Jonquel Jones has flown house to her native island within the Bahamas many occasions since she moved to the U.S. as a younger teen.
However nothing might have ready her for the hero’s welcome that awaited the WNBA Finals MVP final month.
Jones knew this homecoming can be particular.
It was her first time again since she gained a WNBA championship with the Liberty.
A parade in her honor was deliberate.
She had college visits scheduled all through the week and a gathering with Prime Minister Philip Davis.
Understanding all this, Jones thought she would have a second to compose herself as she walked down the airplane’s ramp on the Grand Bahama Worldwide Airport to seize her baggage earlier than the festivities started.
However that wasn’t the case.
Jones, her fiancée Dinesha Keeshone, teammate Betnijah Laney-Hamilton and a number of other Liberty staffers had been greeted by a crowd of roughly 100 folks outdoors the airplane.
Folks whom Jones hadn’t seen in years confirmed up for her return.
Some had been waving Bahamian flags, others proudly held up handmade posters devoted to Jones.
Music blared from the audio system.
“From that moment on, it was just a whirlwind,” Jones advised The Publish.
Folks reached out to the touch her Finals MVP trophy. Youngsters swarmed her and hugged her. Many requested for her autograph.
The parade via Jones’ group, Eight Mile Rock — close to Freeport — could not have been as grand because the Liberty’s procession up the Canyon of Heroes, nevertheless it was simply as significant, if no more.
“It was great to be able to have my island embrace me and give me my flowers,” Jones stated. “Obviously you know that you’re a role model. … But it’s one thing to know that and another thing to kind of feel that and experience that energy from your family members, from your community and from the Bahamas in general.”
Jones’ main college principal wasn’t capable of meet with Jones when she returned to her previous stomping grounds.
However she despatched a voice memo, reminding Jones of the buzzer beater she made to win the varsity a championship all these years in the past.
“It was something I hadn’t thought about for a long time,” Jones stated. “It made me emotional, it made me happy and it just was a starting point to an amazing journey. But none of us knew it [at that time], we were just in that moment. And so that really did touch me.”
Jones has bounced round so much through the years.
She performed a season at Clemson earlier than transferring to George Washington for the rest of her faculty profession.
She has been traded twice in her nine-year WNBA profession because the Los Angeles Sparks took her sixth total within the 2016 draft.
She has additionally spent her offseasons taking part in in South Korea, Russia, Turkey, Mongolia and China.
Regardless of the fixed motion, Jones has maintained an unbreakable bond along with her homeland.
Her love for the place she got here from impressed the Nike KD17 sneakers she designed earlier this 12 months and wore throughout her hometown parade.
“It means everything to me,” the five-time All-Star stated. “I put the islands of the Bahamas on the back of that shoe because I wanted every kid in the Bahamas that would be able to get a pair of those shoes to be able to look on that shoe and be like, ‘Oh, this is the island where I’m from,’ and really envision themselves.”
Bahamian basketball has been on the rise since Nassau native Mychal Thompson was the highest choose within the 1978 NBA draft.
Gamers, equivalent to Jones and Buddy Hield, although, have continued to gas the game’s progress there.
“It’s amazing to see,” Jones stated. “But I think it’s an eye-opening experience for the government of the Bahamas. I think that they should realize the amount of potential that we can have in the Bahamas and the fact that there needs to be more investment in sports.”
Final month’s go to reminded Jones why she sacrificed a lot over the previous 16 years.
She hopes to proceed to be a beacon of delight and inspiration for the Bahamas.
At 30, she nonetheless has loads of years left of taking part in.
She already has her eyes on serving to the Liberty develop into solely the fourth WNBA group to win back-to-back titles.
For now, although, Jones is having fun with some much-deserved down time earlier than she heads abroad to play for the Chinese language basketball membership, Sichuan Yuanda Meile. She stated she had an opportunity to play in subsequent month’s inaugural season of Unequalled, a 3-on-3 basketball league co-founded by her teammate Breanna Stewart and Lynx ahead Napheesa Collier.
However upon additional reflection, she determined to make use of the time to relaxation.
“I just felt like I took this time off to spend time with my fiancée, to be in my house because I’m never here,” Jones stated. “It’s hard just to play consecutively. There’s not really time off. And so I didn’t want to do something or play Unrivaled and then kind of have a little bit of resentment and then kind of burn out at the wrong time, especially coming into the WNBA season.”
