The Liberty designated star guard Sabrina Ionescu a core player Tuesday.
With the core designation, New York officially takes one of the biggest free agents off the market, as the Liberty now have exclusive negotiating rights with Ionescu. She’s also eligible for the $1.4 million supermax contract, though the two sides can negotiate down from that.
The Liberty also extended reserve qualifying offers to guards Marine Johannès and Rebekah Gardner, initiating the process for their anticipated returns to Brooklyn this season.
Ionescu has said since the end of last season that she plans to re-sign with New York in 2026.
She restated that claim last week at USA Basketball training camp in Phoenix, saying, “I’m where I’m supposed to be.”
“Never thought anything different,” Ionescu continued. “So excited to kind of be able to sign and get started, and it’s coming up really quickly.”
The No. 1 pick in the 2020 draft out of Oregon, Ionescu has spent her entire WNBA career with the Liberty. She’s been named an All-Star in each of the past four seasons and helped New York to the WNBA Finals in two of the past three seasons, winning it all in 2024.
The Liberty plan to run it back with Ionescu, Breanna Stewart, Jonquel Jones, Leonie Fiebich and Betnijah Laney-Hamilton — the same starting lineup that captured the franchise’s first championship and ended a more than 50-year drought in New York, which hadn’t won a professional basketball title since 1973.
Ionescu was second on the team in scoring last season, averaging 18.2 points on 40.1 percent shooting, including a career-low 22.2 percent from behind the arc.
The other administrative moves the Liberty made — the qualifying offers sent to Gardner and Johannès — came as no surprise. New York had to take this step to maintain exclusive negotiating rights heading into free agency, which begins with negotiations Wednesday.
Johannès has the potential to be a difference-maker off the bench, especially with the Liberty likely to overhaul their offense under new head coach Chris DeMarco.
She’s a floor spacer who can fit in with different lineups. She has become a fan favorite since making her WNBA debut in 2019 and is nicknamed “the Wizard” for her blink-and-you-miss-it playmaking and timely 3s.
Meanwhile, Gardner enjoyed her first full offseason in a while that didn’t revolve around rehabbing from an injury. She thrived at Athletes Unlimited, averaging 12.8 points on 56.6 percent shooting.
Gardner told The Post in February she planned to return to the Liberty this season and hopes to carve out a more consistent role. She’ll turn 36 this summer but is still a strong defender and athletic slasher.
While the official negotiating period opens Wednesday, WNBA teams can’t start signing players until Saturday.
