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Emmie America<\/p>\n
This profile on Jonquel Jones is part of Glamour’s 2025 Women of the Year package honoring five remarkable WNBA players. See them all here<\/a>.<\/p>\n Though Jonquel Jones never thought professional basketball would lead her to the Met Gala, she knew exactly how to make the biggest impact when she got there. At six-foot-six, the 31-year-old New York Liberty player is often the tallest person in the room\u2014and she wanted to take up even more space during fashion\u2019s biggest night.<\/p>\n \u201cWe felt like the hair being up was going to be a really big deal,\u201d she says of the towering style by Kim Kimble, which was further emphasized with dangling pearls and crystals. \u201cAt first we entertained a high-bun type of situation, but I think as time went on, we wanted to be a little bit more dramatic and really just set the tone.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones\u2019s ultimate goal for the night, she tells me while undergoing treatment at the gym ahead of the playoffs, was to \u201cmove through that space like I belong, because I do.\u201d<\/p>\n Of course she does. Just six months prior to the first Monday in May, Jones was crowned the 2025 Finals MVP, having played a crucial role in the New York Liberty\u2019s Championship victory only 10 miles away at Barclays Center in Brooklyn. But back to the Met Gala.<\/p>\n Emmie America<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m an extroverted introvert, and when I enter spaces like that, I think the Bahamian in me\u2014the Caribbean girl in me\u2014comes out a little bit and I can move through those spaces as myself,\u201d Jones explains after recalling a casual conversation she had with Vogue\u2019s Anna Wintour about the behind-the-scenes logistics of planning such an extravagant event. \u201cI let my culture, I let all of the pieces of me, just shine through, and I think that\u2019s what happened.\u201d<\/p>\n Whether she\u2019s wearing a black Sergio Hudson blazer<\/a> to the Met Gala or wearing a pink suit and sneakers<\/a>, Jones\u2019s self-proclaimed masculine style has become an important facet of her identity as a Black lesbian who grew up in the Bahamas.<\/p>\n \u201cWe were the family that went to church every Sunday, and I was wearing dresses and frilly socks,\u201d she explains, saying she felt there were many rules about how a \u201clady\u201d was supposed to present, but the same kind of restrictions never applied to men.<\/p>\n \u201cI always felt like, Why do I have to follow these rules? Why do I have to clean the house all day with my sisters, and my brother is able to just be outside or just throw the trash out and then he\u2019s free for the rest of the day?\u201d she says. \u201cI always just felt some type of way about the stereotypes or the roles that Bahamian society, or society in general, was putting on women. I felt like they just wanted us to be less free.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues, \u201cAnd so for me, I just felt like the clothing that I was wearing represented finding my freedom.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones moved to the States when she was 13 years old, living with strangers in Maryland before she was taken in by her high school basketball coach. \u201cNow I call her my second mom, and she\u2019s someone that I go to for advice and is really there for me and in my corner,\u201d she says of Diane Richardson. \u201cNow she\u2019s the head coach at Temple University, and Philly is not that far of a drive from New York, so she\u2019s always up here watching games and showing love and support.\u201d<\/p>\n Jones was drafted to the WNBA in 2016, spending her first seven years in the league with the Connecticut Sun before being traded to the New York Liberty in 2023, so she\u2019s seen the exponential growth of the league first-hand. \u201cMy first, what, four years in the league, I had a roommate,\u201d she says. \u201cWe are staying at nicer hotels, and now we don\u2019t fly commercial anymore; we\u2019re flying privately.\u201d<\/p>\n And while Jones is one of the few players I\u2019ve spoken with who enjoys playing overseas between seasons\u2014\u201cit\u2019s really hard to prep for five-on-five basketball without playing five-on-five basketball\u201d\u2014she stands with the rest of the WNBA sisterhood in calling for higher compensation and better conditions, particularly when it comes to providing time for recovery between games.<\/p>\n \u201cGone are the times where people treat their WNBA teams like the stepchild or the stepkids,\u201d she says. \u201cThe league is growing and moving in the right direction, and we need ownership and people that are aligned with that vision to continue to grow the sport and to give professional athletes what they deserve.\u201d<\/p>\n If sports are a microcosm of society, the WNBA could be considered a reflection of what many women feel is part and parcel of simply existing in 2025: being underpaid, undervalued, and under-resourced, with many of these issues disproportionately affecting Black and LGBTQ+ women. Within the league, masc players of color have spoken out<\/a> about feeling left out of sponsorship deals and granted less media attention than their white or straight counterparts.<\/p>\n In February 2022, Jones expressed frustration<\/a> with the endorsement opportunities in the WNBA, noting that seats were \u201cdisappearing from the table\u201d<\/a> due to her personal identity. In October 2024, she told Complex<\/a> she was still \u201cfighting for those deals\u201d but wasn\u2019t sure if \u201copportunities are necessarily there for me by myself as a player\u201d without the New York Liberty.<\/p>\n In August of that year, she collaborated with Nike on the KD 17 Bahamas<\/a>, in celebration of her heritage. Now, she tells me, partnerships are coming in consistently and she feels like she\u2019s finally being prioritized.<\/p>\n \u201cWhen you come from a place where being yourself can be considered a bad thing, it feels really good to get validation from the world in general to really say, \u2018No, it\u2019s okay to live your truth. It\u2019s okay to be who you are,\u2019\u201d Jones tells me. \u201cNot just in the WNBA, but even just living in New York City. I see it everywhere. I see people being themselves and being genuinely happy and not feeling that they have to shy away from who they are.\u201d<\/p>\n She continues, \u201cAll those things just remind me that all of my hard work, all of my effort, all those things aren\u2019t being overlooked simply because I choose to love another woman, or I choose to wear a button-up shirt versus a dress.\u201d<\/p>\n Originally Appeared on Glamour<\/a><\/p>\n![\"<h1](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/2c2a3c3ae876890c0038042964e33cdb.jpeg\"\/)
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