Fans flocked to watch her play in unprecedented numbers. She broke NCAA records, drew admiring comments from NBA players and became the face of college basketball. She even landed a shoe deal with Nike before playing in a professional game.

By now, everyone knows the story of Caitlin Clark’s meteoric rise. Except all of this happened five years ago—to Sabrina Ionescu.

Her ascent was remarkably similar to that of Clark, the Iowa superstar who has turbocharged WNBA ratings in her rookie season. But this one came with a few key differences.

The biggest was when Ionescu was poised to lead the No. 2-ranked Oregon Ducks into the 2020 NCAA tournament. It should have been the moment that made her a household name across America. Instead, days before it was set to start, the tournament was canceled because of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Five years on, Ionescu is now aiming to secure something for the New York Liberty that she never could at Oregon: a first-ever championship.

“I always think about that,” Ionescu said. “You know, when you’re able to kind of get so close, it kind of puts a lot into perspective, knowing how hard it is to get to that point.”

She Was Caitlin Clark Before Caitlin Clark. Now She’s Shooting for a Title.© Sarah Stier/Getty Images

No one knows how hard it is more than the Liberty. Their agony surpasses even that of the Ducks, who have never reached an NCAA title game. New York has been to the WNBA finals five times—including last year—but has never won it all.

But this year could be different: The Liberty clinched the No. 1 seed in the playoffs, and took a 1-0 lead Sunday on the Las Vegas Aces in a best-of-five semifinal match-up.

It was Ionescu’s electric performance that powered the Liberty past Atlanta in their deciding first-round game Tuesday. She finished the game with 36 points, 9 assists and a courtside high-five from Spike Lee.

“I felt like New York was just injected into my veins,” Ionescu said.

Like Clark, Ionescu burst into the WNBA as the No. 1 overall pick, but her pro career got off to a bumpier start. She missed most of her 2020 rookie season with an ankle injury, then was hampered by the ankle again in 2021. Having a full offseason to train has fueled her this season, said Ionescu, who is 26 years old.

She averaged 18.2 points this season—just behind Liberty leader Breanna Stewart with 20.4—and a team-leading 6.2 assists. In midseason, Ionescu also made her first Olympic team, helping the U.S. bring home its eighth consecutive gold.

Just making that 12-team roster gave her confidence, Ionescu said, and playing through the summer helped her stay in a rhythm.

“She’s just certainly a much-improved player—which is saying something, because she had such an incredible season a year ago,” ESPN basketball analyst Rebecca Lobo said. “What stood out to us more than anything is she’s quicker. She’s faster, offensively and defensively.”

Ionescu, who like Clark grew up honing her game against boys, was one of the nation’s top college recruits out of Walnut Creek, Calif. Her virtuosic play at Oregon made crowds swell everywhere the Ducks played, recalled her coach, Kelly Graves.

One of those new fans was Kobe Bryant, who became a mentor to Ionescu and sat courtside at Oregon’s game at Long Beach State in December 2019. After the game fans were milling around, Graves recalled, and “the crowd around Sabrina was like twice the size of the crowd around Kobe.”

The next month, Bryant died in a helicopter crash. Ionescu spoke at his funeral.

By the time Oregon won the 2020 Pac-12 Conference tournament, it had won 19 games in a row—including an 18-point defeat of UConn in Storrs, Conn.

Fans petitioned Nike to sell jerseys with Ionescu’s No. 20 on it—it would take until 2021 for the NCAA to let players make money from their name, image or likeness—then bought up every one. Ionescu would eventually leave Oregon with the NCAA record for triple-doubles with 26, still more than any man or woman in history.

Although Ionescu had the benefit of social media, 2020 was a lifetime ago in the rapid growth of women’s basketball.

During Ionescu’s senior season, just five of Oregon’s games were televised nationally outside of the Pac-12 Network. In Clark’s senior season, 12 Iowa games were on national TV, nine more were on the Big Ten Network and seven were on streaming—all before the NCAA tournament.

Graves said Ionescu helped pave the way for the Clark Effect, which has driven viewership for the past two NCAA women’s tournaments, as Iowa reached back-to-back finals.

“I think she’s got to be on the shortlist of the all-time greatest collegians ever,” Graves said. “The one thing that she’s missing, same as Caitlin, is that national championship.”