Who Gets to be the Face of the WNBA?

ESPN Daily

ESPN

Sports

4.6 • 3.9K Ratings

🗓️ 28 June 2022

⏱️ 43 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Jonquel Jones has won almost every on-court WNBA accolade there is. Since being drafted sixth overall in 2016, Jones has been named the WNBA’s Most Improved Player, Sixth Woman of the Year, and MVP. Before that, she was Maryland’s Gatorade Player of the Year in high school, and a WBCA All-American. But despite being one of the most decorated players in basketball, many people outside of diehard WNBA fans may not have heard of Jones. Being Black and gay and describing herself as more masculine, Jones sits at an intersection that has traditionally struggled to attract brands and media, even though the WNBA is the most inclusive American professional sports league. ESPN’s Katie Barnes talks to us about Jones’ identity, and they tell us if this will finally be the season that Jones wins a title…and if she’ll finally get to be herself. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	Katie Barnes, it is always good to have you on the show. Welcome back. Thanks for having me,
0:03.6	Pongful. I'm glad to be here. So I summon you here this time because the cover store you have
0:08.1	produced for ESPN is not just great. It is also kind of embarrassing for me as a journalist because
0:15.7	you write about the WMBAs reigning MVP, the best player in the league. And I realized pretty
0:22.4	early on that I know very little about this person. Yeah, you know, you aren't alone. And that is
0:29.5	kind of the point of the piece. John Qual Jones is somebody who has had this very steady rise
0:41.3	in women's basketball, but has been among the top players in the WMBA for years.
0:47.3	You know, she was drafted in the top 10 in 2016.
0:50.5	Rebound Jones, the put back is good. The rookie at a GW.
0:55.6	One the WMBAs most improved award in 2017, six player of the year, the year after that.
1:05.9	And then of course, you know, she won the MVP award last year.
1:08.8	31 for John Qual Jones. John Qual can't you hit again? Yes, he can.
1:15.2	Bonner knew that was going down before time well even released it. And yet, not very many people
1:21.5	seem to know who she is. And she's not like a Tim Duncan who's trying to run away from the spotlight,
1:30.2	right? She's not. You know, if you put a camera in front of John Qual Jones, you're going to get
1:34.7	magic. That's part of who she is. She's charismatic. She's fun, goofy. She's a really good time.
1:42.7	I'm a very complex human being. A lot of times I wear my heart on my sleeve.
1:49.2	And one of the things that she talked about was that after she held that WMBA MVP trophy in her hands,
1:57.5	she kind of expected other doors to open up for her. And instead, that didn't really happen.
2:05.7	How is it that like I'm an MVP of the league and like I can legally count on one hand like the
2:11.7	endorsements that I have and the things that I have going on outside of basketball?
2:15.2	We're heavily through the next season and she's still feeling like, well, wait a minute,
	...

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