Sabrina Ionescu Pulled Out Olympic Turkish Shooter Celebration in Liberty Win

Kristen Wong | Aug 16, 2024

Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports

The New York Liberty won its first game back from the WNBA break in style—the style of a certain Olympic pistol shooter, that is.

In New York’s 103-68 blowout victory over the Los Angeles Sparks, Liberty star Sabrina Ionescu put up 18 points and added six rebounds in a dominant outing on Thursday night. She was arguably only outplayed by fellow Team USA star Breanna Stewart, who dropped 27 points in 20 minutes.

Toward the end of the third quarter, Stewart swished her third straight three-pointer to give the Liberty a commanding 77-40 lead. Ionescu celebrated Stewart’s shot with a shot of her own, so to speak. 

As the Sparks called a timeout, Ionescu did Turkish shooter Yusuf Dikec’s now-iconic celebration from this summer’s Paris Games. She showed a tad more emotion on her face than the 51-year-old Dikec did during his 10-meter air pistol shooting event in the Olympics, but the Liberty guard nailed the rest of the celebration.

Sabrina hits the Dikec pic.twitter.com/KbvrFITA0m

— CJ Fogler account may or may not be notable (@cjzero) August 16, 2024

Ionescu and the Liberty delivered a lights-out performance in their comfortable rout of the Sparks to improve to 22-4, reigning at the top of the league in first place.