The Tribune

By RENALDO DORSETT

Tribune Sports Reporter

rdorsett@tribunemedia.net

JONQUEL Jones received her final award of an accolade filled 2021 WNBA season.

The veteran Connecticut Sun forward and reigning league MVP was unanimously selected to the 2021 All-WNBA First Team.

Jones was named to the All-WNBA First Team on all 49 ballots in voting by a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters.

It was the first time Jones received First Team honours. She was previously named to the Second Team twice.

The First Team also included Phoenix Mercury guard Skylar Diggins-Smith, and center Brittney, alongside Seattle Storm forward Breanna, and guard Jewell Loyd.

Behind Jones, the Sun posted the highest winning percentage in franchise history (.813) and finished the regular season with 14 consecutive victories for the fourth-longest winning streak in WNBA history. Connecticut also earned the league’s best record (26-6) and the No. 1 seed in the WNBA Playoffs 2021.

They lost in the semifinals to the eventual WNBA Champion Chicago Sky. The Sun were the first No.1 seed to not advance to the WNBA finals since the league revamped the playoff format in 2016.

For the series, Jones produced three double doubles and averaged 16.3 points, 9.8 rebounds and 2.3 blocked shots per game.

Over the course of the regular season, she received 48 of 49 first-place votes and 487 total points from a national panel of sportswriters and broadcasters to win the league’s MVP.

In her fifth WNBA season, she averaged 19.4 points, 11.2 rebounds, 2.8 assists, 1.26 blocked shots, and 1.26 steals in 31.7 minutes in 27 games. The 6’ 6” forward led the WNBA in rebounding and defensive rebounding (8.7 per game) and ranked fourth in scoring and 10th in blocks. Her efficiency rating of 25.4 was second only to Griner. She also reached the 2000 point plateau for her career.

Jones, 27, won the WNBA Peak Performer Award as the league’s top rebounder for the third time in five seasons. She also led the WNBA in rebounding in 2017 and 2019.

She scored at least 20 points in 12 of 27 games, including a career-high 31 points vs. the New York Liberty on June 5 and again at Washington on August 31. She also grabbed a career-best 17 rebounds at New York on July 11. Jones finished the season with 18 double-doubles (points-rebounds).

She was also named the WNBA Eastern Conference Player of the Month for May, August, and September.

She was also named to the WNBA All-Defensive First Team, the Associated Press Player of the Year and AP First-Team Honours.

On WNBA All-Star night Jones delivered an MVP caliber performance in a historic win for Team WNBA and a second place finish in the MTN DEW 3-Point Contest. She finished with 18 points, 14 rebounds, four assists, three steals and two blocked shots in Team WNBA’s 93-85 win over the United States Olympic team at the Michelob ULTRA Arena at Mandalay Bay Resort and Casino in Las Vegas, Nevada.

In June, Jones took a brief hiatus from the Sun to lead Bosnia and Herzegovina at the 38th FIBA’s Women’s Eurobasket Championships. The Sun went 2-3 without her in the lineup, but Jones said the experience leading the country to historic success, changed her perspective and outlook on her ability to dominate in the WNBA.

“You go out there and say I’m about to play, I’m about to give my all no matter what, you do it and it feels so seamless it feels very effortless and it just feels like you through and through. I think having those games there took me to the next level,” she said, “I was already confident in the WNBA. I was already putting up the numbers and starting off the season well. But to be able to take that against another group of women, another league, essentially another style of play and see my game thrive it just gave me an added boost of confidence and I started to think it was really me against me. Once I came out with the right mindset it would be tough to stop me.”

Jones opted out of the shortened 2020 season due to COVID-19 concerns but returned in 2021 to deliver the best season of her career.

“It’s the work I put in that gave me that confidence and carries over on the court. My teammates back me 100 percent, my coaches back me 100 percent and the organisation backs me 100 percent and that allows me to flourish,” Jones said at the MVP award ceremony, “I think that is what makes an MVP - the work, the opportunity and the combination of everybody being behind you and pushing you to that level of greatness.”