Sabrina Ionescu calls for longer WNBA All-Star break amid CBA dispute

Sabrina Ionescu believes the WNBA All-Star break doesn’t really give players participating in the game much of a break at all. According to a report from Front Office Sports, the New York Liberty star thinks players would benefit from a longer period of rest between the end of the All-Star festivities and the return to regular season play.

The 2025 WNBA All-Star game took place on Saturday, as Ionescu and Team Clark lost in a 151-131 blowout to Team Collier. The WNBA schedule resumes on Tuesday with 10 of the league’s 13 teams in action. That means players on those teams who were All-Stars, like Ionescu, will only see two days off.

“I think (the All-Star game) probably would have been a little bit more competitive if teams didn’t play in such a short amount of days,” she said postgame on Saturday. “…All-Stars don’t really have a break. We finished (the last regular-season game), we get on a flight the next day, we’re here, jam-packed weekend, wanting to pour into the fans, show up to events, do the 3-point contest, skills contest, and then playing the game, and fly right back to practice and play in three days.”

Ionescu still put on a show over the weekend, winning the second 3-point contest of her career on Friday. She followed it up with 12 points to go along with seven assists in the All-Star Game loss.

Notably, two players who were chosen as starters, Caitlin Clark and Satou Sabally, did not compete in the All-Star game due to injuries. Clark was voted as a team captain but suffered a setback with a right groin injury that caused her to sit out. The Indiana Fever star missed 10 of her team’s 23 games in the first half of the season.

Sabrina Ionescu has been lucky to avoid injuries for the most part this season, though she did sit out one contest in June due to neck tightness. But she still feels the wear-and-tear that the year has taken on her thus far, and thinks the league could help limit injuries all around with a bit more time off. She said a longer All-Star break is one of her priorities during the league’s ongoing CBA negotiations.

“(Players) want to be able to come out here during this time, put on a great show for the fans, but also take care of our bodies because we don’t have time — we enter our grueling second half of the season,” she said.

Nontheless, Ionescu will be back in action Tuesday when the Liberty play the Fever. Clark is listed out for the game, but New York will see center Jonquel Jones return from a multi-game absence due to an ankle injury.