UPPER MARLBORO, Md. — On Thursday, the New York Liberty WNBA team was showered with confetti as the team rode down the Canyon of Heroes in downtown Manhattan, celebrating their 67-62 championship win over the Minnesota Lynx.
And if there was one star of the parade it was forward Jonquel Jones, 30, who won the WNBA Finals Most Valuable Player Award.
Jones finished the game with 17 points and six rebounds against Minnesota Sunday night for the New York Liberty's first WNBA Finals win. It was a big night for New York but also for Prince George's, Maryland, where Jones first called home when she moved to the United States with her family from the Bahamas at 14 years old.
Jones went to Riverdale Baptist School in Upper Marlboro, where Coach Diane Richardson became her legal guardian.
"I call the Bahamas home home and I call Coach Richardson's house home," an 18-year-old Jones told The Washington Post in 2012. "So when I say I want to go home home, people know what I mean."
The 6-foot-6 power forward and center played college ball for George Washington University, with the GW Revolutionaries winning the A-10 Tournament twice during Jones' college career, in 2015 and 2016.
New York Sen. Chuck Schumer, Gov. Kathy Hochul and New York City Mayor Eric Adams joined the thousands who lined the streets on Thursday to celebrate Jones and her teammates, including point guard Sabrina Ionescu.
“[To] see how many people were in the crowd, smiling, celebrating the Liberty," Ionescu said. "It really puts into perspective what it means to bring a championship to this city and how it really takes everyone.”
Veteran Liberty players from the early teams, including Teresa Weatherspoon, Vickie Johnson, Kym Hampton and Crystal Robinson, along with current coach Sandy Brondello. attended the parade and ceremony afterward at City Hall.
The parade route was full of fans of all ages, with many of the kids wearing jerseys of their favorite players. Jones carried her Finals MVP trophy atop her float, while Stewart and Ionescu went into the crowd, giving high-fives and taking selfies with fans.
“This is awesome. I’ve been a Liberty fan since they first started playing” said Sarah Davis of the WNBA’s debut in 1997. “It’s so cool that we won and we could celebrate with a parade.”
There have been over 200 ticker-tape and confetti parades in New York. The most recent to honor a women's sports team came in 2019 when the U.S. soccer team won the World Cup. Two years later, there was a parade to honor essential workers and first responders for their service during the coronavirus pandemic.
“On behalf of 20 million incredibly proud New Yorkers, I say welcome home to our champion women,” said Hochul, who thanked Liberty owners Joe Tsai and Clara Wu Tsai for investing in the team. “Let’s do it again next year.”
