{"id":43344,"date":"2025-11-18T06:17:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:17:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/43344\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T06:17:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T06:17:06","slug":"liberty-star-jonquel-jones-joining-upstart-project-b-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/43344\/","title":{"rendered":"Liberty star Jonquel Jones joining upstart Project B league"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Liberty center Jonquel Jones appears to have a new, future WNBA offseason destination.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones, the 2024 WNBA Finals MVP, announced on Instagram Monday night that she\u2019s signed with Project B.<\/p>\n<p>Jones expressed excitement \u201cto be able to continue to play against the best players in the world, play with the best players in the world and be able to see new parts of the world\u201d in her social-media post.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cLet\u2019s get it,\u201d she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Jones is the third official WNBA star to share her intention to play in the startup global basketball league that\u2019s expected to be played in Europe and Asia starting in November 2026.<\/p>\n<p>The Mercury\u2019s Alyssa Thomas and the Storm\u2019s Nneka Ogwumike are the two other known players to join.<\/p>\n<p>Project B is expected to roster a total of 66 players divided between six teams, with each player receiving a salary higher than those currently offered by the WNBA. <\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"37694838\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/11\/new-york-liberty-center-jonquel-111629681.jpg\" alt=\"New York Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) shoots past Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) during the 2025 WNBA Playoffs.\" class=\"wp-image-37694838\"  \/>Liberty center Jonquel Jones (35) shoots past Phoenix Mercury forward Satou Sabally (0) during game two of round one for the 2025 WNBA Playoffs at Barclays Center. Wendell Cruz-Imagn Images<\/p>\n<p>With the season anticipated to run from November to April, it\u2019s in direct competition with Unrivaled, a three-on-three league, co-founded by Breanna Stewart and Napheesa Collier.<\/p>\n<p>The specifics of Project B\u2019s financial situation haven\u2019t been disclosed. <\/p>\n<p>There\u2019s some concern regarding Saudi Arabia\u2019s involvement in the league.<\/p>\n<p>In February, the Financial Times reported the project was backed, in part, by Saudi Arabia\u2019s sovereign wealth fund. <\/p>\n<p>But Project B co-founder Grady Burnett disputed that claim, telling Front Office Sports that Saudi Arabia is not a financial backer.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re building a global basketball league, so we want a global diversified cap table around us,\u201d Burnett said. \u201cThat doesn\u2019t include any dollars from Saudi Arabia.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s worth noting, though, that Sela, a subsidiary of the Saudi Public Investment Fund, is an event partner of the league.<\/p>\n<p>Jones is recovering after having right ankle surgery in October, but is expected to play this offseason with Fernerbahce in Turkey.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Liberty center Jonquel Jones appears to have a new, future WNBA offseason destination.\u00a0 Jones, the 2024 WNBA Finals&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":43345,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[24863,9,11,8915,10,319,11452],"class_list":{"0":"post-43344","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-jonquel-jones","9":"tag-new-york","10":"tag-new-york-headlines","11":"tag-new-york-liberty","12":"tag-new-york-news","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-wnba"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43344","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=43344"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/43344\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=43344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}