampering allegations after college teammates Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally reunited at Unrivaled.
Grant Young|
Former Oregon women basketball players Satou Sabally, left, and Sabrina Ionescu are introduced during the Oregon Colorado Saturday Oct. 30, 2021. Eug 103021 Uo Cofb10
Former Oregon women basketball players Satou Sabally, left, and Sabrina Ionescu are introduced during the Oregon Colorado Saturday Oct. 30, 2021. Eug 103021 Uo Cofb10 | [Chris Pietsch/The Register-Guard] / USA TODAY NETWORK

In exactly two weeks from now, the women's basketball world will be tuning in to the inaugural weekend of the Unrivaled Women's Basketball League, which is taking place in Miami, Florida, and running from January 17 to March 17.

One of the most compelling parts of Unrivaled is that fans get to see WNBA superstars teaming up for the first time, as they're usually pitted against each other. This creates fascinating combinations and the chance for players who are usually rivals to become teammates and perhaps friends by the time Unrivaled's season ends.

It also means that former teammates can now reunite; which is the case with former Oregon Ducks superstars Sabrina Ionescu and Satou Sabally, who spent several seasons in college together and built a great friendship there.

Both Ionescu and Sabally are on Unrivaled's Phantom BC team. And during the league's media day, the two got to take some wholesome photos of them embracing, which Ionescu posted to her Instagram story on Friday.

Alfred Corriette reposted one of these photos on X while noting the, "Back with my girly” caption Ionescu used.

Sabally is set to become a free agent when the WNBA free agency negotiation period begins later this month. As a result of this and her reuniting with Ionescu, some fans are (hopefully jokingly) claiming that there is free agency tampering occurring with Ionescu conspiring for Sabally to join her New York Liberty team.

"Tampering going crazy omg," one X user wrote in reply to the photo.

Another added, "PLEASE STEP IN @CathyEngelbert".

"TAMPERING," added a third.

Luckily for these fans, the New York Liberty — who are also the reigning WNBA Champions — are the last team in the league that needs another elite player like Sabally on their roster.

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Grant Young
GRANT YOUNG

Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.

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