The 2025 WNBA All-Star weekend got off to a solid start with New York Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu making history in her return to the 3-Point Contest. She skipped last year’s competition after winning it in 2023, but Friday she became only the second WNBA player to win the trophy multiple times.
Atlanta Dream’s Allisha Gray made history last year by winning both the Skills Challenge and the 3-Point Contest. But although she was a finalist in the 3-Point Contest again this time around, she went home empty-handed. The New York Liberty swept with Natasha Cloud winning the Skills Challenge by edging out Seattle Storm’s guard Erica Wheeler.
There is still plenty more action to go this weekend with the All-Star Game taking place Saturday. But for now, here are winners and losers from Friday’s festivities.
Winner — Sabrina Ionescu bounces back
During her trophy presentation, Ionescu pointed out that the last time she was at an All-Star event in Indianapolis she lost a close 3-point competition to NBA star Stephen Curry. She used it as motivation because she felt she needed to redeem herself. This was also a good way to prove her 3-point shooting has not gone anywhere as Ionescu has been shooting a career-low 31.1% from beyond the arc this season.
Ionescu joined four-time winner Allie Quigley as the only WNBA player to win the contest multiple times and the she now holds the top two scores. Ionescu set the WNBA and NBA record in 2023 with 37 points in the final round, and she lifted this year’s trophy with 30 points.
Ionescu admitted she felt a lot of pressure Friday, but she quickly shook it off. In the first round, she showed a little rust in her first rack and missed more shots than in her entire final round in Las Vegas in 2023. However, Ionescu fought back to get 25 points and advance. The second round saw her catch fire with 11 consecutive made shots, and yet she felt the need to apologize after the win.
“Well, I’m pretty disappointed,” Ionescu said during her postgame interview. “I feel like I missed a few easy ones there that I definitely could have made, so I’m sorry about that.”
Loser — Allisha Gray can’t defend her titles
We can blame chest passes for this one since Gray missed three of them during the first round of the Skills Challenge. This slowed her down significantly and she finished with a time of 39.4 seconds, which was not enough to advance to the final round.
“Girl, I couldn’t throw it in that circle for nothing,” Gray told A’ja Wilson after getting disqualified.
Gray still deserves a lot of credit because she shook off the disappointment and almost redeemed herself in the 3-Point Contest. She qualified for the final round with 25 points, the same number of points Ionescu recorded. Gray struggled to find her rhythm in the final round but still put up a respectable 22 points.
Winner — Liberty pull off a sweep
The Liberty became the third WNBA team to sweep both the 3-Point Contest and Skills Challenge. San Antonio did it in 2009 with Becky Hammon and Sophia Young, and the Dream achieved it last year with Gray winning both competitions.
Cloud was participating in the Skills Challenge for the first time ever and proved she can be clutch under pressure. She told herself “don’t smoke this layup” before making the shot that stopped the clock at 36.4 seconds and handed Wheeler the runner-up title.
Cloud joined Ionescu as the only two Liberty players to win the Skills Challenge, as Ionescu prevailed in 2022.
Winner — Sonia Citron earns Sabrina Ionescu’s respect
Citron had the lowest score in the first round of the 3-Point Contest with 19 points, but the Washington Mystics rookie can’t be too disappointed with that score because in other years it has been enough to advance.
Citron is still leading all rookies in 3-point shooting this season, and her performance Friday earned her the respect of Ionescu. After the competition, Ionescu shared that when they were sitting on the bench, she promised Citron half of the $62,575 prize money if she won.
“She was nervous and I was nervous for her,” Ionescu said. “I obviously have to hold my end of the bargain. … It takes a lot of courage to be able to do that as a rookie and what she did. I was really proud of her.”